Did you know that you don’t have to have a digital camera to take digital photos.

It’s great if you have a digital camera, and can share your pictures electronically, edit the digital photos before you print them, or just know that you have them backed up safely on a CD. But what if you don’t yet have a digital camera, and want to tap into some of the features that digital camera users already enjoy.

If you are using a film camera, there are a couple of ways you can convert your pictures into digital images, or, you might already have (or are looking to purchase) a new electronic gadget and with the advances in technology, it’s quite likely to have digital photo taking capability.

5 Alternatives to a Digital Camera

Here are five ways to get digital photos without an actual digital camera:

Scan your photos with a flatbed scanner. If you have a scanner, you can do the photo scan yourself. Or take your favorite pictures to a photo lab, and the lab will scan photos for you, onto a photo CD.
When you develop your film, have the photo lab also create a photo CD along with your prints and negatives. Most photo labs now offer this service free, be sure to ask when you are getting your pictures developed.
PDA camera: High end, handheld PDA’s have come a long way from being an electronic office tool, to including digital photo taking capability. And with the wireless email and instant capability of most models that include the digital camera feature, you can take and send digital photos faster than if you were using a digital camera. The PDA camera lets you take a quick picture in moderately bright light. You won’t get top-end digital photos, but for just-in-time picture-taking, a PDA camera will get you the picture.
Camera cell phone: Where a PDA camera may be the technology for a business owner or executive, a camera cell phone is quickly becoming the latest fashion and technology accessory for teenagers and college students. Although not limited to that age group. As with the PDA camera, you have picture-taking and photo sharing capability at your finger-tips.
Camera web cam: More than just a communication tool from your computer, you may not realize that your web cam already has digital photo taking capability. The disadvantage is that you have to bring the object you want to photograph in the area of the camera web cam, instead of taking the digital camera to the object (or person), but if you need a quick head shot to add to your messaging system, or to send quickly in an e-mail, check out your web cam’s camera capability.

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