Every new day might bring a terrific halo display, showing many halos, parhelia and arcs in the sky. Make sure both cameras are loaded with film all the time, and you have a few new rolls of 36 exposures each ready. Both the manual and the compact camera should have the Bulb setting 'B' for manual shutter control. This is handy in case you have to photograph a halo around the moon, in which case you may need to expose the photo about 10 seconds or so. Do not buy an APS compact camera, but a 35mm camera.
Camera lenses Choose a compact camera with a good quality lens on it.
Fixed-size lenses are better than zoomlenses, however, some subjects may be very tiny if photographed with a wide angle lens, and the film granulariry will actually cause the photo to be less quality than the same photo if taken with a zoom lens zoomed in to the subject. For the manual camera, you should have a wide variety of lenses available. Do not use zoomlenses with the manual camera, as the camera system is composed of a body and separate lenses, anyway. Necessary for capturing a halo display with all arcs appearing on the same photo. This is useful for analysis of the photos later on.