There IS a lot of luck and happenchance, and a LOT of missed / duds. The fireworks themselves don't help, with some being delayed, multiple shots which sometimes don't make good photos, and so on
You don't need a really good camera, but you DO need one than can, and that you have learned, to operate in manual mode.
1--You need some kind of tripod, period. You don't need a lot of money into one, and in fact I've found some very good ones on Craigslist at a good price
2--You need a really wide lens setting. Pointing the camera is a guess after the first few shots, and you might lose a few that are extra high or extra low.
3--You want a fairly small lens opening. Settings in a PS camera might not relate so much to a DSLR, but generally you want a fairly slow ISO -- 100 or 200, and a fairly small aperture, again in DSLR terms, F8 is probably way too wide, F11 and smaller.
4--Shutter is experimental. 1, or 2 seconds or "bulb" if the camera has that setting and if you have a way to fire it and not move it.
This is the first year I tried to cameras. I set one up at 2 seconds shutter, with the 17-55 at 17mm, and it turns out I missed a few of the high shots as the camera was aimed too low---and cut off the tops of the shot
You don't want to see too much brightness in the LCD. Even in the dark, it "looks" dark, and the exposure is not much help because of the nature of the light.
