Digital cameras: Don't make a snap decision

Like many Americans this December, the people of Macedonia, Ohio, are taking a technological leap forward in their holiday gift shopping. Their present of choice: digital cameras.

"They're definitely the hot item this year," says Bill Smoot, manager of the Cord Camera store in this Cleveland suburb, population 9,000.

For the past month, lines of prospective camera buyers have begun forming at the shop in the early morning, according to Mr. Smoot. And fairly few of those customers are seeking cameras that shoot film.

As goes Macedonia, in this case, so goes the nation. Sales of digital cameras over the past month have expanded like an 11-by-14 enlargement.

Indeed, six of the 10 most-sought products online this holiday season have been digital cameras, according to market-research firm BizRate.com

By year's end, 12 percent of all US households are expected to own a digital camera - 20 percent by the end of 2002, according to Boston-based InfoTrends, another research firm.

Still, experts advise families not to cast their standard film cameras into the household pile of obsolete gizmos. The advances of digital photography, they say, come with their own hurdles.

Compared with film-using models, digital cameras offer clear advantages. They allow the shooter to immediately view the photo in a tiny LCD screen and delete and save without paying to develop disappointing prints.

Digital images can be uploaded to a computer via a cable or docking station. Users can then send them as digital files attached to e-mail, or make their own prints using special paper and a quality printer.

Many users like the idea of archiving digital photos for perpetuity. Digital images eat up significant space on a computer's hard drive, but they can easily be "burned" onto a CD for storage. (Proponents of film counter that prints and negatives can also be scanned and digitally stored.)

Also, the cost of many digital cameras has fallen closer to most consumers' preferred price point. Popular models come with 2 million pixels (or two megapixels). Their price has dropped from $600 last year and $1,000 in 1999 to between $200 and $400 in 2001. (Professional-grade models still run several thousand dollars.)

"People are entering the market now because they feel they can get a good value product, and because they want to start learning to work with digital photos," says Michelle Slaughter, an analyst with InfoTrends.

Jennifer Mann has as many uses for her digital camera as the device has functions. The Jamaica Plain, Mass., native recently used it to take pictures inside a furniture store. She then e-mailed the photos to her mother to get her opinion about what to buy.

"We've also used the camera to take pictures of tuxedo order forms to send to errant groomsmen," says Ms. Mann.

Mann is a satisfied user. But, like many "early adopters," she admits digital has its drawbacks. Supposed savings from at-home printmaking have not materialized. They need not buy film. But even savvy computer users like Mann grouse about the hefty costs of paper and ink, and the sometimes complicated process, at least initially, of transferring photos onto their computers.

"They find out how time-consuming it is ... and that it's not the big money saver they thought it would be," says Smoot.

Average-quality photo paper runs between 60 cents and $1 a sheet and can fit only about three 4-by-6 prints. Ink cartridges cost about $30.

"If you start to do multiple copies of a print, that's when people start to balk at price," says Ed Lee, an analyst with Lyra Research in Newtonville, Mass. "People are concerned they''ll use up all their ink on 20 copies of one picture." As a result, he says people only print out 15 percent of their digital images.

There are printing alternatives. Large stores like Cord Camera are outfitted with labs that can make glossy photos of digital files. Customers can either upload them to the store's website or bring their memory cards into the store.

Another option: digital-camera kiosks. Once loaded with a memory card, the machines at such stations produce prints on photo-quality paper.

Kiosks can be found in many camera stores, and manufacturers have plans to install them in shopping malls, airports, and hotels. But for now, prices are a barrier. A single-sheet printout, according to InfoTrends, costs about $6.50.

Some consumers have also expressed disappointment in the print quality of digital images. On-screen sharpness doesn't always translate to paper.

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