Originally Posted by seksi

For point and shoot (at porn parties for instance) higher continuous shooting frames per second (fps) is important. Faster writes to media, the quality and format of video in video modes matter when I buy a cheap camera.

Batteries matter. How are you going to be using it? Which is worse, running out of juice and having to recharge it for hours because of a proprietary battery that you can't get more of and have to charge by plugging the camera in, or having to speed $8.00 for nice powerful but standard AA lithium batteries you can replace on the fly?

Fancy cameras can help you get into venues where they want you to take pictures, a cheap consumer camera that fits easily into your pocket is great for taking newsworthy pics of subjects that would avoid an obvious TV crew.