Those around me were whipping out photographic gear that costs thousands of dollars – per component.
My stash was a collection of compact cameras, none coming remotely close to even a grand in cash.
I was at a National Day Parade rehearsal and my brief was to shoot photos worthy enough for Digital Life’s cover and for the cover story inside.

After more than five years of reviewing cameras from pretty, slim things to the professional equipment that the photographers around me were toting, I have a fair idea of what compact cameras can and can’t do.
There are sound reasons why serious moolah is coughed up for pro gear – their performance and reliability put them in a much higher league.

It’s one thing to use compacts for casual shots and a totally different kettle of fish deploying them for mission-critical shots. Let’s just say that I felt like David with his slingshot – that’s a great name for a camera by the way – weaving amongst Goliaths carrying bronze spears.

The last time I was at an NDP, I was not the man I am today – I was much lighter on my feet, and many waist sizes smaller. I forgot how the event is a maelstrom of activity. The pace never lets up. Translated, that means you may have scant prep time to get ready for the next shot.

Like there is no warning for the brief bursts of fireworks that happened throughout the show starting as early as 6.30pm when the sun was still up. The F15s zipped past the stand in double quick time. And even though the Red Lions started their jump from 3km up in the air, in no time, the last man - the 'cameraman' who has a camcorder strapped to his helmet - had already landed.

Red Lions forming up more before deploying their chutes -- ST PHOTO: TAN CHONG YAW

Closeup of the last paratrooper to land -- ST PHOTO: TAN CHONG YAW

Apache at an odd angle with the Marina Bay Sands behind -- ST PHOTO: TAN CHONG YAW

I also spent another afternoon in the company of photo enthusiasts waiting patiently by the Esplanade Waterfront Promenade beside the Marina Bay Floating Platform with tripods in place. We waited about five hours, for just five to 10 minutes of fireworks at the end of the parade. There were compacts and camera phones aplenty, but I think I was the only person there who was using a tripod-mounted compact camera.

Any camera will do -- ST PHOTO: TAN CHONG YAW

DSLRs are still the go-to gear for nailing that critical shot. That hasn’t changed. I didn’t put mirrorless cameras to the test this round but they are a new force in the camera world to be reckoned with. Let me say this about compact cameras. They may be dinky, ditsy and sometimes even iffy in results if stretched beyond their ken. But they have come far in speed and picture noise control, with a wealth of software tricks packed in.

Please read Wednesday's (July 3) edition of Digital Life for tips on how to get great shots using compact cameras. Yes, all the photos in the main story on pages 8 and 9, including the one on the cover, were shot with compact cameras. Except for a couple of photos shot using a prosumer compact camera, the cameras used had tiny sensors – about 1/6th that of the size of a microSD memory card.

Here's looking at you, baby -- ST PHOTO: TAN CHONG YAW

I love the NDP! -- ST PHOTO: TAN CHONG YAW

A Tron moment -- ST PHOTO: TAN CHONG YAW

One last thing – it’s easy to get caught up in the flurry of activities at the NDP. Or, spend it all behind the lens.
My best takeaway moment wasn’t the collection of NDP rehearsal photos that I am a little proud of as they were shot with compacts. It was when the national anthem was played and I stood ramrod straight with everyone else in the stand. Sang Majulah Singapura, which left a lump in my throat. That picture in my head, I will carry for quite a while.

Worth a five hour wait! -- ST PHOTO: TAN CHONG YAW

Is it good form to engage in telephone twiddling with social networking or e-mail tools while out with friends at a restaurant or on a dinner date with your partner?

There are many arguments that say yes, you can.

It's a power trip. Your phone is a portable portal for you to instantly fire out updates to hundreds of friends and keep up to the second with them.

Why deprive your fans in cyberspace of your penetrating insights just because you are meeting someone in "meatspace"?

Because you can. You have the skill to do it discreetly with one hand out of sight of your friends while regaling them about your latest escapade.

Here's a super-noble reason — you are practising proximity neutrality with your friends. Your online friends shouldn't play second fiddle to those right in front of you.

Or, blame others — someone else started it.

My answer to all these is one question: What if someone whom you value puts you offline while he goes online — when you are sitting across the table?

I guess that most of us would feel a little sad that the other person doesn't think you are worth his undivided attention.

We hurtle through our days sometimes without pausing to consider our ways. Perhaps, we should reconsider when we engage in social networking. At least with those near and dear to you.

I do value social networking for its speed and reach; but it sure can’t replace spending time with people in the real world.

How do you post a hug or touch?

