Technology in digital compact cameras have come a long way. More and more features are being put into digital compact cameras but whether it’s useful or not, the manufacturers doesn’t really care as long as it looks good on marketing brochures.

The most important consideration when buying something is figuring how you’re going to use it. Buying a digital compact camera to shoot baby photos? Bear in mind, most babies won’t hold still and say cheese long enough for you to lock focus, compose and shoot. To make matters worst, you won’t be able to use the flash or you’d risk hurting their eyes so you you’ll be constantly dealing with slow shutter speed, and ultimately blurry photographs.

The main problem with slow shutter speed is unwanted movements. Both yours and your baby. You’ll find it challenging to keep your hands steady and your baby still while the photo is being taken.

Things you should look for:

• ISO Performance/Noise handling - Absolutely essential because of several factors. First of all, you will NOT want to flash your baby for obvious reasons. Secondly, you’ll be taking your compact digital camera to dim-lit places. Do not for a moment think that there’ll be sufficient lighting everywhere you go. The moment you step in-doors, you’ll need a flash and because you can’t use it, your last resort would be to shoot at ISO800 or worst. Personally, out of the hundreds of baby photos I’ve taken, 80% are shot using ISO800.
• Image Stabilizing - The real-deal image stabilizing function in digital cameras refers to CCDs that shifts to counter hand-shake. You will want every help you can get to suppress hand-shake. The best compact digital camera in my humble opinion, is one that combines Image Stabilizing and a superior noise handling CDD.

What to avoid or do not need:

• Digital SLR - It gives better image quality than any compact digital camera but you will not find a DSLR small enough to fit in your pocket ever. You will want a digital camera small enough to bring it everywhere, anytime, because your baby’s Kodak moments come without warning. In short, you want a small digital compact camera that fits easily in your pocket.
• Super-Zoom lens - A 3x lens is the best compromise in reach and dimension. Digital compact cameras with longer zoom lenses are usually bigger in size. Furthermore, when the lens is zoomed to it’s longest end, hand-shake becomes a major problem.
• More MegaPixels - To print decent quality 4R snapshots and the occasional larger A4 sized blowup, you’ll only need 4 to 6 megapixels. More megapixels doesn’t necessary mean better image quality. When manufacturers cram more megapixels onto CCD chips, noise will increase and image quality deteriorates. Your print outs, especially larger ones, will exhibit more grain. The sweetspot for digital compact cameras is 7 megapixels these days.

Whenever I evaluate a compact digital camera, I will look at ISO800 image samples straight away. Unfortunately, most compact digital cameras you’ll find in the market these days produces very bad ISO800 image quality. In terms of best low-light capability, only one compact digital camera manufactured today is in a class of it’s own: the 6MP Fuji Finepix f31d. The Fuji FinePix f31d is the last of the venerable F-series breed which excels in high ISO image quality. I expect Fuji to stop producing the FinePix f31d in the near future.

I’m not particularly fond of Sony digital compact cameras due to the fact that they use Memory Stick, a storage device designed and produced by Sony, exclusively. Memory Sticks are generally more expensive than other competing flash storage cards.