dizzying number of digital cameras are already available. Here are some features for consumers to look for in choosing their camera. A. Color Depth. Most cameras offer 24-bit color depths. Professional applications often require 36-bit color depth, which requires a professional-level digital camera. B. Compatibility. Is the camera both PC and Mac compatible? C. Control. Entry level cameras typically have fixed settings for aperture, shutter speed, focus, and white balance. Higher-level cameras give users more control over these settings. D. Interchangeable Lenses. Can you switch lens with the camera? How many and what kind are available? E. LCD Preview. Is there a built-in LCD to allow users to compose and shoot images as well as play them back? F. Light Requirements. A lower F-stop means the camera needs less light to take pictures. A camera with an aperture of f/1.8 is better in low light than one with an f/3.2 rating. Most cameras are automatic, but consumers should look for the range the camera features. G. Resolution. What is the resolution in terms of pixels? Most entry level cameras offer 640 x 480 pixels of resolution. A higher number is better here, like the Canon PowerShot 600's 832 x 608 pixels of resolution. H. Shutter Speed. Does the camera offer a fast shutter speed, like 1/500 or 1/1000 of a second, for capturing action? Does it have a slow speed, like 1/2 second, for low light photography? I. Software. What software is provided with the camera? Does the camera ship with enough software, for tasks like image manipulation or creating Internet postcards, to make it useful? J. Storage. Is the storage fixed or removable? Users have more flexibility and can take more pictures using removable storage. How many images the camera can store is determined by the flexibility and choice of resolution and compression. Cameras like Canon's PowerShot 600 and PowerShot 350 can vary resolution to store more images. Users can store even more images by compressing the files using the industry-standard JPEG file format. K. Transferring Images. How is data transferred from the camera to the PC - via a serial or parallel cable or removable PCMCIA compact flash card? L. Voice Annotation. Do you need to save comments with the pictures you take for insurance or other purposes? Canon's PowerShot 600, for example, can record several seconds of sound per picture. M. Zoom Lens. This lens offers various focal lengths and replaces the need for several different interchangeable lenses. How many degrees of magnification are included? The typical still camera offers a maximum magnification of 3X.