* My apologies to the late Paul Newman for hijacking his quote on monogamy, but why settle for hamburger when you can have steak?

We had bought the 3G version of the iPad online and knew that instead of the usual SIM card, there would be a micro SIM — half the size of the usual SIM.

The challenge: to trim a regular SIM card (right) to fit into the iPad's micro SIM slot (left). The AT&T micro SIM came with our 3G iPad bought from the United States. ST PHOTO: Tan Chong Yaw

The only way we could use the 3G version was to cut a local SIM card ourselves. We remembered what the telcos had said: "Cut the SIM card at your own risk. You could damage the iPad or the SIM card would not work if you altered your SIM card."

We couldn't wait. We really wanted to use the iPad. Besides, we already had a mobile broadband plan that we want to use more of.

So, we signed up for a multi-SIM plan where we paid a one-off activation fee and about $5 a month for a second SIM card. This would enable us to leverage on our existing mobile broadband plan.

Now, the actual act of snipping the SIM. How to do it? We turned to the Net which was full of references like that of John Benson's blog that involved a meat cleaver. But we much prefered the guide posted at Softpedia.

We printed the template that showed the micro SIM on a normal SIM, just to get an idea of size. Apart from the scissors, we also needed adhesive tape.

Our "cutting-edge" tools. ST PHOTO: Tan Chong Yaw

Since my wife had the surer pair of hands, she became the cutter. I clenched my teeth, worried that something would go wrong. The nerve-wrecking part was that she might have to cut slightly into the metal contacts of the SIM card.

Before we did the real thing, we needed practice. As we were holidaying in Malaysia at the time, we tested ourselves on a couple of SIM cards — including one for a fresh pre-paid account — there.

Success: The card on the left is being used now on our iPad. Note how the design and size of the metal contacts differ. ST PHOTO: Tan Chong Yaw

The cut was successful but I couldn't get the slimmer card to connect to the Net. Then, I found the solution. I had to manually change the iPad's APN (Access Point Name) settings which can be found in Cellular Data under Settings.

You will need to key in the values for your APN, user name and password. To look for the APN values for my telco provider, I checked out this website: http://modmyi.com/wiki/index.php/Carrier_APN_Settings#Singapore_Networks_

An important thing I discovered was that of the two SIM cards, one must be the primary SIM card that would always be used in my wife's phone. Otherwise, she would not be getting SMS messages.

Now, my wife and I can surf the Net with the iPad anywhere there is a phone signal. One thing is for sure: If it weren't for the images posted on the Net of successful "cutting" attempts, I would have tossed out the idea as lunacy.

Warning: Be aware that you may be well wrecking your SIM card by cutting it.

Not your body parts but bits or huge chunks of your digital identity. Your online gaming account is one.

Gamers – you are sitting ducks because you are vulnerable to hackers.

Anything linked to money is fair game. Like your bank or credit card account. And there are black markets where your digital assets are traded like commodities. Up to $40 is the going rate for your credit card details. Your bank account may fetch more than $1,000.

Digital thieves and rogues conduct their business in cyberspace. Division of labour is practised with specialists that focus on their own areas like software writing or spamming. These communities are virtual. But the threat posed to computer users is real.

To help explain the inner workings of the cybercrime industry to journalists, security firm Symantec held the Norton Black Market Event at Culver City in the United States at the end of last month and I was there.

Step into Symantec's mockup of the black market for cybercriminals.
ST PHOTO: Tan Chong Yaw

The black market was done up like a supermarket inside a container. You will not find such a place anywhere in the world but it helps in visualising how digital loot and hacking tools are being sold. Credit cards are stuffed into sacks and sold by the shovelful. These are complete with verification number – called CVV2 – that you find the back of your credit card. That’s all you need for an online purchase – like a stack of Blu-ray movies from Amazon.

Credit card details are sold in bulk
ST PHOTO: Tan Chong Yaw

I was shown a machine hooked to a laptop that could spit out an actual credit card in minutes with the magnetic strip coded with some unfortunate bloke’s details. I didn’t do it but a fellow journalist had a card done for him as a souvenir with just his name on it. But imagine if the card were properly coded. Pop into a luxury watch store, buy a pricey timepiece with it and then waltz out with tens of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise in your hands.

Then, head towards a friendly fence – someone who buys stolen goods at a stiff discount for his services – and you finish with cold hard cash in your hands. Stolen credit card details can be sold over the Internet. Credit card details are just numbers and words can be e-mailed. And the money can be transferred digitally – like to a Western Union – an American financial services firm - account.

