FIGURE L


A lot of the more interesting parts of your camera are often hidden on the bottom. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Computer-transfer interface
Back in the old days of film, you'd get to see your pictures by opening the camera back, removing the film canister, and sending it off for processing. Some time later, you'd get back your negatives and your prints.

Today, you get to see your pictures by transfering them to a computer. Fundamentally, there are two ways to transfer your images to a computer -- sending them by wire (usually Firewire or USB) or removing the storage card from the camera and inserting it into your PC.

Personally, I just take the flash card out of my camera and place it into a card reader on my PC. Card readers are also showing up in printers (skipping the computer entirely) and in kiosks at retail stores like Walgreens.

Once, you absolutely had to have a computer to get pictures from your digital camera. Now there are alternatives for the strangely technophobic amongst us.

We've also started to see some cameras with wireless interfaces, usually Bluetooth or WiFi. Bluetooth is a slower transmission medium and it's likely to be more frustrating than useful. WiFi, while sometimes complex to configure, has some interesting potential for image transfer. Once all the kinks are ironed out (heh, like that'll really ever happen!) it might be possible to send your images back home or to the office by simply walking into a WiFi-enabled Internet cafe and pressing "Send" on your camera.

Don't count on this scenario, and definitely don't plan to buy a camera with a wireless option built in. It's most likely a gimic and will probably only prove valuable in certain, very specialized circumstances.

Printing
We briefly discussed printing above, and we'll discuss it even more briefly here. Printing is usually not a function of a digital camera, but you'll want to keep in mind the issue of how you'll print your images before you go out and buy your camera.

For certain applications, you might even want to buy an inexpensive Polaroid instant film camera. My wife recently bought a $40 Polaroid camera to take pictures of her shoes. She has a lot of shoes and her idea was to take a picture with the Polaroid, have it develop the image right there, and tape the image to the outside of the shoebox so she can easily tell what's inside.

While this is a specialized use of the camera, by being able to generate the print as she shoots, she's much more likely to be able to keep track of which image goes with which box. All she needs to do is set the developing print on top of the shoe box and wait.

Understanding the trade-offs
So lets go run down the list very briefly again: camera body and weight, lens and optics, the image sensor, the viewfinder, the LCD screen, storage cards, batteries, buttons and controls, flash, accessory connections, PC connection and printing.

That might seem like a lot to keep track of when buying a camera, but, taken together, they form the device you'll eventually purchase and you should be aware of how those elements interact.