What with all the blogging I’ve been doing recently, and posting photos and icons with every post, and recently buying a headset mic for doing podcasts and just generally gearing up, I figured it was about time I bought a half-decent camera.
I’ve been shooting so far with a Sharp 910 camera phone. For a phone, it’s a pretty good camera. 4x optical zoom, 5 mega pixel. But because it’s so compact, the lens is tiny and junk, little light gets in, and it performs abysmally in anything less than bright day-light.
Recently my buddy Canadian Mike got married (post on Japanese wedding ceremony coming soon!), but I felt too embarrassed by my crappy camera phone to pull it out and take many photos. Then at the more relaxed after-party, of course there were many photos I wanted to take, but I knew the Sharp couldn’t handle the light conditions.
So, I present to you my new Canon Powershot A650 IS!
Choosing new tech gear is always a challenge, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. So, I bought my trusty tech savante Jason along with me to advise. I knew I wanted something in the 30-40,000 yen range (150-200 pounds), because I understand that you pay for quality, and that’s what it costs to get out of the really compact cameras. Of course, I already have a very compact camera- the Sharp.
So we looked at several. The A650 stood out for its weight (300ish grams), high pixel count(12 mega pixel), Canon’s good name (lots of cool focussing tech), a x6 optical zoom, a nice overall design (two-tone, good grip), and a super-handy flip-out viewer:
The viewer rotates round so I can hold the camera above or below normal eye level, and angle the viewer so I can still see the shot. Plus it really plays into my love of anything that can transform. Like pants with zips at the knee that can transform between full-length pants and shorts. Awesome.
So- expect a bump in image quality around here. Plus (gulp) film! I’ve no knowledge of how to edit film yet, but I’ll get on it, and surely will put up some footage in the next few days.