Ready-made hacking tools can be purchased off the shelf
ST PHOTO: Tan Chong Yaw

Then, there are hacking tools that are developed by software writers. You can buy fully developed and customisable tools to control a PC remotely to steal the contents on it. So even the non-techie can be involved in cybercrime. He can hire specialists to do the tech heavy lifting for him.

I was tickled that even hacking software gets pirated. What did you expect? Honour among thieves?

So writers adopt the subscription model that antivirus firms use. A writer will update or tweak his program to evade detection as long as you pay the subscription. Cybercriminals are in this for the money, not for bragging rights of beating security systems.

The hacker wants his malicious code to reside undetected in your PC for as long as possible. So he can snoop on you. He can slip in software – called a screen scraper – that see what you can doing on your screen. It would be like a video camera is trained on your monitor. And he can be thousands of kilometres away.

Now playing a cybercriminal’s screen – your online banking transactions
ST PHOTO: Tan Chong Yaw

So, the hackers’ black market is like that of the origins of the flea market at Sungei Rd which started as a thieves’ market. They still trade in stolen – now digital – goods. But the tools are advanced software and the cyberspace platform is global.

Read more of how hackers are hatching up new ways to cheat and rob you in Wednesday's edition of Digital Life.

Last January (2000), the business analyst who lives in San Francisco tried checking her Yahoo! Mail account.

She was surprised that she could not.

She had logged in 20 minutes earlier.

Thinking that Yahoo was updating her account, she left it alone. Then, she started receiving calls from her friends.

They have received her e-mail message saying that she was stranded in Dublin and needed US$2,000 ($2,800) to get home.

Then, Western Union – a Colorado-based financial firm – called asking if she had attempted to send money to the Netherlands at least twice.

Fortunately, Western Union smelt a rat and had frozen her account.

Kashima is a victim of cybercrime.

She was invited by Internet security expert Symantec to share her experience at a cybersecurity event held for journalists from all over the world at the firm’s office at Santa Monica, United States last Tuesday (March 30).

Back to the Kashima who considers herself tech-savvy.

"I am always the first person in my network of friends to get the newest technology – whether it is the latest cellphone or laptop," the statuesque six-footer told me.

"I was just free with the Internet,” Kashima said. She shopped and did her banking online. She used to upload her videos and photos to the Net, too.

But Kashima made two mistakes: Her PC was not protected with any security software. And she responded to an e-mail from e-payment service PayPal telling her that her account needed to be updated.

She did by clicking on the e-mail link and updating her particulars on the website.

"It looked like an actual PayPal webpage," says Kashima.

It wasn’t.

She fell for a phishing e-mail – a rogue message masquerading as the real thing. And she was directed to a bogus site.

The particulars she supplied was sufficient for a hacker in the Netherlands called Troy – that was all Western Union could tell her – to hijack her webmail account, lock her out and sent out e-mail messages for help.

The hacker had found her Western Union account information among her e-mail messages.

After that, Kashima no longer does her transactions online. She is careful with the websites she visits and has installed Internet security software on her laptop.

"Now, I would physically walk to the post office to drop my payments into the mailbox the old-fashioned way," she said.

She has deleted many of e-mail messages with personal details.

But despite her efforts, more than a year after the incident she still feels its effect on her life.

She tried opening an account two weeks ago with Wells Fargo. She was told that she already had an account.

When a credit account check was done, she was told that she also had another account with Bank of America which was closed because it was a fraudulent account.

One message that Symantec shared was that criminals in cyberspace are business-smart operators with bogus websites that smack of professional design.

Their motivation remains greed – to steal or to dupe others into parting with their money. But the crime does take not place in dark alleys.

And the weapons are not knives or guns.

Crime happens in cyberspace. And hacker tools can be purchased on online black markets much like items in a supermarket.

You have been warned.

Look before you click.

Today, that 48MB is not even two per cent of a 4GB SD card that camera retailers will throw in without hesitation to sweeten a deal. Memory cards have rapidly increased capacity. You can carry around about 60 hours of DVD quality video in a postage stamp-sized 32GB SD card that weighs but 2g.

Mini versions of storage chips are also available, like the tiny cousin of the SD card — the microSD — used in mobile phones. These pinkie nail-sized cards which are but a tenth of the volume of an SD card have the potential to be used in a compact camera or camcorder, shaving off some weight and bulk.

But humongous capacity is the story in the world of memory.

Memory hoggers like videographers and professional photographers will love the new breed of SDXC (eXtended Capacity) cards — a new SD card standard announced last January — which are already appearing on the market, like the 64GB SDXC card from SanDisk.

