Megapixels and optical zoom are the two things to be concerned with when purchasing a digital camera. The digital zoom is worthless; you can digitally zoom using any photo editing software. NEVER take a picture using the digital zoom. NEVER. Using the optical zoom is fine, just make sure you have a steady hand or a tripod if you zoom a lot.

A megapixel is 1,000,000 pixels. A pixel is one, little dot. If a picture is 640 x 480, the numbers refer to pixels. Multiply 640 x 480 = 307,200 pixels, or .3 Megapixels. A picture that is 1024 x 768 has 786,432 pixels, or .79 Megapixels. So a 1.3 Megapixel camera (which is a low end camera these days) would produce a nice 1024 x 768 picture.

Now that you understand pixels, here is a chart provided by Kodak that shows the different sizes of photos in inches, the minimum megapixels required, and the dimensions in pixels that make up the megapixel number.

Print size	Minimum recommended megapixels for print size	Minimum recommended resolution (pixels)
Wallet	0.1	360 x 240
4 x 6"	0.6	930 x 620
5 x 7"	0.7	1008 x 720
8 x 10"	1.3	1280 x 1024
16 x 20"	1.8	1500 x 1200
20 x 30"	2.2	1800 x 1200

If you have an older 1.3 megapixel camera, you can take pictures and have them blown up to 8 x 10 photos. If that's the largest you would ever print, and you don't edit or crop your photos with software, then there is no reason to run out and buy a new, expensive camera. Your 1.3 megapixel camera will be great for everyday 4 x 6 prints, 5 x 7 prints, and even the large 8 x 10 photos.

If you want to print a poster size photo, or if you want to be able to crop your photos, you will need more megapixels. The ability to edit your photos with computer software is the best thing about digital cameras. This is the reason you need more than a 1.3 megapixel camera.

Suppose you are at a high school football game and you want to take a picture of your child who is part of the half time show. Even with a good optical zoom (and a tripod), your picture will have the subject of your picture (your child) in the center, with the rest of the picture picture nothing more than other people, the football field, and stuff you don't really want in your photo. If you are using a 5 megapixel camera, you could use editing software to remove everything except the center of the photo where your subject is. That means you could crop (cut away) 75% of the picture, leaving only your subject. You would still have 25% of the original picture, or 1.25 megapixels, almost enough for an 8 x 10 photo.

I use an 8 megapixel camera with a 7x optical zoom. I can zoom in on a football field, take a picture of a group of football players, then crop away 2/3 of the picture so that only a helmet is left. I can then print the "helmet picture" as a 20" x 30" poster, and it will be crystal clear; so clear that you can read the manufacturer's name on it. This is extreme digital camera photography, but this shows you the capabilities. I usually don't use the zoom, and if I do, I only use it 2x or 3x; not the full 7x as this would require a tripod. Even without the zoom, a picture can be taken, then cropped in order to perfectly frame the intended subject, and a poster can be printed with perfect clearity.

So how do you store these photos and get them on your computer? All cameras have some type of storage media called a flash card, as it is 'flash memory'. 2 popular formats are Compact Flash (CF) and Secure Digital (SD) cards. They range from 32 MB in size to 4 GB and beyond. How big should yours be? It depends on the camera, but one thing is for sure: the card that came with your camera is not big enough. Because my camera is 8 megapixels, the pictures exceed 3 MB. I use a 1 GB CF card, which allows me to store over 300 pictures. I also carry a spare, 1 GB CF card. That gives me the capability of taking over 600 pictures every outing. As soon as I return to my home, office or hotel room, I remove the card (very easy) and copy the pictures to my laptop. I then delete the pictures from the CF card and I am out taking pictures again.

Many desktop computers either come with or have the option of a "multi-card reader". Make sure your computer has one. You can also purchase these as external devices that connect via USB, and they are very small so you can carry one in your laptop bag. The external USB card readers are less than $20. They work out of the box with Windows XP and are much faster and easier to use than trying to hook your camera up to your computer. Get a reader for sure.

