Get+a+Camera

=Get yourself a (good) camera=

There are a lot of cameras out there, and not all of them are created equal. Fortunately, you don't need to buy a set of top of the line $2,000+ digital SLRs to use with your 3rd graders.

I'm not going to tell you the exact camera you should get, since it seems every month there are new ones out on the market. That being said, there are a few things you should look for:


 * 1) **WYSIWYG Display** - WYSIWYG stands for "What You See Is What You Get." In the past you had to have a fancy SLR camera (Single Lens Reflex, those are the cameras the pros use) to make sure you didn't cut everyone's head off because he viewfinder didn't show exactly the same thing that the camera lens saw. Now, even relatively inexpensive cameras can be found with LCD displays on the back that show you exactly what will be recorded when you hit the button.
 * 2) **Memory Card Slot** - Forget built-in memory, memory cards give you a lot more space for photos and videos. It also allows you to more easily sort photos (imagine each student having their own inexpensive card) and in some cases avoids OS incompatibility problems. (Not all cameras are Mac OS compatible. This baffles me.)
 * 3) **3 Megapixels Or More** - While some professionals would argue with this, a 3 megapixel camera is more than enough to get some decent 8.5"x11" prints on your school's inkjet or laser printer. High school photography teachers would probablywant more, but in most situations 3 is enough.
 * 4) **Easy To Use Interface** - All the features in the world are useless if it takes more than a minute to navigate through the user interface to turn them on (or in the case of the flash, turn it off). Even if you have to buy the camera(s) from a website or catalog, you should take a trip to your local Target, Walmart, RadioShack, etc. and try out the model in which you're interested. If you don't like how you have to hit the buttons to turn on this or adjust that, don't get it.
 * 5) **Response Time** - Something common with most consumer grade digital cameras is a delay between when you press the button and when it takes the picture. This is fine of you're taking pictures of things that don't move, but where will you find those in a school? Sadly most manufacturers don't list their lag time on the side of the box, so this is something else to investigate while you're in a store.
 * 6) **Optical Zoom** (maybe) - Almost every camera will include a digital zoom, but digital zoom works by basically guessing whatever details it can't see. Optical zooming actually moves the camera lenses, not unlike what you can do on a telescope. This leads to better picture quality.