You can order it  online for now from shop.sandisk.com for US$355.99 ($502) plus shipping. The card is only shipped to addresses in the United States, unfortunately, so be prepared to fork out a few  dollars more to an online concierge service like Comgateway or vPost to be among the first to own the card here.

SDXC and microSDXC cards can, in theory, be designed to store as much as 2TB of data — that’s 100 Blu-ray movies on a whisper-light card weighing just 0.5g. 2TB is the capacity of the largest 3.5-inch hard disk drive — the type used in desktops — you can buy today.

The venerable Compact Flash launched in 1994 is not standing still either. Just this Monday, the CompactFlash Association announced a new standard — the CF5.0 — which ups the maximum capacity of the CF card to 144 petabytes (1PB equals 1,000TB).

According to Kevin Kelly in an article from tech magazine Wired that was quoted in a May 14, 2006, New York Times story, one would need 50PB of memory to store  the "entire works of humankind, from the beginning of recorded history, in all languages". The new CF5.0 CompactFlash will do this with room to spare.

But don't get excited by all the memory mumbo jumbo. It will be years  before you see a card that reaches even 1PB.  The 144PB is but a goal.

With the largest CF card now  only able to store 64GB, technology still has a long way to go.

Let’s zoom in on a camera’s zoom range.

That’s the ability of the lens to capture the bevy of long-legged beauties – the winged variety – at Jurong Bird Park’s Flamingo Lake. That’s the wide-angle bit.

And then lens changes character to zoom in on just a single bird. That’s the telephoto bit. And the one that seems to excite buyers.

The greater the difference, the bigger the zoom number.

3x zoom is standard for compacts.

But we are seeing more 5x models which retain the svelteness of their lesser endowed cousins.

Now, 10x and even 12x zooms can be found in cameras that look just like your usual compact – just a tad bigger and heavier.

Read about these pocket wonders in this week’s issue of Digital Life (Jan 13).

But of course not all zooms are created equal: The same zoom number may describe two different beasts.

The camera manufacturer starts the measurement of the camera lens at its widest.

Say, 28mm. 10 times of that – a 10x zoom – would mean 280mm.

But what if the lens on another snapper starts with 24mm?

A 10x zoom would mean that the camera has a top telephoto length of 240mm.

Yup, that’s a 4mm difference at the wide end and 40mm at the another side.

And both are 10x zooms.

What does it all mean?

The zoom number just gives an easy handle on the magnification power of the camera.

For the real deal, do a little research to find out the 35mm equivalent focal lengths of lenses on the cameras you are seeing.

The manufacturer’s website should list these numbers.

The 35mm bit converts the actual focal lengths into numbers that can be compared across different camera types.

So a 35mm equivalent of 28mm on a skinny compact or prosumer or DSLR would mean the same thing.

Then, choose the one with the wider (smaller number) angle. Compacts usually have wide angles of 35mm to 38mm.

Usually,

28mm is great. But 25mm or 24mm are even better.

Why bother?

At the wide-angle end, every millimetre counts.

A wider angle will let you frame in a couple more faces into a group shot without needing to take a few steps back.

Less need to holler, "Squeeze in some more!"

Or, effortlessly capture more of Niagara Falls then the hapless chap beside you who is trying to lean as far back on the railing as he can.

Unless of course you are a birdwatcher. Then, you want all the telephoto power you can muster to zero in on your subject.

In which case, the current record holder is a 26x ultrazoom from Olympus with a stunning 676mm (35mm equivalent of course) top end.

Know what you want and then zoom in to buy.

I DON'T get people who leave their Bluetooth headset in their ear.

Leaving something unnatural like a BlueAnt, Discovery or Jawbone (all headset names) sticking out from your ear all day long is just plain wrong to me.

It takes but a few seconds to shove the headset in your ear when a call does come in.

Why walk around half deaf? The headset is like an ear plug.

Or, is it about keeping the radiation from the phone away from your head? So, leave the phone in the pocket. Better to irradiate your potential progeny than your noble noggin, right?

Surely it can’t be that you think the headset will up your coolness factor?

Take a cue from Brad Pitt.

The Inglourious Basterd appeared on the cover of August issue of the tech mag Wired wearing a Bluetooth headset.

This is a man that looks incandescent with a banana peel on his head.

Get this – even His Hotness had difficulty pulling it off.

The only possible reason for allowing a headset to be stuck in your ear is when you are driving.

It's the safe, responsible thing to do.

