digicam buying guide

a friend was out buying a digicam and wanted my inputs. I am putting them here as well.

points to check out before buying a cam.
* go for a good brand like nikon or canon etc
* dont get carried away by digital zoom.. that's useless u can always
zoom it digitally after copying it on ur notebook so no point paying
extra for it.
* check out its reviews.. try to find out abt the camera's performance in night.
* check the video quality.. look for parameters like frames per second
(fps), resolution and audio quality (mono or stereo).. the cd-movie
quality is like 30 fps, vga resolution and stereo.. mine is exactly
this.. but typical cam's my be like 15 fps, vga and mono sound (or may
be no audio.. do look for this).
* get a good (fast) sd card like one from sandisk.. a good card helps
in saving on the battery life.
* also megapix is an important factor. anything above 3 is good for
printing in our standard printing size.. but u may like to go for a
little higher like 4-5 megapix.. beyond 6 is a bit on the higher side
and may not prove to be worth it.
* size of the cam.. u may not like to have a bulky one so do check out
for its wt and size.