If you haven't yet, it may at last be time to consider buying a digital camera. After test driving several of them, the good news is that that prices have come down as quality has improved -- dramatically. I now shoot exclusively using the digital format, and haven't regretted it. Except for all the batteries that digital cameras need.

Things to "focus" on:

1. RESOLUTION: measures how much info a digital camera can record; expressed as pixels or mega pixels; the higher the better. Most cameras were 1-megapixel, now you can get even 4-megapixel cameras. For everyday use, the 2-megapixel is fine. If you are going to printout the photos at professional grade, you will want more.

2. ZOOM: the range for various shots. Make sure you get one that allows you to zoom; the fixed focal-length ones are not very useful.

3. AUTOMATIC OR NOT: fully automatic or is it dual use (ie, can you also adjust aperture and shutter). For amateurs, the automatic setting is fine; but it's good to know that you can have some manual settings.

4. STORAGE CAPACITY: you will be recording your photos onto little digital cards, so you can buy more storage capacity later. One thing about shooting digitally that is different than the old way: you can almost always delete on the fly and constantly reshoot.

Here are some other things to keep in mind.

DEFINE YOUR NEEDS: I say the this about computers and I say this about digital cameras. What are you going to do with it? Are you going to be e-mailing the photos you take to friends and family? Putting them up online? Or will you need high-quality printouts for each photo? If you aren't careful, you could overspend.

DEFINE YOUR BUDGET: Which brings us to your budget. Do you want to spend $200 or $800 (you can easily spend $1,000)

READ REVIEWS AND OTHER RESOURCES: Educate yourself online, free. No excuses!

Some cool new cameras we have been checking out...

Nikon Coolpix 2500 ($349.95): This 2-megapixel camera is one of my favorite cameras. I have been using its sibling, the much heavier Coolpix 990 for two years now, but this camera is more fun and useful. It's handy "scene" settings take the guesswork out of different lighting situations and it is very light and easy to handle. It's neat swivel lens allows you to shoot in unusual angles and even take self-portraits. It's also easier to upload photos to the Web with this camera than with most others - and if you take a lot of photos, uploading photos can be time-consuming and exhausting. I like its rechargeable proprietary battery, so that you don't have to constantly buy batteries (as long as you remember to carry around the charger and have a place to plug into). My complaint about that is, of course, that even with battery-eating regular cameras, you can go almost anywhere in the world and get your hands on, say, a AA battery. So if you get this camera, you gave to become good at battery management. Makes a great Mother's Day gift.

Olympus Camedia D-40 Zoom ($799): I asked my friend, and fellow gadgeteer, Jim McKenney at Columbia University to give me his thoughts on this camera. Here's what he had to say: It has "a lot of photographic capability in a small package. In addition to using one of the new four megapixel chips for capturing photos that equal or exceed the quality of standard 35mm film, the camera has a 2.8:1 optical zoom and a 7:1 digital zoom providinga full range of lens choices to cover almost all picture composition needs. Most of the controls are easy to find and intuitive for an experienced photographer, albeit the small size of the camera makes operating the controls a little hard. The small size of the camera is a mixed blessing; it is small enough to fit in a shirt pocket, a required quality for my use of a camera for vacations and family occasions, but rendering it almost too small to hold and still find only one control at a time. I would have preferred the camera to be a little wider and not so thick but in balance is size worked just find as contrasted with the
larger cameras that aren't so easy to carry around." Well put, Jim - I couldn't have said it better!

Fuji FinePix 2800 Zoom ($399): This is another 2-megapixel camera that works well. It's larger than the others, so that makes it easier to grip - a feature that a lot of people prefer. It's very simple to use and a camera I can recommend for beginners, especially those who like the "look-n-feel" of an old-fashioned cameras. There's a neat audio feature that allows you to record up to 30 seconds of an audio description with each photo.

Learn more about these cameras on the sites below:

Resources:
Nikon
Olympus
Fujifilm

Site of the Week
EverythingMothersDay.com

Most sites for Mother's Day feature just retail sales or electronic cards. Here's a site that offers much more. In addition to buying gifts, you can read the history of Mother's Day, the "Top 10 Momisms," and find out who the "Top 10 TV Moms" are. It's a fun, engaging site and worth a visit - not just once a year. They update it on other days as well.

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