You can find all the details for buying a digital camera in suyog’s and heneghan’s review. But one very important factor which you should also know before buying a digital camera is the operating system of your computer.
There are 2 types of connection available with a digital camera - the USB and the Serial. The USB connection are too fast as compared to a serial connection. The obvious choice would be a digital camera with the USB type connection for faster uploads. What is this connection stuff? - The connection that is established between the computer and the camera to transfer the pictures from the camera to the computer. But before making a choice check out the following:
- Does your computer have a USB port? USB is relatively a new technology and is available on the new computers and all the laptops but if you are using a computer which is older than 2 or 3 years, you will be better off with this check. In case you don’t have one, you can get the additional hardware installed on your computer(for a price around 5K).
What is the operating system you use? . Many of us work in the software industry and thus use Windows NT. Be aware that Windows NT does not support USB connection. It works on the WINDOWS 98, 98SE, 2000, or ME version but not Windows NT. The USB connection is also supported by the latest versions of Macintosh.
I recently bought a digital camera with USB connection but was disappointed when it didn’t work on my computer which has windows NT. I found out the reasons from the customer support centre and websites, so I am sharing with my mouthshut circle.
So what is the best thing to do? Well, if you have an old computer, you could use a digital camera with serial connection(e.g KODAK DC3200) but the best thing to do would be to get a digital camera that supports both kind of connection(e.g Kodak DC3400, Kodak DC5000).
Hope it helps!