I just asked my hubster and he uses a program called "Handbrake"..I don't know if its pc or MAC...probably MAC as that is what his laptop is... I just upload them to putfile or webshots and link to friends and family that way... Good Luck!!

But..I keep reading the fact that the ink jet ink just won't last. I am printing my own pictures, too..and hoping for the best, but I just bought a Picture It program and it says the pictures will last anywhere from two months (two months!!!!!!!) to forty years...lol. Well, the forty years would probably take care of me and mine (the grandkids might like them longer than that though) but I have yet to see one that lasted only two months. I did a little experimenting and printed one off and pinned it up on my bulletin board in the light and air....it lasted about four months that way until it was a "ghost" picture. I have one printed on plain ol paper, but under glass on my desk here, and it has faded some, but is still nice. The book for the Picture It said that the ink will start "shifting" at about the two month point. I LOVE my digital pictures and you can print so many different sizes and do so much "adjusting" on them. But...I'm afraid ten years down the road, all of my work will be for naught. This is one of my favorite pictures and I treasure it....time will tell, I guess I wrote, "Christmas is Magic" underneath it. The book I was reading said to use the very best photo paper, and, of course, I do that, but I'm still a little worried about this. I've been doing this for about two years and keep going back and checking the pictures. I can't see that they are deteriorating as yet...

OK - I tried uploading directly from my camera to Photobucket - and you cannot do that. DANG! Here is an easy way to upload your pics to a computer (you never need to use the camera software - I really dislike Kodak especially, but if you are comfortable with it, that is ok) Plug your camera in to the computer, or place card into card reader. Go to MY COMPUTER and find the device. Double click on it and your images should pop up. You may see them as thumbnails, tiles, icons, or list - depending on how your computer is set...you can always change that. Click on the first image you want to copy - then hold down the shift key and select the last image you want to copy - this will select all of them in between also. Right click and select copy. Go to the Desktop of the computer. Right click on a blank area and mouse over NEW-> go over to FOLDER and click on that to create a new folder. You can rename it when you create it or just leave it named NEW FOLDER (it doesn't matter). Double click on the folder to open. Right click and select PASTE. Your photos will be zipping into this folder! You can upload to Photobucket like normal from there. This will NOT remove the pictures from your camera card. Delete your folder when you are done. DON'T forget your card if you have removed it from your camera!! You can create the desktop folder at any time - you also don't have to have it located on the desktop - but this would be easiest while you are traveling so you don't forget to delete. You should be able to practice this at home. If you can't shut down the Kodak program - just let it do it's thing - then try it after it has finished. Or try it at a library. The little thumb drives (USB drives) and camera memory cards are the same thing - just in a different package. An external hard drive is just like a thumb drive, just bigger. THumb drives are so easy to lose! They are just the handiest things - but they go missing for me all the time.... Buy some extra cards before you travel. Try them out before you go. Format them in your camera first!! They are cheap and you can NEVER EVER take too many pictures :) If this doesn't make sense at all -I can post screen shots later (probably tomorrow)

