As you take the plunge into digital photography, take heart from the fact that you are not the first. Many others have been before, and you can learn from their mistakes. To help you in this voyage of discovery, we have put together what we think are the 10 most common mistakes that you should avoid. 1.  Don't buy a camera with insufficient resolution or features. Before you buy a digital camera, make sure you think about how you intend to use it. If you want to enlarge and frame some of your photos up to 8x10", avoid lower resolution models. Additionally, if want to connect an external flash, the camera must have a hot shoe or other method for triggering it (and most digital cameras don't). Create your own list of must have features, then choose a camera that has the features you need. 2.  Don't set your camera on low resolution. It seems like a good way to squeeze more photos onto a memory card, but reducing your resolution setting, or even worse not checking the setting when you first acquire the camera can lead to disappointment. Reducing a camera's resolution limits the use of the photos it records. Not only may standard photos be of poorer quality than necessary, but it may totally rule out enlarging that once in a lifetime photo! Unless you're absolutely sure that the photos will only be emailed or displayed on the Web, make sure you keep the resolution turned up to its highest JPEG setting. When a great photo comes along, you'll be glad you took our advice.  Learn more about resolution. 3. Don't run out of space on your memory card at a critical time.  Most digital cameras come with a memory card that is barely adequate to get you started taking a few pictures. Ignore what the salesman told you about storing up to 200 images, if you look at the manual, you will see that it may only take 5 or 6 at best quality. Consider how many pictures you're likely to take, and make sure you have the memory card capacity you need. Either buy the highest capacity memory card can afford, or for more flexibility buy a few lower capacity cards, and you won't have to worry about running out of space when you need it most. Read an article on getting the most out of your digital camera for more tips on what extras you should invest in. 4. Don't run out of battery power at a critical time. Digital cameras chew through power, and lots of it. There's nothing more aggravating than taking a photo and hearing the sound of silence brought on by a dead or dying battery. To make sure that the camera is ready when you are, don't forget to charge the batteries fully, and make you have spare batteries on hand. 5. Don't take the memory card out at the wrong time. Taking a digital photo does not end with click of the shutter. The process can take a few seconds while the image is processed and then saved to the memory card. It takes even longer if you've shot several photos in quick succession. It's critical that you allow the camera to finish processing before you remove the memory card. If the card is ejected prematurely, some or all of your photos may be lost or damaged. Most digital cameras have an indicator light that blinks when the camera is still processing and you will have noticed this, because you are unable to take another picture until the last image has been stored. A good rule to follow is to turn off the camera before you attempt to remove the memory card or batteries. 6. Don't forget about shutter delay. One of the things that really frustrated the early digital photographer was shutter delay. What this meant it that there was a long delay between pushing the button and the photo being taken. The good news is that the new wave of digital cameras offer very close to the responsiveness of film cameras. Unfortunately, some models still respond very slowly, such that what you saw is not always what the camera captures. If your camera exhibits these symptoms, there are two ways to deal with the problem. Firstly, when watching things happen in front of your lens, learn to anticipate when the best moment is coming and press the button straight away. Secondly, when shooting still objects, get to know your camera's focus lock capability. Often, if the camera has already been focused on the object, there is no delay after the shutter is pressed. 7. Don't shoot action photos in single shot and preview mode. As standard, your camera will probably be set to shoot a single photograph, then preview the image and then write that photo to the memory card before it's ready to take another picture. This is OK when photographing still objects, but as soon as you turn your lens toward any sort of fast moving activity, you'll want to set the camera up differently. Most digital cameras allow you to either disable the preview mode or after each photo, or the whole LCD, which usually improves the camera's performance. Additionally shooting photos in multi-shot mode allows you to capture all the action and later decide which images to keep. Learn about how to take better digital portraits. 8. Don't expect your digital camera to take photos that your film camera couldn't. Although there are same very clever digital cameras out there, the basic rules of photography still apply. Correct lighting is still critical, in fact most digital cameras struggle more with extreme lighting conditions than film cameras. Make sure if you take pictures in low-light conditions, that the flash is on and will reach your subject(s). Focus is still important, although its digital it doesn't automatically know what you're trying to focus on. Make sure you hold the camera still when taking the picture and have the camera set on the right focal mode for the picture you intend to take.  Find out more about Focal length and digital zoom. 9. Don't expect your image editing software to fix everything. Most of us will have seen computers in the movies miraculously restore, enhance and enlarge images that were virtually indecipherable at the start. In the real world, computers can achieve some great results, but are not endowed with magical powers. Good image editing software, which is essential for the keen digital photographer, can modify colour casts, remove red-eye, improve brightness and contrast, and more, but there is a limit to how much a photo can be improved. If you're shooting in low light or with low resolution settings, you will definitely hit this limit. With digital photography, the garbage in garbage out rule applies. See Photo quality guidelines. 10. Don't be haphazard in the way you save your images. This may sound like a real party pooper, but to maximise your enjoyment and minimise your frustration its a good policy to have a standard way of transferring your images to the computer, sorting and organising them, backing them up on CD and more. Conforming to a standard format may sound like the height of dullness, but it's essential for hassle free and efficient use of a digital camera. Make sure that when you're editing your images your always keep a backup of the original. Get in the habit of writing a CD of your original photos, edit on copies only, and you'll never experience that sinking feeling of a lost or damaged image ever again.