An 8Mb smart card will take about 25 megapixel images, or 100 screen quality images. Most digital cameras come with a cable that plugs into the serial port of your computer. This method is slow and inconvenient, particularly if your PC s serial ports are already occupied by a mouse and a modem. Sometimes this is the only viewfinder, but an optical viewfinder is usually necessary in bright sunshine when an LCD can t be seen clearly. This is the Archilles heel of digital photography- digital cameras, particularly with LCD screens, use lots of power.
Digital cameras don t handle contrast as well as conventional film.
OK, I ll admit my technoguilt. Yes, I did go to Hong Kong last year and bought an Olympus C1400L , a megapixel single lens reflex digital camera, and have been in a silver halide free zone ever since. You can see some of the results on my home page . But the key thing for anyone involved in LIS to take on board is that this is one of the technologies that is changing the way we think about information. Over the years I ve recorded my friends family and adventures on paper and celluloid covered with silver.