But, frankly, to this day I find the sight of a driver sitting alone in his car carrying on an animated conversation a disturbing one. I am always afraid that I will find out that the man isn't on the phone after all.

Having said that sometimes I get caught up in a song playing on the car hifi. The sight of me in the throes of imitating Andrea Bocelli – his singing not his lack of eyesight – may cause some folks to lose their dinner.

But back to the headset herd.

If it's bling you are after – get yourself an ear stud. Or, a row of them.

The headset is great tech gear but please return it (to the pocket) after use.

One was a professional videographer. He wielded a large Sony camcorder that records to tape.

The other two were videoing with digital cameras — not camcorders. Intriguing.

One was using a Canon EOS DSLR. The other toted a pink Panasonic Lumix GH1 — both a serious camera and full high-definition (HD) camcorder despite its playful colour.

The three video guys excluded the number of cellphones that were hoisted in the air when the vows were made.

Fact: System cameras — DSLRs and devices like the Olympus Pen and Panasonic Lumix G series — capture great-looking HD videos.

So has the time come for tech writers like me to start penning an obituary for camcorders?

After all besides system cameras there are cheaper, albeit less able, alternatives.

• A spanking new digital camera can be bought for less than $200.
• A flash memory camcorder costs at least three times more.
• Camera phones and even the new iPod Nano can do it.

But I don't think the end is nigh for camcorders.

For one thing, there is video quality. If you own a HDTV, you would want videos that look good on the screen. The output of cellphones and compacts are not up to scratch. Good for YouTube but not for a HD screen.

Some DSLRs have the quality but are not as easy to use. Think of a kitchen knife and Swiss Army multi-function knife. Camcorders — especially the ones with face detection — are geared primarily for easy video shooting.

Also, camcorders are smaller than DSLRs. Because smaller sensors are used, camcorders have smaller lenses.

So a full-HD camcorder with a 10x zoom lens can fit easily into a small bag. The lens alone of equivalent range for a DSLR will be larger than that.

Because of their long shape, these gizmos are easier to hold for long periods. I love the form of a DSLR but for a long continuous shot where I need to move the camera to change the angle and subject — I would pick a camcorder every time.

DSLRs still can't do the continuous autofocusing demanded for videos as the angle and subject change. They are also noisy when focusing — that doesn't affect a photo but will be a deal-breaker in a video. Digital cameras usually record only mono sound. For stereo recording, look to a camcorder.

So a DSLR can shoot great snaps of junior's endearing grin with his missing two front teeth. It probably can also record nice HD videos of him lisping — but only if he doesn't behave like he has ants in his pants.

So if you want to preserve junior's voice and unique turns of phrases when he is at play — and at his best — pick a camcorder.

In the old days, you could tell a geek from his phone – smartphones were whoppers. The Nokia 9000 Communicator – launched in 1996 – was the height of geek chic then.

 It was blockish. like a brick, but geeks shrugged off the bulk with the patience of a saint. Used by Val Kilmer in the 1997 movie remake of The Saint, the Communicator was the symbol of tech suave (read: only the advanced had the grey matter to work it).

In contrast, today's smartphone is pretty and nifty. You can easily slip one into a shirt pocket. And as the software gets smarter, the human IQ demanded to operate it plunges.

Blame Apple. The iPhone is such a stroke of genius in simplicity that everyone has come to expect all smartphones to be as easy-peasy to use.

To the point where the industry has been galvanised into making smartphones idiotproof.

Smartphones make up for 14 per cent of global phone sales reported research firm Gartner last month. But Gartner expects the figure to more than double to 37 per cent by 2012.

The geeks aren't behind this market surge — they loathe mass market ease.

"Every darn person on the street now has an iPhone," complained Mohamad S, 34, a human resource executive who posted this comment a fortnight ago on his Facebook wall.

 Mohamad is one of the few in Singapore who owned the first iPhone — the version that did not officially make it to these shores. That mobile phone had to be hacked — or "jailbroken" to use the parlance of iPhone hackers — to be used in Singapore.

Jailbreak wrongly and the precious device which is already sans warranty is "bricked" or rendered as smart as baked clay.

But by next month, M1 and StarHub will join SingTel in offering the touchscreen gizmo. Avoiding an iPhone offer will soon be as easy as dodging a leaflet distributor at Sim Lim Square on a weekend.

"I now belong to the mass market," was Mohamad’s closing Facebook lament.

Maybe, it's time to look at smartphones with even more impressive specs but with such clunky interfaces that only the tech smart would stomach them. Even then there will be a steady stream of expletives accompanying the use of the phones.

 Sigh. It's not easy being geek.