Once you’ve taken a digital photo, your camera has to put it somewhere. The trouble with digital image files is that they take up a lot of storage space. Most cameras allow you to choose the file format and resolution. At its highest resolution, there may be only enough room to take only a few shots (depending on the size of your storage disk). Typically, the higher the megabyte count on your storage disk, the more images you can store on that disk at its highest resolution. You can purchase cheaper disks (ie, 64 megs) or more expensive one (ie, 1 gig, or 1,000 megs).

An alternative is to shoot at a lower resolution if disk space is limited, but there are obvious disadvantages: your image will become “pixilated” when you print the image bigger than it allows, or the image may be too small for your liking at its optimal resolution.

Most cameras allow you to save your images on the disk so you either use another, or download the images, clean the disk, and reuse it. The big difference compared with film is the higher cost of disks. However, since you can reuse the, it saves money on the cost of buying film and then getting it developed. And since you can preview your images immediately in digital photography, you can keep images you like and delete the ones you don’t. There are tow types of cards/disks available: CompactFlash and SmartMedia. They’re not compatible so once you choose one of these systems you are tied to it unless you own a camera that can be easily and quickly formatted to the disk you are using. Almost all professional cameras have this formatting function built into them.