What camera can I use to put my photos on a floppy disk?
All Sony Mavica cameras have floppy drives. The newest having models, claim to write to the disc four times faster than a regular floppy drive. The Sony cameras have optical zooms ranging from 5X to 14X, their photos aren't comparable to other digital cameras of the same price.

Panasonic's PV-SD4090 camera, which uses Imation's SuperDisk format. These 120MB floppies can hold up to 1500 photos per disk. Like the Mavica, this camera is expensive, and the photo quality is disappointing.

You have other options:

• Cameras that use SmartMedia, and purchase the FlashPath adapter. This device lets your floppy drive read SmartMedia cards.
• Cameras that use CompactFlash, SmartMedia card or xD-Picture Cards.
  These USB-based devices are much faster than floppy drives and allow you to use a card reader. These formats can also hold a large number of photos.

Which removable storage is better - CompactFlash or SmartMedia?

CompactFlash cards come in much larger storage capacities (up to 128MB) than SmartMedia cards (64MB). More camera manufacturers are using CompactFlash cards.
The new xD-Picture Cards from Olympus have a capacity of up to 256MB.

What's the difference between optical zoom digital zoom?

Optical zoom is similar to what's found on a regular 35mm camera lens. Here the button or ring causes physical lens elements inside the camera/lens to move thus producing the desired effect.
Digital zoom uses the electronics to take a look at what the camera is "looking at" and changes image magnification by interpolation.
With digital zoom you lose quality when you change your image magnification (zoom) - your images will tend to be more pixelated (grainy) compared to the same image taken with an optical zoom camera.
Having both optical and digital zoom on a camera is OK, but avoid cameras with only digital zoom.

Why do my batteries die so quickly in my digital camera?

• Alkaline batteries for high drain devices, such as Duracell Ultra
• Lithium Ion Batteries: Some camera makers do not recommend you use these.
• Nickel-Cadmium rechargeables (NiCD): A charger is needed.
• Nickel Metal Hydride rechargeables (NiMH): Last longer than NiCD batteries, and have less memory problems than NiCD batteries.
  

What is USB?

USB stands for Universal Serial Bus.
USB connectors are standardized and replace the older various kinds of serial and parallel port connectors. These older various connection options made figuring out how to connect your camera or any other equipment to your computer a chore. Data transfer e.g. downloading images was slower.
USB is much faster and eliminates the hassles.
With USB-compliant PCs and peripherals you just plug them in and turn them on. No need for add-in cards, DIP switches, or restarting or even opening you PC.
USB connectors can deliver electrical power and multiple devices can be daisy-chained via a USB hub.

Why is there a delay after I push the shutter release button before I can take another picture?

Many reasons can cause this delay although with newer cameras it is less of a problem.
Some cameras need to:

What are pixels?

Pixels are the tiny squares that together form the image on your computer's screen. Monitors range in resolution from 1152 X 870 to 2048 X1280 pixels (width/height)
A digital camera's CCD only captures some of these pixels.
The Olympus C-5050 and C-50 capture images at a resolution of 5 megapixels (million pixels).
The C-5050 Zoom allows advanced enthusiasts full manual and advanced photographic control. High-end optics are combined with new image processing technologies to produce outstanding picture quality.

What are my choices for transferring my digital images to my computer?

There are a few options to choose from, depending on your platform:

• Serial/parallel/USB cables are normally included with most camera purchases.
• Infrared / Bluetooth - are quite new and only a few cameras support this.
• PCMCIA - Some cameras can connect to laptops directly via the PCMCIA card/slot.
• Floppy disk - With the Sony Mavica you can take the floppy out of the camera and use it directly in your computer.
  With a SmartMedia-compatible camera and a FlashPath adapter. The FlashPath adapter holds a single SmartMedia card (up to 16MB) and can be directly inserted into your computer's floppy drive. This is a little faster than serial cable method.
• Card readers: They may be USB, parallel, and SCSI and work with PCMCIA, SmartMedia, and CompactFlash cards.
• USB-Serial adapters are useful on all newer Macintosh computers. Kanguru Solutions is one of several suppliers.
  

What kind of printer do I need to print out my photos?
Two options:

• Regular inkjet printers: Examples: HP DeskJet, Epson Stylus, Canon BubbleJet, these do a good job, especially on special paper. They however excel when printing text and simple graphics.
• Specialised Photo printers
  • Small: like the Olympus P-300. Nice output, expensive to maintain, only prints up to 4x6 size.
  • New: like the Olympus P-400. A dye-sub high speed photo quality printer which produces results very comparable to the image quality of actual photographs. Supplies are expensive
  • Normal: like the Epson Photo Stylus printers and the older HP PhotoSmart. These use regular, letter sized paper (or larger), and do amazing work on glossy, coated or photographic type papers.
    

What kind of resolution do I need to print out 5x7 inch images?

This simple chart should answer this question:

Is there a device that will convert a regular 35mm camera into a digital camera?

SilconFilm, has developed a device called Electronic Film System the EFS-1 that is priced at $800 for for complete EFS-1 solution.
It looks like a roll of 110 film, that you insert into your camera, just like film and hooks into your computer via a parallel, SCSI or USB cables.
This eFilm is an electronic film cartridge that slips easily into the back of the SLR body. It captures and stores up to 24 high quality digital images.

Features:
* Requires no SLR camera modifications
* Greater than 300 Digital Images per battery
* 1.3 Megapixel CMOS CCD sensor
* 24 images @ 1280 x 1024 (36bit color depth)
* Stores in JPEG, BMP or TIFF formats
* ISO rating of 100
* Designed to fit: Canon EOS-1N, EOS-A2/5, Nikon F5, F3, N90, F90

They produce an "e-Port" PCMCIA adapter and a "e-Box" in-the-field storage device which supports CompactFlash Type I & II.