Lynn Lau
Northern News Services

Inuvik (June 03/02) - With few photo finishing options available in the communities, digital cameras are starting to catch on, for convenience and affordability.

Inuvik camera buff Michael Atkinson says the digital cameras he's owned have easily paid for themselves through money saved in photo developing and printing.

"With my digital camera, I have a lot more freedom and flexibility and lot more fun," Atkinson says. "I'd recommend it for anybody who wants to take pictures, for ease of use and experimentation. It's a good way to get into picture- taking with not a lot of expense -- especially for developing photos that don't turn out."

Atkinson has a Canon PowerShot G2, which cost $1,300 for the camera alone and is considered one of the higher end consumer cameras. Atkinson says the picture quality is good up to 8 X 10, and the camera is outfitted with all the features of a standard SLR (single lens reflex) camera and can even record audio.

At the Aklavik Indian Band, community co-ordinator Robert Buckle recently purchased a Sony Cybershot P50 for use in the office. The entry-level model costs about $500.

"Our new computers have USB ports in the front, so it's just plug in and load," Buckle says. "The convenience is there, and slowly we'd like to get the Internet on every computer so we're able to e-mail pictures and use digital pictures in our reports and newsletters."

Buckle says a big factor in the band's decision to go with a digital camera was convenience. He say it usually takes about a month to develop conventional photos by mail. "This way, we can use digital pictures more readily, rather than waiting for developing and printing."

At Arctic Digital, a computer retailer in Inuvik, sales of digital cameras have been picking up, says sales associate Brian Richards. "With the advent of e-mail and Web publishing, they've become more popular," Richards says. "Another nice function for the digital camera is you can actually see the picture right away so if the picture didn't work, you can just take another, and you can delete the ones you don't want."