by Brian Grainger: brian@grainger1.freeserve.co.uk

Back in November I received one of those regular mailshots from Serif SPC. Unusually, it was not for the latest version of PagePlus. It was for a Digital Photo Pack, which included fancy software plus a digital camera for under £100. Now, as all the adverts for digital cameras that I had seen were at least 3 times this price I was intrigued. Was this something useful to get I asked myself. I know nothing about digital cameras so I went to a local shop who sold nothing but and asked some relevant questions. Just recently I had a newspaper magazine insert from Jessops. They too asked the same questions and gave answers that were more optimistic than from my local shop.

Now it seems to me that £300+ is a lot to pay for a camera so I wanted to know why and I wanted to know if the £100 offer from Serif was really a bargain. Basically, I asked what camera was needed to create 6" x 4" photos. In imagery the vital factor is resolution. In order to get enough detail for such a photo you will need a resolution of 1 to 1.5 megapixels (MP) - that's 1 million pixels. Serif's offer camera was 640 x 480, which at 307 kilopixels falls far short. This is adequate enough for screen photos or for the Internet but not to rival the offering of a standard camera.

Next up was storage of images. A digital camera uses memory to store images. Memory cards can be 2Mb, and any variety of sizes up to 32Mb and more. 8Mb seems to store about 50 normal pictures (as opposed to 25 fine pictures) but many entry level cameras do not come with this amount of memory. 4Mb is more normal and the Serif camera came with 2Mb. The number of pictures stored is a feature of the adverts and the basis of their claims is sometimes beyond me. One camera of 2.1MP and 8Mb will store 32 photos. Another at less than 1MP and 2Mb will store 96 images! Somebody is telling fibs. The first camera claims seems to tie in with my mathematics (8MB = 64 megabits = 64/2.1 images = 30 images). The mathematics for the latter (2MB = 16 megabits = 16/1? = 16 images) gives nothing like the 96 images claimed. Perhaps you only get 96 images if you buy an additional memory pack!

Finally, these cameras need batteries to work. If they are standard AA cells they run out - quickly. If your camera has an LCD screen they run out very quickly. I must say that in all my questioning, including of my mates with cameras, nobody can define quickly! Expect to spend another £20 on rechargeable batteries and charger.

What does all this add up to? Your entry-level cheap camera is only good for displaying on the Internet. For normal photo quality expect to pay at least £200-£300 and then maybe £30 for additional memory and £20 for rechargeable batteries. We are talking here £250-£350 minimum.

Once you have your photos how are you going to view them? Store them on a computer I suppose. I cannot see friends gathering around a computer screen to laugh at the dress sense of 20 years earlier. OK, let's print them out on our fabulous new colour printer. Yes, great now but what will they look like in 6 months? A recent report I read suggests all colour printouts fade, even in that short time. Photographs are kept for a human's, not a PC, lifetime. It would not be so bad if you could get your digital photos printed in the same medium as normal photographs but as yet I have not seen that service offered.

There you are then. You pay £300 for a camera to produce pictures that you will probably not be able to view in 10 years because they are in the wrong format. That same Jessops catalogue lists a Polaroid camera at £25 or a throw away at £6, both of which produce images that will be viewable many years from now.

Digital cameras are a great technology and hopefully will improve to combat the drawbacks mentioned. For the moment they are very expensive toys.