Finding a nice digital camera can cost you anywhere from $50 up. Digital cameras can cost hundreds, even thousands of dollars if you are looking for the top of the line digital camera. Having a digital camera is almost a requirement nowadays. The old SLR cameras that require film are long gone. A digital camera allows people to save tons of money on film processing costs because you can take as many pictures as your memory card will allow and delete all those that are not worth printing.

With a digital camera, you can take a picture and immediately print it, e-mail it, or put it on the internet in a matter of minutes. So besides the obvious reasons for owning a digital camera, you should focus on how to save money on a digital camera to begin with. Here are some great tips to help you save money on digital cameras:

Start with proper selection of your digital camera. If you choose your digital camera wisely, you can get a great camera for under $100. Expensive digital cameras for professional photography can cost upwards of $1,200. If you have the perfect digital camera picked out, you should search for it online instead of buying it in the stores. Online shopping web sites like Ebay.com, Amazon.com, Buy.com, and Craigslist.com will all have the same camera for a cheaper price. If you are buying a used camera, be sure to contact the seller and find out all the information you can about the camera. It would be a shame to spend hundreds of dollars on a camera only to find out the lens has a scratch or the mirror inside the camera is broken. If you purchase a camera from an online web site, you will want to look into the warranty option. Most digital cameras come with a 30 to 90 day warranty from the manufacturer. While this can protect your camera short term, find out if you can get a full year's warranty if you plan on using your camera a lot.

With a digital camera, you will need to purchase a memory card. Depending upon the type of digital photography you are doing, a 128MB memory card should do just fine. Again, take your shopping to the internet for the best prices. Stores will sell memory cards for a pretty hefty price tag, but you can pick up memory cards that are 1GB or more for a fraction of the price. A larger memory card not only allows you to store more pictures, but you can sore long MPEG videos and other things.

If you don't plan to print most of the pictures from your memory card, you can save a lot of memory space on your card by reducing your shooting resolution. Using a smaller resolution means you will be using fewer pixels, so your ability to crop and print nice pictures will be smaller. However, regular pictures will be fine if they are taken with 3 mega pixels. It will save you hundreds of dollars on purchasing new memory sticks to store all of your digital pictures. An SD card is a great investment to store all the digital pictures, plus it is easy to transport to your local store to make prints and enlargements.

Digital cameras are notorious for eating batteries. When you use the flash on your camera, the digital camera will use a lot of battery power. You can save yourself a lot of money on a digital camera by investing in rechargeable batteries. If you replace your batteries weekly, you will be paying hundreds of dollars a year to replace them. By investing in a single set of rechargeable batteries and a charger, you will only spend roughly $30. You will have to eventually replace the rechargeable batteries after about a year because they will eventually wear out, but think of all the money you will save on batteries.

You can purchase a digital photo printer to go along with your new digital camera. However, you should be weary of a digital photo printer. While they can print great 4x6 photos and 8x10's, the cost of photo printing paper and photo ink is pretty expensive. A sheet of nice photo paper will cost you nearly $1 per sheet and the photo ink can run upwards of $30. If you want to print your print your photos at home, consider printing smaller resolution photos on normal paper with regular ink. Once you are satisfied with the picture, then you can print them on the expensive, photo paper.

A common mistake many people make with digital photography is failure to back-up their pictures. Many people will store all their digital pictures on their computer and will fail to transfer them to an SD card or to a web site. You can import all of your photos for free to photo-hosting web sites like Kodak.com and PhotoBucket.com. This is a great way to back up your photos and you can make prints from their web site. You can even make other things with your photos like T-shirts, mugs, greeting cards, photo albums, calendars, and more.

When you are buying a digital camera, you need to make a listing of what is important to you. What type of features do you need? What will you be using the camera for? Do you need a digital zoom? Do you need a flash? Would you like to make movies and videos with your digital camera?

After you decide on the specifications you would like, then its time to hit the market for a nice digital camera. Web sites like DpReview.com allow you to browse through all the different types of digital cameras that are currently on the market. You can read user reviews of the cameras and select one that will work for you. You can also input your digital camera specifications and it will generate a listing of the best digital camera choices that will fit your needs.

Once you have spent your hard-earned money on a great digital camera, you need to take care of it. Some people are careless about their digital camera and leave it cars when the temperature reaches above 100 degrees. Cameras are sensitive to extreme heat and extreme cold and will become easily damaged if they are exposed to either. You need to protect your new digital camera by investing in a camera bag. Most digital cameras will come with a small camera bag, but it's not going to protect your camera when it rains. A good camera bag needs to be able to protect your camera from the weather and protect all the equipment you are carrying like a tripod, an external flash, additional lens, and other things.

You can protect your cameras lens by purchasing a UV filter. A UV filter is pretty cheap, usually costing $15 depending upon your camera type, but it will save you from a costly repair job if you damage your cameras lens.

If you are taking pictures in extreme weather conditions like rain, heat, and cold weather, there are a few things you can do. If you are at a soccer game taking great pictures of your little one and all the sudden a storm cloud hits, put your digital camera under your jacket or anything that will shield it from the rain. You can get a plastic bag and make a hole that is just big enough for the lens if you want to still take pictures. Never leave your camera laying out in the heat. If you are at the beach, place the camera in the shade with a towel over it. Be sure to use a towel that has light colors as dark colors attract the heat. Always try to keep your camera as warm as possible when you are in cold weather conditions. Keep your camera next to you in your jacket to prevent condensation. Condensation can ruin a camera, if it does happen to your camera. Take out the batteries and memory cards. Place the camera next to a heater and try to get it to dry out. If your camera has condensation, don't take it outside or else it will freeze and your camera will be ruined.

When you travel with a digital camera, be aware of the conditions of travel at your airport. Digital cameras will need to go through the X-ray machine and sometimes inspected by security personnel. Be ready to take out the memory card and batteries and even show images on your LCD screen to prove it is a digital camera in an airport with tight security. Digital cameras can easily be damaged on an airplane so watch where you place it in the overhead bin. Placing it on the floor, in front of your feet might be a better plan. This way you can protect it from sliding in the overhead bin or being smashed by someone else's carry on when they are making room for their bags.