Digital cameras never existed when I was a child. In
fact, I considered myself privileged to have a Polaroid!
I couldn’t wait until the white film printed out and I
could rub it on my clothes just to watch color and picture
take form! Oh, the good old days.

With that said, I find it fascinating that digital cameras
have significantly evolved over the last few years.
Digital cameras are so common that they have become part
of the average telephone design today. They are dummy
proofed to the point that anybody can use one…Pretty
amazing, you turn it on, aim, and push a button. If you
don’t like the picture, simply erase it by hitting another
button and try again. You can preview your pictures
before you even waste the ink printing them out.

Not only are digital cameras easy to use, but the icing on
the cake is that digital cameras are no longer just for
professional photographers. In essence, we have all
become professional photographers. Today, cameras range
from under 2 mega pixels to over 6 mega pixels. Because
these cameras are affordable, consumers have now evolved
to purchasing a camera based on many other factors besides
price. The size of a camera is important. Equally
important is the ease of e-mailing photos. Here are some
observations associated with e-mailing pictures.

Don’t worry about what type of camera you purchase as it
relates to e-mail capabilities. The camera will not
impact e-mail capability. That is because most picture
sizes are at least 1MG and will take forever to e-mail.
Experts advertise learning the art of file zipping. I can
tell you that this is not practical because zipping 10+
pictures at a time is slow, frustrating, annoying and a
waste of time. It clogs up your e-mail and can slow your
entire system down. There are other disadvantages to e-
mailing pictures. If you are trying to retrieve pictures
from a period of over 3 to 6 months, then you’ve got to
dig through many e-mails, hoping that you even saved a
copy.

You will hear many experts refer to “photo compression.”
This is no different that file zipping. According to many
advertisements, “Photo compression (technically called
zipping) lets you have your cake and eat it too. A Zip
program takes your originals and will compress photos
creating a "squished" copy. You can choose to compress
pictures to their original resolution (best for printing)
or a reduced resolution (great for viewing on the computer
and emailing).” In laments terms, the benefits associated
with this concept are multiple photos in a single zip file.

How’s this for a simple solution? Why waste time e-
mailing pictures? Why bother zipping multiple pictures and
variations of files? Check out websites that offer
services that allow you to post pictures to your family
and friends. Not only will you get the benefit of NOT
having to e-mail any pictures but most services site for
so much more. Check it out, you can’t go wrong… Post your
pictures, share them with your friends and family. Don’t
waste your time e-mailing large files around the world!

by Marie Christianson
Marie Christianson is a senior business analyst at
http://www.FamilyDetails.com.