Digital Focus: Save Money on Photography

Penny Pinching With a Digital Camera

I got into digital photography because of the immediacy--I can take a picture and immediately print, e-mail, or Web-publish it, with no intermediate processing and scanning. But a lot of people go digital because it saves money. You already know the reasons: no film to buy, no processing, no paying for a bunch of prints that came out terribly. But there are other ways to watch your pennies, and that's good news now that you're faced with a post-holiday credit card bill.

Choose Your Camera Wisely

If you want to shop frugally, start with the camera. When I bought my Nikon CoolPix 990 last fall, local stores were selling it for $1200. Online, I found the same camera for hundreds less. While there are benefits to shopping locally, like being able to carry your purchase home and knowing the camera will come with a full warranty, Internet pricing is hard to ignore.

(Some "gray market" online and mail order camera shops sell products that lack the manufacturer's warranty. Such cameras can save you a lot of money, but there's obviously some risk as well. If in doubt, check to see if your camera will bear a full warranty before you buy.) You can comparison-shop at PC World's Product Finder.

The Sweet Spot for Digital Film

The 8MB memory card that comes with many digital cameras is downright anemic. You'll want to upgrade to a bigger card that can accommodate lots of images or long MPEG movies, but don't go overboard. Find the sweet spot in the memory card curve to buy the most megabytes for your dollar. Here's an example: I found a 128MB CompactFlash memory card for just $50 at PC World's Product Finder.

That's great, but a 256MB card is dramatically more expensive. The cheapest I could find was $129, which means you could very nearly buy three 128MB cards for the price of one 256MB card.

Charge--Don't Dispose--Your Batteries

I never get tired of recommending rechargeable batteries. The most expensive part of a digital camera can be the four AA alkaline batteries, which, since I take a lot of pictures, I found myself replacing almost weekly back in the old days. So, instead of spending $300 a year on batteries, I bought a single set of NiMH rechargeables for about $20.

Of course, with rechargeables, you also have to pay for the electricity to recharge them. Rechargeables also wear out, so you may have to replace them once a year or so. But even so, rechargeable batteries are a bargain.

Fit More on the Card

If you don't plan to print enlargements, you can pack more pictures on your memory card by reducing your shooting resolution. Sacrificing resolution is never a decision to make lightly, because fewer pixels always give you less flexibility for cropping and printing. But if you really need to take a boatload of pictures, switching from 3 megapixels to 1 can give you hundreds more images per card and save you the expense of buying a new Memory Stick, CompactFlash, or SD card.

Remember this rule of thumb: 3-megapixel images print as large as 8 by 10 inches quite nicely. Two megapixels give you a 5-by-7-inch enlargement, and 1 megapixel yields 4-by-6-inch prints.

Print Carefully

Digital cameras let you decide what pictures to print, at what size, and with what sorts of processing and cropping. But at nearly $1 per sheet, the premium-quality photo paper can cost more than traditional photo processing and printing. The solution? Print lower-quality prints, like proofs, on plain paper. Only switch to the good stuff when you're ready to make the final print.

You can also find specially sized 4-by-6-inch paper in computer and photo stores that can save you from printing on larger sheets and cutting them apart, wasting expensive paper.

Get the Most Out of your Prints

Once you've taken some great pictures, don't let them go to waste. Web sites like Club Photo and Ofoto turn prints into coffee mugs, T-shirts, enlargements, posters, greeting cards, and more.

My personal favorite: Club Photo can create fully edible cookies from your photos. You've taken the pictures--get the most out of them.

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