Top Reasons LeNae Loves Her Digital Camera

Thinking about investing in a digital camera? For those of you who haven’t yet ventured into this digital world, here’s what scrapbooker LeNae Gerig loves about using the Kodak Sureshot camera she purchased recently:

Trigger Time
The time between when I click the button and when the camera takes the photo is quick—about a second, as opposed other, more expensive cameras I’ve seen. This is very important when you’re shooting photos of kids. The camera also has quick recovery time wich is also important—when you’ve got kids around, you’ve got to be ready!

Full Screen for Viewing
I love that my camera has a full screen to view pictures. I can use that as a viewfinder to look through when I’m taking photos, or to browse the images I’ve already taken and turn it on or off as I desire.

Editing Software
I love the editing features that came with my camera’s software. Once I download the pictures I can crop, reduce image size and manipulate the photos to get them any way I want. I can even add borders—I often add a black or white border to my photos after I crop them. It saves me a ton of time in my scrapbooking—I don’t spend my time matting or cropping my photos because the frame is already filled and the photos are pre-matted.

I also love that I can zoom in to use just a small portion of a photo. Say, zooming in on my daughter Lauren’s face in a photo of her with my mom.

Online Storage
Each time I have about 30 photos, I edit them and upload them to my online album at Snapfish, then I can select the ones I want to have printed. I have them printed immediately and don’t save them to my desktop or keep them on my camera because I don’t want to run the risk of losing them if the computer crashes or something else happens. Once I have enough prints, I’ll have Snapfish burn the images to CD and send it to me so I’ll have that as a back-up.

I love that with the online album Lauren’s grandparents can get online and look at all the photos I took that month. They can order prints for themselves, which is great since copies get expensive. I’ve only been disappointed with the way prints turned out twice—and both times my money was refunded.

Video Capabilities
My camera has a video function that allows me to record up to about 90 seconds of footage. This winter I shot a ten-second video of Lauren and her dad playing in the snow. I saved the video to my desktop and can play it whenever I want.

The Price Was Right
I’m glad I didn’t spend a lot of money on my camera. I wanted a camera that was easy to use, but wasn’t so expensive that if it was lost or broken I couldn’t buy another. I didn’t want so many features that I couldn’t use them all. I got exactly what I wanted.

Before purchasing her digital camera, LeNae researched the quality and capabilities of a variety of cameras. For tips on buying your own digital camera, check out December’s Tech Talk column, “Find the Digital Camera You Want”