Digital cameras suck the juice at a high rate. Buy a second battery whether you go with AA rechargeables or Sony Lithium. Sony uses memory sticks to store picture data inside the camera. Either is fine, just remember to get several of them, especially if you want to take finely grained photo quality pictures. How Digital Cameras Connect to Your Computer Digital Cameras hook up to your computer using either a USB cable or serial cable.
Serial is slow.
USB is extremely fast. I just plug my camera in and the computer automatically sees it. I open the folder, copy the pictures from the camera onto my computers and that's it. It's amazingly easy. Most digital cameras come with digital photo software too, so you can make changes to your photos, crop out what you don't want and add effects.