Have a camera ready to capture all of life's moments.

If you see something beautiful, unusual, or amazing on the street, do you whip out your cell phone to tell a friend about it? Well now, thanks to a new generation of cell phones with integrated digital cameras, you don't have to settle for words alone. By simply pushing a few buttons, you can send a digital picture directly to your friend's phone, so he or she won't have to imagine what you're talking about. It's a whole new world of visual telephony, and it's surprisingly simple to get onboard!

Jared Silvermintz is a self-professed tech junkie and the co-founder of Genius Papers, a website that assists students in term paper research. He rarely ventures out of his home without several tech devices, including a camera-enabled cell phone, an mp3 player, a digital organizer and a pocket-sized hard drive. Here he offers a beginner's guide to cell phones cameras:

• Two-in-one device.
  By combining the functions of a digital still camera with those of a cell phone, the cell phone camera lets you walk around with one fewer device.
  
• Take it everywhere.
  If you're like most cell phone users, you carry your cell phones everywhere you go. With a camera built in, you'll be ready to snap pictures of anything that pops up.
  
• Point and shoot.
  Cell phone cameras are very simple to use. Just point the lens, hit the capture button, and you've got your image.
  
• Send the image with the phone.
  Once you have the image, there's no need to download it to a computer; you can simply send it to friends unsung the phone itself. Prices for sending pictures start at about $.25 per image or 5 dollars for an unlimited number of images.
  
• Images are low-res.
  Images from cell phone cameras are not as good as those from regular digital still cameras. They produce relatively low-res images that are intended for on-the-fly fun, rather than serious photography. Silvermintz recommends choosing a cell phone camera with at least 640 by 480 resolution.
  
• Prices vary based on functions.
  Camera phones start around $150 and can go up to four or five hundred dollars for high-tech devices that combine the functions of a phone, camera and PDA.
  
• Capture those special moments.
  With a cell phone camera you can capture those once in a lifetime moments, without an extra pocket to carry around a separate camera.

For more about cell phone cameras, check out the following websites:

ZDNet Cellphone Reviews
reviews-zdnet.com.com

PicturePhoning.com
www.textually.org

Nokia USA
www.nokiausa.com

Japan Media Review: Camera Phones Changing the Definition of Picture-Worthy
www.ojr.org

The Digital Journalist: Why Will Wireless Camera Phones Revolutionize the Photography Industry?
www.digitaljournalist.org

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