Digital Camera
I
used a Canon PowerShot S10 digital camera for all pictures on these web
pages. I'm extremely happy with this camera. It's small, has
lots of features, and takes good pictures.
It has a feature to help you take panorama shots. You determine which way you'll be moving the camera, set it to work that way, then start shooting pictures. It shows you part of the previous shot so that you can line up the view of the next one to match. When you download the images to your computer, software automatically puts them back together. That's the only way to get a decent shot of the Grand Canyon or Bryce Canyon. It was also kind of nice in the Redwoods.
I found that the rechargable battery was good for between 60 and 100 shots. I probably could have gotten more from one charge if I didn't use the little screen on the back and only relied on the viewfinder. I always carried a spare non-rechargable battery to use near the end of the day when the main battery ran out.
The only real problem I had with the camera was when the IBM Microdrive had over 500 pictures on it and I wanted to take a quick picture. It would take a few seconds for the camera to get ready to shoot as it determined where on the drive to store the next pictures. This helped me miss a deer in the middle of the road in Idaho. Fortunately I didn't miss many shots because of this.
Speaking of microdrives, they'll hold over 1500 pictures at 800 x 600 resolution, which is an awful lot of pictures. It's kind of nice to not have to worry about how many pictures you take or if something is worth photographing at all. I found that I deleted between 10 and 20 percent of the pictures at the end of the day because they were duplicates, blurry, or otherwise weren't worth keeping. I would also rotate any pictures that I had taken with the camera sideways. That way the image would at least have the correct date on it.
Another great feature is the ability to display current images on any television with a line-in jack. I showed off the first half of my trip five times for relatives in Utah.
You can read more about this camera by searching for S10 or Canon S10 on Google.com. It was one of these camera tests that finally convinced me that this was the right camera for me. I've taken over 2000 photos with it in the four months I've owned it and have been very happy with it.
If you have a computer with a big hard disk, like I do, a digital camera opens up a new world of photography. You can take pictures of the most trivial things without worrying that it is going to cost you money. Some things, like what my house looks like inside, my daughter's teachers at the back to school night, or the current cars that I own, will be valuable to me some day in the future when things have changed. Every time I get 650 megabytes worth of images, I burn them onto a CD for future use.
A digital camera also has the big advantage that you can find out immediately if the pictures you've taken are any good. This is especially important in low light conditions. You can also check in group shots if everyone is happy with how they look.
If you've been considering a digital camera, I would encourage you to go
ahead and get one. I'm sure glad I did.
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Copyright (c), 2001 by Scott R. Nelson
Page last updated July 16, 2001
ScottRNelson@HotMail.com