Many people think that they need a really expensive camera totake quality portraits of their kids, but be reassured that thisjust isn't so. On the other end of that spectrum are disposablecameras. Although they are certainly affordable, disposablecameras are not recommended for taking quality pictures of those special moments in your children's lives.

The best camera to consider for purchase is a digital camera. There are so many different kinds of digital cameras on the market today with many choices and features. Terms such as megapixels and features like zoom and memory cards can be extremely confusing to the consumer.

Let's first define some common terms that you might see when shopping for a digital camera.

Megapixels

A megapixel is the quality or resolution of a photograph. To understand this, you must first start with a pixel. When looking at a picture on your computer or on your digital camera, a pixel is one dot on that picture. Your picture is made up of many dots or pixels. Therefore, one megapixel is one million pixels. The more megapixels you have, the more dots or pixels there will be, making your picture quality much better.

Digital Zoom

Digital zoom goes in increments or steps as you zoom closer to your subject. It actually crops your image on the camera to a smaller size and then enlarges that cropped portion to fill your frame or your view of the

image. You definitely lose picture quality when using your digital zoom.

Optical Zoom

Optical zoom is just like the zoom on a 35mm camera. The lens changes and magnifies as it gets closer to your subject. This keeps great picture quality even though you have zoomed in.

Memory Cards

All cameras come with an internal memory. Internal memories, however, do not hold many pictures on them. A memory card will have to be purchased. But before buying a memory card, check to see what kind of card that the

camera uses.

LCD Screen

The LCD screen is simply the screen on the back of the camera that allows you to look at your subject or view your images that you have already taken. Bigger is better as a larger LCD screen allows for easier viewing.

An LCD screen is just one feature that makes taking your kids portraits a snap. If you don't like what you see, you can take more pictures until you have the shots you want.

Now that we have broadened our knowledge base on some terminology, here are some recommendations for which qualities you need in choosing the right camera for taking your kids portraits.

You may surprised to know that you can take beautiful pictures of your kids with a digital camera with a 6 megapixel. You can go higher in megapixels, but unless you are a professional photographer, save some change by sticking to no more than a 6 megapixel.

Speaking of extra change, extra money would be wisely spent on the optical zoom feature. You want to be able to zoom in and get close-ups of your child. The more zoom equals the better quality of the close-ups. A 10X optical zoom is an intelligent investment as it is equivalent to 380mm in a 35mm camera. 380mm is equal to 1247 feet! Digital zoom is not recommended.

You want to look for a 512 MB or 1 GB card. Some common memory cards are Secure Digital, CompactFlash, Memory Stick and XD. Because there are a great number of different manufacturers and many suppliers of memory cards, you can shop around and find a great deal which may even include rebates.

Although LCD screens are a wonderful feature, when taking your children's portraits use the viewfinder on the camera. This will avoid movement or shaking of the camera and therefore will produce nicer picture quality.

With these recommendations, you will be well on your way to taking breath-taking, professional-looking portraits of your children.