My camera is a Canon PowerShot A40. It uses a CompactFlash memory card and I have three memory cards for it, two which store 10MB each and one with 64MB of memory. It also uses 4 x AA batteries. It is kept in a special camera bag (which also holds spare batteries and whichever memory cards aren't actually in the camera) and I have a "puffer" brush to blow dust off the lens.

The special function I use most is the zoom facility : it has a 3 x optical zoom supplemented by a further 4.5 x digital zoom.

The flash is usually set at auto and will fire if the light conditions warrant it; it also has a "red-eye" setting, where it flutters before firing fully (theoretically to avoid red-eye effect in the subject - see this page) and can be switched off entirely, but annoyingly it can't be switched on to use as an in-fill flash, e.g. for back-lit subjects.

Although I usually use the camera set on Auto, there are occasions when it is preferable to set exposure, focus and aperture manually - see this page for examples of photos I have taken under such conditions.

This is extremely simple : I have a USB Card Reader and the card simply slots in : I then open it on the computer (the card reader registers as Removable Disk Drive G) and work on the photos either in Corel Photo Paint, Easy Photo or (usually) Paint Shop Pro.