Taking pictures, and preserving memories on paper or on some digital format helps reliving them with family and friends so great. In the last few years there has been such a growth of ways to preserve those pictures.

The camera used to take those pictures can make a world of difference in the mood set in the picture. Sure you have photo editing programs like Photoshop for the creation of a memorial picture. However, if you do not have a good camera that takes half way decent pictures, a masterful program like Photoshop cannot make a masterpieces out of garbage.

Except for a very few almost all cell phones have a built in camera. Only the low end phones in ones only allow to to text or mail those pictures taken. The mid to high end cell phones give you the option to transfer those pictures to your computer via a USB cable.

The other day I was in the local Best Buy, browsing through the camera section. A pretty young sales lady with a Best Buy name tag came up to me. She asked, if she could help me.

I played the role of a dumb shopper. I told her I was a father of a 10 year old daughter who is getting on stage singing more and more. I wanted something more than my camera phone to record her stage life to stardom.

I was impressed by the young sales lady knowledge of camcorders. She proceed to tell me what her first choice was the Panasonic SDR S50 was her first choice. The Panasonic SDR S50 was the second most expensive camcorder on display.

The Nikon line of Cool Pix is another of the sub $200 cameras that we are going to look at. We chose, for today, the Nikon Cool Pix S570, because the S570 is in the middle of all the Cool Pix offering from Nikon.

The Nikon Cool Pix S570 has an impressive set of specs for such a little camera that is under $200. Like all the Cool Pix line, the Nikon Cool Pix S570 has a touch screen, and relatively easy to use navigation into the settings. The metal outer shell gives you the feel of a quality camera.

A compact 12 Megapixel camera the Nikon Cool Pix S570 has 5x optical zoom lens and a 2.7 inch screen. When looking over the what is being said about the Nikon S570, I was surprised that it sold for under $200.

Summer is coming. Kids are growing up. At some point they are going to want a camera to take a picture of their friends. For most kids a cheap prepaid cell phone with a camera will do. For the more aspiring child they will start asking for a regular digital camera.

If you have recently up graded you camera that old camera may fill the bill. However, for the child that is 10 going on 16 they may have their eyes on something like a Hannah Montana camera.

No Miley Cyrus did not make it. Disney just buys a bunch of cameras and puts Hannah Montana image on the skin. You can get the same camera with a Tinker-bell or Mickey Mouse on the skin. From my research these camera are made just for Disney.

Summer be will soon here. It will be time to get out and enjoy the great outdoors. Spring and summer are great times for family fun along with taking pictures of those events. The quality pictures you take from those events will determine how you remember them. This will be determined the camera used in taking those pictures.

Before you look to get a new camera or maybe up grade to video camera there are few important facts that can save you a lot of money and frustration down the road.

Almost everyone with a cell phone has a camera built into their phone. These cameras are good for 3 to 10 feet, usually with the subject posed.   Taking pictures of kids on a stage in a school play,  or playing soccer does not produce good results.

I have a 5 mega pixel camera on my phone. Every time I have taken a picture where the subjects were at a distance, I deleted it in disappointment.  The camera has what is know as digital zoom.

Some point and shoot digital cameras have optical zoom. However, most digital cameras have what is known as digital zoom. They both claim to make your target image 10x or 30x larger.

Take me a picture. Tell me a story with that picture. But before you take that picture tell what kind camera you like to you. Are you a professional photographer that likes to use a single lens reflex camera with exchangeable lenses. Or are you the type of person who just uses the camera on their phone.

I am more into the message of the picture as to how to take it. The camera I use the camera that is attached to my phone. It is 5 mega pixel. However, I would like to some day get a small handheld video camera to take videos and  still pictures.

Before I recommend what type of camera you should get along with the best price, you are going to have to tell me a few things.

• Do you like taking still pictures or video? Since dawn of modern computers it is easy for almost anyone to edit video as easy as still picture. Putting video on YouTube or putting a still picture on Flicker can be done with a good computer and high speed internet connection.