QUESTION: I recently bought a Kodak DX6340 digital camera and I am enjoying using it. I'm so pleased that I can take lots of photos and there are no development costs. My husband and I are going to his family's house in the US for Christmas so is there any way I can expand the amount of photos it will be possible to take to maybe a couple of hundred snaps and hang on to them until I come back and can download them here?

Also, although I haven't made much use of this feature yet, my little camera can take a few minutes of full motion video with sound, the files are called .mpegs. What can I play these back on?

ANSWER: You have a decent little 3.1 megapixel digital camera, my wife has a similar one. The following advice applies equally to other brands of digital cameras.

There are several ways you could expand the picture taking capacity of your camera while you're away when it won't always be possible to download the photos and especially if there isn't an available computer. Digital cameras hold in their solid-state memories the images of the photos that you take with them. Each photo or movie clip is a separate file. The camera is full when this memory is fully used. There are expensive solid-state or external-drive solutions for storing vast amounts of data including digital photographs or video, you could even use the fantastic new iPod media player for this purpose but I don't think that's what you're asking me.

Your particular Kodak comes with a small amount of built-in memory, about 16 MB. What I suggest you do is buy one or more extra 128mb capacity MultiMedia or Secure Digital Cards; each of these should allow you to shoot about 135 high quality still digital images or perhaps nine minutes of video.

Remember, by reviewing the photos held in your camera on the screen located on the back you can preview the images you have taken and individually delete any that didn't come out very well or that you decide aren't going to be worth keeping. I was once proudly shown a sequence of penguin photos that all looked identical!

When the card that is in your camera is finally full just pop open the little door at the side, slide the card out carefully, it's only about the size of a postage stamp, and put it somewhere where it won't get bent or affected by any strong magnetic source until you come back home. When you're back you can pop the full card into the camera and download the contents to your computer. After that you erase the card and you've got all that space back.

You can find memory cards in town where you buy digital cameras or, while you're away, you can show your camera to a knowledgeable salesperson at a computer store and buy the additional cards there. Before you pay good money for a spare card or two be absolutely certain that they are the same type as is already in your camera or that is specified as suitable in the instructions that came with it. There are several incompatible types of removable memory cards so don't buy the wrong one. Mostly they look different from each other and the slot in your camera made for this purpose will probably only accept the correct one.

The little movies with sound that you can also shoot with your digital snapshot camera are amazingly easy to take. They're far from DVD or broadcast quality but are quite good enough to watch and listen to even on your TV.

We find that they are better if they are at least one minute long. There are lots of excellent software packages available for piecing numbers of these clips together and editing them including adding beginning and end titles, music transitions between scenes etc. You can also subsequently burn the results to DVD or CDs which are playable using your home or computer DVD player. My favourite of these video editors is ArcSoft ShowBiz but if you just want to experiment with assembling your own movie without spending any money, software developed for this purpose comes free with Windows XP, it is called Windows MovieMaker 2.

You can play your MPEG files back using the software that comes included with your Kodak camera. The Windows Media Player, which is a part of every copy of Windows, will play them back as well. There are other very popular formats for computer video files, an excellent one which is used in the Mac computers can be recognised by the file name, .avi. The QuickTime viewer for this format is available free for download.

Don't forget when you go on your trip take your docking/charging base with your camera. This will maintain the charge in the camera battery even if it isn't being used to attach your camera to a computer. In a pinch you can put in fairly expensive disposable batteries if you have to.

James W. Lapsley of ComputerWorks, specialises in PC repairs, upgrades and advice for the home and small office user. ComputerWorks welcomes your questions and comments. Send your PC questions by e-mail to computerworks@logic.bm or by phone at 293-0992.