A couple of contributors wanted me to say something about the little Canon I bought in late March. So here are some notes.
There’s a lot to like about it. It’s pretty small and the fact that it runs on two ordinary AA batteries makes it lighter, and easy to refuel wherever you find yourself. Its white-balance guesswork is pretty savvy and its sharpening is understated and, to be brutally honest, the software in the camera comes close to the best I can do with Lightroom and the Pentax’s RAW files.
It’s got tons of zoom and works well one-handed and has a pretty good LCD on the back.
A few of the 150 or so pictures I’ve taken with it have been good enough for ongoing; here are a few more, of the “yank out the camera and shoot without thinking” school.
A few of the people who turned out for the Vancouver Vaisakhi parade.
Dinner with friends at Nyala African restaurant on Main Street in Vancouver.
A picture of not much in Vancouver.
Forest near Santa Cruz, California.
Downside · My only gripe is that I don’t really trust the full-automatic mode because, unlike any previous camera I’ve owned, it has auto-ISO and on interior shots tends to crank the ISO so the picture’s nice and bright but hopelessly grainy. Still, you can leave it in “Program” mode and get pretty well all the benefits of full-auto.
Summing Up · It fits in the pocket, it gets out of the way, it takes decent pictures of most things I point it at. I’ve been passionately fond of some cameras and loathed others; I don’t have any feelings to speak of about this one, but the price was fair and it does what I ask.
Comment feed for ongoing:
From: Andrew Phoenix (May 08 2007, at 06:45)
Thanks Tim! This prompted me to get an A710 IS for my partner, and she's very happy with it. Our impressions are very similar to yours - great write up.
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