These are something you will find in most investigators kit bag. There are two types of camera that can be used:-.

Digital: - The quality of image on a digital camera is based on mega pixels. The higher the amount of mega pixels the better the image will be. This format makes examination of the images easier and quicker since all digital cameras download the image to the PC.

Film: - Not used as much anymore since the on set of cheap digital cameras and the ease of digital processing. To transfer a film based picture to the computer means getting the film developed and then scanned into the computer. With this transfer method there maybe some information lost from the original image

Personally I prefer digital, its more flexible and the output is much easier to examine closely. The downside is that unscrupulous people can also edit images to selectively change the image content, which is right out of order where I am concerned.

If you are not photographically minded stick to a fairly simple camera and know what its limits are. There is point in having a super SLR and have to keep referring to the instruction book every five minutes by torchlight at every investigation.

I would recommend two things, first make sure you know how to operate your camera and secondly buy  a good reference book on photography and read it through. This will help you understand when your camera is going to give you potential issues, like use a slow shutter speed with flash.

You have no idea how many pictures are sent to me to look at where there is a half solid fuzzy blob in the background of the flash picture. The reason is the one above, if you know how your camera works and why it might decide to select a slow speed with flash, then you can intervene. Then if you get a blob its much more likely to need a close look at.

One other good point about digital cameras is that they will record all of the really useful stats about the pictures you take. Useful things like date, time, lens, flash, shutter speed, aperture and image size etc. These are absolutely vital to anyone who needs to validate your spectral image. This data removes all of the doubts and questions and it more than outweighs the argument that film cameras are better because you have the negative, which cant be tampered with.