By Tan Chong Yaw

HERE are points to consider before forking out the moolah for a camera.

No snap decisions, please.

Accessories

Before buying a system camera - like a DSLR or Micro Four Thirds digicam - check the range of accessories the camera maker offers.

The device is going to last you several years.

As your skills sharpen, you will want to buy additional lenses and more powerful flashes to expand your camera's capabilities.

Even if you see the camera as a super point-and-shooter, choose wisely.

A passion for photography may hit you and you may kick yourself later for picking a cheap camera that has few accessories.

Wide angle

This is important for compacts.

Look for the "35mm equivalent" zoom range.

Find it in the specifications on the firm's website.

The lower number in the zoom range should be 28mm or less.

A wider angle allows the camera to capture more of a landscape or people in a group shot.

Display

Bigger is better.

A year ago, a 3-inch LCD screen was a big deal - now it is commonplace.

Look also at the resolution - that will determine how sharp and detailed the display will be.

LCD displays can have the usual 230,000 pixels to one million pixels.

Memory card

SD cards used by most compacts and many DSLRs are designed to different standards like SDHC and SDXC.

Make sure that the camera accepts at least SDHC cards.

SDHC cards with a top capacity of 32GB are the sweet spot for SD cards.

Plain SD cards go no higher than 2GB.

Snappers with the latest SDXC standard will be able to use cards with a maximum capacity of 2TB.

Do not worry - an SDXC camera can also use SDHC and SD cards.

Battery life

Look for battery life measured with the Cipa standard adopted by camera makers for battery tests.

Take 200 shots as a minimum.

Anything lower, then toting a spare battery - a good practice anyway - will be a must.

Movies

Most cameras double as camcorders now.

The resolution should be 1,280 by 720 (HD ready) pixels or more.

640 by 240 pixels or VGA is passe.

Look for a movie speed of 24 frames per second (fps) and higher so that your clips will not be jerky. Note that digicams including DSLRs capture only monaural (one channel) sound. Very few record sound in stereo.

For the codec - how a movie file is compressed for storage - choose MPEG-4, H.264 or AVCHD.

Many digicams may use Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) but few PCs and media players can read such files reliably.

Hands on experience

Nothing beats handling the actual machine.

Seize this opportunity to take all shortlisted cameras for a test drive.

Take an SD card to record some test snaps with.

Besides the image quality of your test snaps, here are a few items you should have on your checklist:

Grip: How comfortable and secure does the camera feel in your hands?

Construction: How robust is the build? Flex the body and open up all the battery, connection and memory card flaps. Are they flimsy?

Buttons and dials: Are they vague or loose or do they give clear feedback when pressed or turned?

Speed: How fast does the camera start up, zoom and focus?

This article was first published in The Straits Times.

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