Cheese!

[strange_complex]

My final Christmas present arrived today. It is a Canon PowerShot A620 Digital Camera.

When my Dad asked me what I wanted this year, I said that I wanted a digital camera, but that I wanted to get quite an upmarket one, so wasn't expecting him to pay for the whole thing. I can handle the money side of these things myself nowadays. No, what I wanted from him was his technical expertise. I told him what I wanted from my camera, and charged him with the task of identifying a suitable model.

He did some online research before I went up to Brum for Xmas, and then we spent a few hours browsing together and talking about what I wanted. The A620 is the result.

I've yet to actually put batteries in it, or anything like that, but depending on progress with the lecture I'm currently writing, I might have a little play later on tonight. I think it's safe to say that you can expect my first stumbling experiments with it to be appearing on this LJ some time soon.

Comments

[miss-next.livejournal.com]

Oh, that looks just the kind of thing I'm after, too. I'd be very interested to hear what the reaction speed of the screen is; I rejected one otherwise excellent camera (but have forgotten which it was) because the screen was too slow to react to what it was seeing, so I would never have got any action shots with it.

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Ah - I did talk about action shots with my Dad, and I said they didn't really matter to me, because I want to take pictures of a) my friends and b) buildings. Since none of my friends are Olympic athletes, proper action shots shouldn't be a major issue!

I think I remember us deciding that this camera wouldn't actually be particularly great for that sort of stuff, but I can't remember why that was. It was due to some specific technical issue, which my Dad would presumably know about, but I didn't really understand it at the time, and hence can't remember anything about it. (This is why I wanted his advice when choosing my camera!).

Anyway, if I do have any insights on the issue as I'm using this camera, I will certainly report back to you.

[miss-next.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :-)

The reason I need the speed is that I have three cats who are definitely Olympic athletes, despite the fact that all of them are approaching middle age, and I like taking photographs of them. Since it's a well-known fact that co-operation is not written into a cat's operating system, most of the time the only way to get a good photo of the little darlings is to catch them by surprise.

[megamole.livejournal.com]

This was (is) the problem with my Powershot A80.

[megamole.livejournal.com]

And if you want somewhere to put these experiments, try www.fotopic.net - lots of free space, and bofhcam helps run it. An example collection is here (http://megamole.fotopic.net/) (though I don't vouch for the quality...)

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Thanks - I've seen other people using fotopic, and it does seem pretty user-friendly, at least from a non-account-holder perspective.

And what fun to see the pics from your read-through party! Although the lamb with all the cushions somehow manages to look positively demonic...

[megamole.livejournal.com]

Bwaha!

I KNEW Rosie (the lamb) had a hidden agenda...

[angeoverhere.livejournal.com]

Word of warning: if you want to post the pictures in your LJ, then Fotopic won't let you (unless they've changed this recently). http://photobucket.com/ do, but have pretty limited storage space.

The main reason I kept the paid account after you passed it on to me is for the LJ photohosting (you can see my gallery here (http://pics.livejournal.com/angeoverhere/)). The interface is a little clunky, but it does make linking a lot easier, and you can set security levels on the pics using your friends filters.

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Ah, thanks. I have a Photobucket account, which has been fine so far, but I suspect my use of pictures will increase a lot now! However, I do also have a permanent LJ account with oodles of hosting space, so I'm thinking my best bet is to learn how to use that properly.

[bloodnok.livejournal.com]

Good choice, IMO. I'm on my second Powershot, and when I come to upgrade that will simply buy another Canon, my previous experience with them being so good.

I'll also vouch for fotopic as an independent user ;~)

Have fun with it!

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Thanks - nice to have the recommendations!

I've taken a couple of pictures now, but they're very basic. Might get some better chances tonight, which is the local goth night in Oxford.