Everyone knows the name Kodak and can identify it as the company that took cameras out of the hands of professionals and into the hands of everyday users. What you may not know is that Kodak is in financial trouble.

Why? Because those everyday users are now turning to digital cameras, leaving film-based cameras gathering dust in the closet. As the largest producer of film-based cameras, and photographic film, Kodak finds itself losing great gobs of money.

However, if you don’t know how to use it a digital camera won't save you any money. Below are some pointers on how to use your camera, and take advantage of your Mac in the process.

You need a computer
While there are some cameras which allow you to view your photos on a TV, in practice a digital camera is pretty worthless without a computer. The best computer to have is a Macintosh with a USB port, which covers everything Apple has made since the iMac.

It will also help if the camera you purchased comes with Macintosh-compatible photo editing software. Mac OS X 10.1 automatically comes with software capable of downloading pictures directly from some cameras which means you may not need to load a thing.

If you plan on wearing the camera on your belt you may want to consider purchasing a small padded case. Lowe and Tamrac are generally the highest quality brands. The manufacturers' own brand cases are generally the lowest quality.

Tamrac publishes a useful fit chart. Lowepro's is a huge PDF.

Tamrac Ultra Compact
Tamrac T17
Tamrac Digital 1 (slimmer digital cameras, plus extra pocket)
Tamrac Digital 2 (compact cameras)
Tamrac Digital 3 (SLR-like)
If you have time and a good local shop, it is best to buy the case in person so that you can make sure you like the fit.

When purchasing your next camera you should look at a real digital SLR if you need any or all of the following features:

Reliability; bodies of the SLR almost never fail as opposed to point and shoot cameras which are built for light weight and low cost SLR cameras have large, bright, accurate optical viewfinder
SLR cameras produce good quality images in low natural light, e.g., indoors without blasting everything with flash
SLR's have the ability to attach specialty lenses, e.g., very wide angle lenses for interiors, scenery, and architecture, or long telephoto lenses for sports photography

Accessories
Additional things you may want to purchase include a lens cleaning kit.

You will also definitely need at least one memory card. Most of the compact digital cameras take SD cards. If you are taking JPEG photos rather than RAW, you'll be able to fit between 250 and 500 images in a 1 GB card.

1 GB SD cards: SanDisk
2 GB SD cards: SanDisk
4 GB SD cards: SanDisk (good for a long trip into a remote area where you can't copy images to a computer)
It is much more convenient to use a single memory card for an entire project or trip rather than using multiple cards.

If your digital camera has an optical viewfinder and not an electronic one, you should never, never use this when pointing your digital camera towards the sun, especially for sunrise and sunset photos!

As your digital camera's optical viewfinder is not tinted, it's almost as bad as just pointing your head and looking straight at the sun. This could cause serious eye damage. Looking through a viewfinder versus the LCD helps you hold the camera sturdier and closer to your eyes, thus reducing camera shake.

However, in this instance, you should use your digital camera's LCD. If you're worried about camera shake, use a tripod.

However, especially with the sunrise, due to the brightness of the sky, your digital camera should normally be able to take very fast photos, minimizing any camera shake.

These smaller cameras really are not much larger than the compact digital cameras, however they offer more user control. You may find the lenses to be larger, heavier, and of higher optical quality.

Typically all creative compact cameras offer the option of storing images in RAW format, usually proprietary but sometimes in Adobe's standard DNG format.

You will probably find that a standard JPEG is easiest for uploading images to the Web, sharing with friends, or purchasing prints. Unfortunately you will probably find that a lot of shadow and highlight detail that was originally captured by the sensor can be lost with a standard JPEG.

Using the RAW format, the photographer can use an image editing program through their computer, which can bring out the shadow or highlight detail and make a really great print.

Creative Compact Cameras seems to have gone out of favor and therefore there are not too much to choose from. Camera companies are concentrating their energies on the "SLR-like" category and SLR category

Many digital cameras now come packed with some interesting special features. Examples can be found in the ability to take short QuickTime clips and record sound annotations.

Some cameras will even let you experiment with special effects like shooting in black and white or sepia toned images. Focus on the basics before you dive into special effects.

Remember that some of these effects such as black and white or sepia toned images can be created without the camera. Photoshop can transform a color image into black and white in a few simple steps. Basically, if you can do it easily in Photoshop, focus on taking a top quality color photo behind the camera and take care of the special effects without it.

