Camera Dock for Digital Camera

The camera dock is a place to put the camera that has recharging capabilities and a connection to download pictures. Camera docks are specific to the brand if not certain types of cameras in that brand. The memory card type doesn't matter since it reads from the camera itself. You never remove the card.

No, you don't need one. It is basically a convinience item. It means you don't have to take the batteries out of the camera to recharge them if you use rechargables. It also means you don't have to fumble with connecting a cable to the camera. All cameras should have a usb or firewire output on them to allow you to connect and download with just a cable. Some docks connect directly to printers allowing you to print from the camera.

You can also remove the memory card from a camera and put it into a memory card reader. If you take a lot of pictures and have several memory cards that you swap out this is more convenient then having to put them all back in the camera to get the pictures off them.

Thanks, Parados, that was really helpful.

About the memory card reader, we would need a specific type of memory card reader then, I assume? What does the reader do exactly than just allow you to read the pictures, like does it delete the pictures, etc.

Yes, you need a specific reader. There are many readers out there fairly cheap that read most memory cards. I think I spent about $15 for mine which is USB and reads 9 different types of memory cards.

When you put in a memory card the computer sees it as a seperate drive. You can do anything you would be able to do to a normal drive. With my camera the pictures are buried about 4 folders down. Keep in mind if you delete the folder system and not just the pictures you may have to have your camera reformat the card to use it. Not a big deal but just letting you know you don't need to panic if the camera doesn't recognize the card and tells you it needs to be formatted if you delete more than you should.