I have owned two digital camera in the last couple of years, and have mixed feelings about them.

Initially, I thought I wanted a camera that would fit in a shirt pocket, had high quality, didn't cost too much, and was easy to operate. Sound familiar?

I imagined myself using this camera, and realised that I wanted one with an LCD screen that could be tilted in various ways so that I could hold it at arm's length and take a picture of myself against a suitable background (such as the Eiffel Tower). Having the LCD flip forward would allow me to properly compose the shot.

I also wanted to be able to raise the camera well above my head, pointing over the heads of people watching a parade. In that situation, it is essential to have an LCD screen that could be pointed downward so that I could see what was being recorded.

I searched for such a camera, and found one by Kyocera that matched my specifications. The price was not out of line, so I bought it, along with a 1GB memory card (it came with a 32MB card which I thought would be insufficient).

It didn't take long to learn how to take basic shots, use the zoom, etc. I liked the light weight, the sleek styling, and the twistable screen, which is designed differently than most other cameras. With the Kyocera, half the body twists, whereas with other cameras, the LCD is embedded in a flip-out door.

However, after a couple of weeks of usage, I found two liabilities, which I had not been aware of when I first looked at cameras.

The first was that night shots were very difficult to take, with pronounced blurring. The simple solution is a tripod, but this particular model does not have a tripod mounting socket. Oops.

The second was that the camera was very light. Yes, this was one of the things I wanted in a camera, but I noticed that a large percentage of my pictures were blurry. This was because the camera was so light that when I pressed the shutter button, I moved the camera. There was no mass to the camera to resist my finger pressure and no image stabilisation feature. Oops.

A further liability appeared a couple of months later. I loaned the camera to a friend and she took a couple of hundred pictures with it, which we uploaded to a computer with no problem. The camera comes with a rugged black cloth case to protect it when not being used. With the case on, it is very well protected.

She went on a trip to a national park, and sometime during the 5 hour return trip, lost the camera. The problem with this camera is that it is quite small, even when in the case, and the case is completely black. It can easily be left somewhere, or fall between seats, etc., and is basically invisible if it is in a dark place.

When you lose your mobile, you can use another telephone to call your number, and if the phone is near you, the ringing will allow you to find it again. You can't do that with a small black thing smaller than a cigarette pack. Oops.

With my second camera, I decided to rectify these shortcomings. I now wanted mass, image stabilisation, and a tripod mount.

I have several Canon printers and a Canon scanner, all of which are very high quality but inexpensive, so I checked out their range of cameras first. One of the reasons for this was that I thought having compatibility between the camera and the printer might be an advantage.

Canon has more than 25 models, but they are divided into several product families. The low end ones are small and flat, the mid-range are sort of L-shaped, and the high end are professional single lense reflex (SLR) and look an awful lot like 35 mm film SLR cameras.

The mid-range L-shaped cameras attracted me because I am right-handed and the L-shape made for a firm grip on the camera. When I held the camera with its 4 AA cells installed, it was much heavier than the Kyocera, but not so heavy that I found it objectionable. It felt very comfortable and secure.

I asked a female friend to hold it, and showed her how to place the strap on her wrist and where to place her thumb and fingers. She told me it felt much more comfortable than the flat Kyocera, and I agreed with that assessment.

We also noticed that when we pressed the shutter button, the camera did not move. There was enough mass that the camera itself provided the image stabilisation, it didn't need that as an electronic feature.

And it had a tripod mount.

I whipped out my credit card, and bought it then and there, along with a 1 GB card, extra batteries, and a tripod.

My friend and I then went happy snapping around Bangkok. She loved it. We spent a whole day learning the camera, taking indoor flash shots, outdoor daylight shots, and nighttime shots using the tripod.

Both of us were very happy with this camera.

Was it an advantage having a matched camera and printer? Not really. The printer itself could take input from any camera labelled "PictBridge"; the camera has removable memory cards and a USB interface which work everywhere.

And this camera is much harder to lose: the case is much larger and heavier, and just won't fit in the tight spaces that the smaller camera could fall into.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

This is from an advertisement in a flyer that was recently delivered to my house. What's wrong here?

Well, how is the father going to see what he is taking? This is a perfect example of why you want an LCD that flips out and turns 180 degrees SO YOU CAN SEE WHAT YOU ARE TAKING!

Things to Look For:

Price, of course, is the overriding factor, but cameras are getting more powerful for the money, same as computers.

Comfort is a major consideration. Hold it, dangle it from your wrist, stick it in your pocket or purse, take some pictures in the shop.

Megapixels determine how good the image is, and how big it is. Anything over 3 megapixels means good quality, over 6 means excellent quality. But the more megapixels, the higher the price.

Warranty should be pertinent to your movements; if you do a lot of travelling, make sure it has an international warranty. However, most warranties are only 12 months long, which is pretty short considering you are likely to keep and use the camera for 5 to 10 years.

Type of memory cards: some are more expensive than others. Sony Memorysticks, in particular, are more expensive than XD and SD, and these are more expensive than CompactFlash.

Tiltable or fixed LCD screen: decide if you must have the flexibility of a tilting screen, or if you can live with a fixed screen. The fixed ones are cheaper, but you are restricted in what you can do.

Tripod mount is a necessity for night shots, and useful for group shots where you want to be in the photo with your friends.

Image stabilisation is a necessity on a light-weight camera, useful on heavier cameras.

Range of shutter speeds from slow to fast to allow sunset and sports photos.

Simple menu system: some cameras are big on icons and have very little text; others have lots of text, and only a few icons. Sometimes the icons are so cryptic you can't remember what they mean.

Optical zoom is much better than digital zoom, because images don't pixellate. If a camera has 4X optical zoom, that's better than 4X digital. And 8X is better than 4X: bigger is better.

Automatic settings are standard on all cameras, but the more expensive models allow you to change the focus from automatic to manual; this allows you to control the image better. Ditto for shutter speed and aperture settings, which together control the amount of light.

Movie mode is a useful capability. Many cameras can take short digital movies, ranging from 15 seconds with minimal memory, up to several minutes with a large (4GB) memory card.

A View Finder is a necessity in bright sunlight as almost all LCD screens are practically unviewable in the sun; a view finder lets you peer through the shaded window and still compose the picture.

Want to make extreme close-ups of insects, flowers, whatever? Make sure the camera lense is removable or has threads to allow a teleconverter to be mounted on the front.

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