You’re ready to go out (or online) and buy a brand new compact camera, but how do you know which features to look for? To some extent, it depends on your preferences of course, but make sure you look at all the specs closely to get the camera that best suits your needs.

Here are six features you should take a closer look at before clicking “add to cart”:

Battery The type of battery is an important feature. Some cameras accept several power sources (proprietary rechargeable, AA, AC adapter, USB hookup), and this really is the best option. Relying solely on a camera-specific rechargeable battery is risky – even if you have backup batteries, there might be times when you are unable to charge them (traveling in remote areas without electricity, or even just in a country where the plugs are different). AA batteries on the other hand are everywhere, relatively inexpensive and easy to carry along. But they don’t last very long, and the cost does add up. Having said that, they are ideal as a back up power source.

Optical Zoom The optical zoom is what you want to focus on when it comes to zooming features. Digital zoom does not bring the lens closer to the object, it just enlarges and crops the photo to fill the frame with a “zoomed in” picture. It gets the job done, but you lose quite a bit of image quality this way. Optical zoom on the other hand works like the zoom on traditional 35mm cameras, where the zooming is done in the lens and there is no loss of image quality at all.

Memory Even though all cameras these days accept a variety of memory cards, built-in memory is always an added asset. Imagine standing in front of the perfect shot with full or malfunctioning memory cards: internal memory to the rescue. Many of the compact cameras currently on the market have anywhere from a few MB to several GB of internal memory, so make sure you look for that in the specs when deciding on a new camera.

Mega Pixels The megapixel question is a tricky one. Some experts claim that more is better, and some that image quality actually gets worse with higher megapixels, saying that anything above 6 mps is more than enough for most users. Today, it’s actually difficult to find a camera among the reputable brands with less than 5. Most of the new releases have between 8 and 12, which is plenty. The sensor in the camera also plays a huge part in image quality, but what’s listed under Sensor in the specs of most cameras is not all that informative. Your best bet is to do your research and read as many reviews as you can.

Exposure Controls Even if you usually set your camera to Program or Auto, having the option of controlling the exposure yourself can come in handy, especially if you want to take your photography to new creative heights. Use a slow shutter speed to create dreamy photos of moving water, or color streaks from moving car lights at night. A wide aperture creates a short depth of field, which gives close-ups and portraits a professional look.

Jpg or RAW? The majority of the compact digital cameras on the market produce jpgs – small files that are perfect for your blog, flickr, and other online sharing sites, and most people are able to open them on their computer. The disadvantages of jpgs are that it is a “lossy” format, and since a bunch of adjustments are done automatically in the camera, you don’t have much control over the final result.

In the past few years, a few point and shoot cameras capable of capturing photos in RAW format have appeared on the market. RAW files are really just raw data, and these files need to go through some degree of post-shooting processing to “become” photos as we know them, but you have full control over the final result, you can save them as any format (jpg, tiff, dng, etc.), and you can play around with the images as much as you want without losing any picture quality. All manufacturers make their own proprietary conversion software, which comes with the camera, but you can also use Photoshop or Lightroom. I find Lightroom a little bit more user-friendy, and it’s a lot cheaper than Photoshop.