Rather than give you a specific make & model recommendation I would rather give you some general information that will help you make the descision as to which camera is best for you. On first inspection all digital cameras, whether they are simple point & shoot or high end professional DSLR's are a bit intimidating because they have all sorts of buttons and drop down menus. DO NOT LET THAT SCARE YOU. All digital cameras, regardless of how big or small have a fully automated mode where you can use it as a point & shoot camera and get perfect results from your first shot and you may be happy using it in that mode for the rest of your life, but I must warn you ahead of time, digital photography is addictive. Once you start getting great point & shoot type pics you will no doubt get curious about what else you can do, from extreme closeups in your flower garden to shooting a bird a 100ft away. And what parent or grandparent doesn't want a few action photos of their little darlings participating in organized sports and such? The point is, you want a camera that won't break the bank to purchase and is ready to go right out of the box, but one that can grow with you as your skills and knowledge improves. Back in the days of film you had two choices, you could get a point & shoot and live with its limitations or you could buy an SLR and had to enter a formal study group to learn how to use it, but such is not the case today. They do still make Point & shoot cameras which typically sell in the $60 to $150 price range, but I would not recommend those. Most of the new point and shoot cameras do not have an optical viewfinder (an eyepiece you look through). Instead, they use what is called "Live view" where the picture is displayed on the lcd screen on the back of the camera. In some circumstances Live view is highly desirable, but live view requires a lot of energy, which dramatically shortens your battery life, and it can be very difficult to see when outdoors in bright sunlight. In addition, most point & shoot cameras have a fixed focal length lens or one that perhaps offers 2x or 3x telephoto, and some offer an additional 2x digital telephoto, but that is only a process where the camera crops your image down. The problem with the digital tele is that as it crops the image down, it is reducing your negative size, which then dramatically reduces the size of quality prints you can expect to get. You could step up to an entry level DSLR but even the basic entry level DSLR's start out at around $500 plus the cost of a lens and they are generally much to bulky for those who want a point & shoot. Fortunaely they make what is known in the industry as "Bridge Cameras" because they bridge the gap between the el cheapo point & shoot and the expensive DSLR. Bridge cameras will generally average about $200 and upwards to $400 but when you see what you get, they are without question one of the best bargains in the industry. Bridge cameras will operate in simple point & shoot mode, requiring no technical skills from the operator, but they also have the full range of shutter speed and exposure controls that are found on the professional DSLR's. Now, while the bridge cameras do have a fixed lens instead of interchangable lenses, they offer some fantastic zoom capabilities on the lenses they have. They will generally all have zoom lens that ranges from wide angle to 6x or 8x and some even have zooms that go as high as 15x or more. The bridge cameras have an optical viewfinder which means when you look in the eyepiece you are actually looking through the camera lens and you are seeing what the camera sees so you need not worry about chopping heads and feet off and some even offer the live view as an option for shooting in dim light or framing a closeup. And while on the subject of closeups, most of the bridge camera lenses also have the macro feature so you can shoot extreme closeups. You mentioned that you want to be able to put your photos on a flash drive. Nearly all digital cameras use SD or SDHC cards for memory. The actual number of photos that you can fit on a card depends upon the size of the card and the size of the files that are created by your camera, but to give you an example, I shoot a Pentax K10d DSLR and when I use an 8gb SDHC card and shoot in the highest quality JPEG mode, I can get 1615 photos on a card, but then I never go in the field with just one card either. I carry four or five spare cards and a minimum of 3 spare Lithium batteries and I can get 700 shots per battery. If I am going for a weekend I also carry my battery charger for the car. To upload your photos to the computer all the cameras have an umbilical cord that plugs into a USB port, but I find it just as easy to pull the memory card and plug that directly into the computer card reader. In a Windows operating system when you plug the card into the computer and box comes up and says it found a memory device and asks you what you want to do, Hit "import photos" and it will automatically upload the photos into "My Photos" on the computer. I then put the card back in the camera and use the camera to format the card, which erases it so I can start over. (You can also pull the card and insert it into one of the photo kiosk machines at your local photo center to select what you want printed.) One thing I would caution you. When you are selecting your new camera find out what type and size of battery it uses. Some of the smaller cameras use a special battery that is designed specific to that camera. If that is the case, you may have difficulty in finding a spare battery, especially in the future. I learned the hard way because I have an older HP point & shoot that has a battery that will no longer hold a charge, but they have discontinued production of that battery. Many of the point & shoot and bridge cameras use AA batteries, which means it is very easy to find replacements and even the rechargeables are not expensive. (I would strongly advise you be sure to get rechargable batteries). If the camera you select uses a proprietary battery find out if that battery is used in other cameras or by other camera manufacturers. If it is in common use by many cameras the odds of it being discontinued any time soon are greatly reduced. Also, if the camera uses a lithium ion battery that is an advantage because Li-on batteries provide much greater power than ni-cads or Nickle-metal halides. When you get your new camera generally they include a simple photo editing program with the camera software disc but I would suggest you also download a free photo editing program from Google, called "Photoscape". Photoscape is a very powerful, yet very user friendly program that is totally free. No spam, no spyware, and none of that 60 day trial nonesense. I have three professional photo editing programs but I find that Photoscape is my basic go to program for all but the most demanding edits. Here is an illustration I made that will give you examples of the different types of cameras...