Finally, always take your photos at MAXIMUM resolution. Why take a picture that you won't be able to print? What if you get that "perfect" shot, and then find out you can't print it any larger than 4 x 6 because you weren't using high resolution? There is no reason to use the lower resolutions. This is only available to save space. Flash cards are CHEAP. You can purchase a 1 GB flash card for about $50. You used to spend that much on 4 rolls of film and development! Always use high resolution.

If you want to see what a poster created by an 8 Megapixel digital camera looks like, visit our shop and see our wildlife photo on display! This picture was taken with my Canon Power Shot Pro1 and was printed using Kodak's online service, which I highly recommend. You can Get 20% off your order of $10 or more with coupon code POSTMYPHOTOS at Kodak's digital photo processing website. JUST CLICK HERE!

Let's talk printers. You can purchase a color ink jet printer below cost. That's right; it cost more money to manufacture most ink jet printers than they sell them for. They make their money on ink refills. You spend a hundred bucks (or less) for a color printer, but then you spend almost $100 every time you have to buy more ink, and we all know that the ink and cartridge only cost a few dollars to manufacture.

I purchased an HP Photo Printer a couple years ago. It has the digital monitor on it and I can insert my flash memory card into the printer, edit, crop, and print; all without a computer or the camera. Pretty nifty. But the photo paper is expensive, and of course, so is the ink. If I don't use the printer for a few months, the ink cartridges will dry up. Sometimes a cleaning process will help, other times I simply replace the ink. After the 'newness' wore off, I quit using it.

Last month I used my digital camera to take a number of pictures. As soon as I was finished, I drove straight to Walgreens in Azle, pulled the CF card from my camera, inserted it into Walgreen's Digital Photo processing machine, and within minutes I had 4 x 6 prints plus a couple 8 x 10 prints. I paid 29 cents each for the 4 x 6 prints, and I think the 8 x 10 prints were a couple dollars each. There is no way I could have printed these myself on my color printer for that price. And the quality was perfect!

Nothing against Walgreen's as they are very convenient. But when I don't need the pictures right away, I use an online service. It used to be called Ifoto when I first started using them, but Kodak bought the site and now it is true Kodak processing. They let you create folders. You can upload your pictures, then you can purchase prints, up to poster size. You can also purchase other items like coffee mugs, mouse pads, and calendars. They will print any picture you want. They make Christmas cards and lot of gift items.

Using this service is cheaper than Walgreens, and your prints arrive in two days. Just click the image above or CLICK HERE! You should at least check out everything that is available from these online services, it's remarkable what you can buy and how inexpensive it is. You do not need a color printer.

Here is my recommendation: Buy a laser printer. Yes, a black and white laser printer. Do you really need color? For what? I think I have proven my case that you get better quality and it is cheaper to have Walgreen's or an online service print your photos. Everything else can be printed in black and white. Get a laser printer with a flatbed scanner on top. I have 2 of these, and I just purchased a Brother laser printer, copier and scanner for a client for $149. Here's what you can do with it:

You can print, of course. This is not ink, rather a toner that is imprinted on the paper using a electro-magnetic process. No ink to dry, no smearing. The toner cartridge will last forever; literally over 5,000 pages. It never dries up, and even when you get a warning that the toner is low, you can remove the toner cartridge, gently shake it, and get another 500 pages out of it! You can copy documents, and all printing is fast. Laser printers will print 20 + pages per minute. That's fast! And you can scan color documents to your computer. Simply press the SCAN button and it will automatically scan the document and save it as a file on your computer. All this for $149!

Yes, a toner cartridge is also expensive, about the same price as a round of ink for your color ink jet printer. But the toner cartridge will print 5,000 to 10,000 pages and never dries up; you are lucky to get 200 pages from an ink jet printer. If you must have color for that occasional work or school related project, then buy a cheap ink jet printer, but use your laser when color is not necessary.

That's it in a nutshell. Leave the photo printing process to the pros and buy a laser printer. And make sure you pick out your best picture and have it printed in a poster size; not necessarily 20 x 30, as that frame size is hard to find. I like the 16 x 20 prints. They are large, the frames are easy to find (and I'm talking NICE wooden frames, check out Michael's), and they are only $17.99 online. And with a 20% discount on your first order, it is a bargain. Click the link below to read all about it!