Other Good Stuff To Get
So now you have a digital camera and you, wisely, have also bought and installed (or had installed) a DVD burner so you can protect all the photos you've taken. Is that all you should get?
Only if you never plan on printing photos. Or if you never have a problem with any of your media cards. On this page, I present some other recommended purchases to go with your digital camera.
Color Inkjet Printer. A color inkjet printer is a must unless you simply want to take your photos to a one-hour place. My personal recommendation would be a Canon-branded Pixma photo printer, because it features individual color cartridges rather than a single tri-color (magenta, cyan, yellow) cartridge. Why does this matter? Suppose you're using an HP-brand printer which uses a single tri-color cartridge and it runs out of yellow ink. If the cartridge still contains magenta and cyan inks, you'll wind up wasting any remaining ink in those receptacles. Canon Pixma photo printers (beginning with the iP3000) use separate cartridges for magenta, cyan, yellow and black colors. This way, if one color runs out you only replace that one color (about $12-$14), saving you money.
USB Media Card Reader. Most digital cameras include a USB cable for use in downloading photos from your camera to your computer. But suppose you forget to bring that cable with you on a trip away from home? What then? You can solve this problem by buying a USB media card reader. These readers can read multiple formats; the most common ones are SD (Secure Digital), Memory Stick (Sony), and SmartMedia. Some others also read CompactFlash. To use the reader, remove the memory card from your digital camera, insert it in the media card reader, and plug the USB connector into your computer. The computer treats the card reader like a small hard drive. If you buy a USB 2.0-compatible reader, you'll find it faster than using the USB cable that came with your camera. (And if you ever lose the USB cable, you can always use the card reader!)
Image Recovery Software. I never thought I would find image recovery software useful, but one day I was at a used bookstore and saw MediaRecover, a piece of software that you can use to recover images that were accidentally erased due to your own error or hardware corruption. One time I had taken a bunch of photos using a lesser-quality Secure Digital media card. When I turned the camera on it failed to recognize the card and asked if I wanted to format the card. Horrified, I installed MediaRecover and followed the instructions and was able to recover all the photos I had taken. Visit the MediaRecover web site and think about keeping a copy of this software handy.
Camera Bag. I recently found out how valuable a camera bag is. With one of my digital cameras (a little point-and-shoot), I have noticed that in only one year, it looks crappy. I probably could have slowed the aging process a bit with a camera bag. I am partial to bags from Case Logic. They seem to be designed a little more intelligently and the materials seem to be reasonable quality. Larger computer retailers (such as Micro Center) and camera stores would be the places to look.
Extra Media Cards. This only makes sense if you plan on taking a lot of photos. Consider this situation: you're on a trip and you have one very large memory card, 1 GB in size. What happens if you lose the card? You lose all your pictures. If you have two or more cards, however, you cut your losses if something happens. Extra media cards also come in handy if you have a second event to attend but you didn't make time to clear your first card. Only one or two extra cards are really practical, unless you're a working professional.