How to choose a compact camera

Hi,
Just a little follow up from my previous post. No point telling you people how not important megapixels are and don't recommend or tech you how to choose a compact.

Before buying a camera, ask yourself some questions:
What are you going to shoot? (moving or still objects/people ; night or day shots)
What is the general purpose of the camera you are buying? (shooting you and your friends?)
Whats your budget?

If in the first question, you chose moving shots or night shots, then just forget about compacts and go straight to DSLRs. If budget matters, get the cheap and good nikon d40 or canon 1000d.

But, if you are not shooting any fast moving stuff like cars and sport or you are not shooting pure dark shots and you are just buying a camera to record memories of time you spent together with friends and family, I suggest you get a compact. Compacts nowadays have better and better features. They have auto scene recognition, face detection and so on.
Embarrassingly, I have to say that sometimes the photos I make on the DSLRs are worse than those made by compacts.

Enough of the blabbering. And if you are buying a compact, here are some questions:
Is it just for basic shots?(or you are serious about making great photographs with your compact)
Do you know how to make critical camera adjustments?(or you will just use the auto all the way)
Will you use the camera for travelling?(or will you get a DSLR when you go overseas)
Do you want a fashionable one?(or cameras like the nikon L-series and canon A-series)
Again, whats your budget?


I will recommend cameras question by question.

If your camera is just for basic shots and you do not know how to make critical adjustments, I recommend lumix's simple compacts. FS7 or FS8. My dad is using one from the same category from lumix and it produced great results. (the lens it uses is leica lens. A very, very good lens brand)

But if you know how to set critical camera adjustments you might want to consider canon compacts. Their ergonomics for compacts are dam good. You can handle and adjust the camera settings all using only your right hand. I have used an ixus before. And I believe the new ones are as good or better. I dare not recommend other brands because I have not used them before. Feel free to check out the other brands.

Next, if you will use your compact camera for travelling, I suggest you get one with good optical zoom. I emphasise on optical zoom. Avoid digital zoom if possible. Currently, major camera brands are coming up with compacts with 12x optical zoom. I'm not sure about the quality but I hope it will be good.

Taking photographs is not about the deisign of your camera. But for those who are fashion forward and image comcious.(why? its photography!) I recommend cameras like the canon ixus series and the less common leica compact, C-series. The leica compacts are really rare on the streets. Untill now, I have only seen 1 singaporean use a leica film camera. I have not seen anyone using a leica compact! And, don't worry about quality(but better check it yourself), they are actually lumixsss but more elegant.(Surprisingly, the price is lower than I think! Go check it out guys)

Once again budget. If you have a tight budget, get the canon A-series. If you can splurge on a compact camera, go ahead guy, get the canon G10 or lumix LX3. They produce great results.

I hope this post can help you choose your compacts better.

Tyy