But still try out other special effects. One example is to pan you camera to track a fast moving car, the car will be in sharp focus while the background will be blurred for an interesting photo.

Or try out the opposite by focusing on a stationary object such as a group of bright flowers or a child reading on the front steps and allow a speeding car to enter the frame. The result will be a sharply focused center of attention with the added feature of motion.

Silhouettes are another nice special effect. Try taking a photo with your subject in shadow, eclipsing a brightly-exposed object in the background. Now try the reverse, a brightly exposed subject against a dark background. Although different, both can be interesting. Getting a good silhouette with film is expensive: you shoot a lot of frames with little or no reward. With a digital camera, however, the only cost is your time and patience, and your patience will be rewarded.

Experiment with Exposure:
Digital cameras typically work best in sunlight, just like film cameras. Once you step inside or into dim light, things get a bit more difficult just like with film cameras. Experiment to know how to handle these situations.

If you can, shoot your subject from different angles and with different lighting. If you can manually turn off your flash, do so. Other flash settings can also be tried such as ‘fill flash.’ Sometimes even a perfectly exposed picture can be improved with fill flash. Other times turning off the flash leaving the subject underexposed can add an element of drama.

You can take the same photo three different ways using three different exposure options and the result will be three totally different pictures. What’s even better is that all three can look good, but you have to experiment.

Bracket your shots if you can, with one underexposed, one overexposed, and one ‘just right.’ You should still practice even with a digital camera that will do this automatically.
If your camera shoots three frames when you were expecting it to shoot one, the result will probably be the last two looking like they were taken by surprise…your surprise!

It is important to realize that there is no such thing as a perfect camera, one that will be the best for everyone. Although we sometimes talk about 'cameras of the year' or 'top picks', such lists and awards are really of little consequence.

The camera that wins most accolades may not be the one that is most suitable for you. The important thing you need to do is to think about what you want from a camera; you need to know what the various specifications mean, and to work out which is the best for you. Even those aspects that can easily be quantified - such as the number of pixels the sensor records - are not always straightforward.

For some people a 2 megapixel (Mp) camera may be a better choice than a 4 Mp model. Even where image quality is important, you cannot assume that a 5 Mp camera will necessarily give better results than a 3 Mp model. As in life, other things are seldom equal.

You may have already noticed that when you're outside on a sunny day using the Sports/Action mode to take pictures of your child playing soccer or your pet catching a Frisbee, that you get these great action images that are worthy of submission to Sports Illustrated Magazine.

But when you go inside and take photos of a basketball game with the same camera in the same "sports mode", you get images that are only worthy of being erased before anyone else sees them.

The main ingredient that's missing in the indoor photos is "light". The light inside a gym during a basketball game is minimal just as it is during a football game or soccer game after the sun goes down. Most of your sports/action photographs will be taken in available light.

Flash isn't always allowed and there's also an effective range of your built-in flash (10 to 15 feet) that isn't conducive to taking action shots from the stands. Taking a photograph of a moving subject without a flash under low light conditions can result in blurry pictures.

The problem lies in the way that exposure works; the lower the light, the slower the shutter speed that the camera needs to make a correct exposure. The slower the shudder speed, the more chance that the picture will be "blurry" because of camera movement or subject movement.

Continuing from Mondays Post, a review on the Olympus C7000.

Making your way through the menu controls using the LCD is also kept uncomplicated, and advanced users will be happy to have many interesting features such as Autofocus Target Selection and Red-Eye Fix so readily obtainable.

Photos are stored using xD-Picture Cards, and Olympus have included a 32MB card in the box so you can get started taking photos right away. A USB 2.0 connection is used to transfer photos to your computer, and the cable for this is also included.

You will also find in the box a lithium ion rechargeable battery which powers the Olympus C7000, along with a compatible charger. Depending on the camera settings you should be able to get about 200 shots from this camera between battery charges.

The shortcomings in this camera are hard to find. In fact the only one we could come up with is in regards to the Autofocus. You may find that it sometimes has problems when used in low-lit conditions but it still works well in bright light, even if not as fast as comparable cameras available for the same price.

One feature not yet cited in this review is the time-lapse setting that can set the camera to take photos automatically at 1 to 60-minute intervals. It is features like this along with the many others that make the Olympus C7000 a highly recommended option.

In conclusion, the Olympus C7000 is nothing less than an excellent camera for the asking price of just under $600. While not the least expensive to be found, the stylish and forceful design, outstanding image quality, and many useful features make this the C7000 impossible to resist.