Photography



I bought my first digital camera back in 2001, not long after building my first computer, Selene. It was a Jazz (I named him Jazzy, poor thing), did 640x480 pictures (that's less than 1MP), and also doubled as a webcam, which was my main reason for buying it at the time.

A few years later I bought Maverick, my Sony FDMavica (MVC-FD100). It did a whopping 1.2MP and even did some soundless video!! I was like, wow, man, this is totally cool...

In October of 2005, my then-boyfriend, now-husband, Dale, pushed me towards getting a new camera. I ended up with a Canon PowerShot S2 IS (5MP) and named him Orion Oxide. He began having odd issues such as having a sticky zoom switch and little things like that. Then early 2007 he began telling me the batteries were dead when they weren't. It was intermittent but when Dale's Canon Rebel XT simply died on him during our vacation out west, I bought Obsidian, a Canon PowerShot S5 IS (8MP). Next step for me will be an SLR I think.


Latest Updates



20081214 2038 - Uh, Obsidian is still alive...

I just realized that my last update is severely outdated.

Obsidian did indeed experience failure last year (right around this time in fact). However, since he was under warranty, Canon was super quick in getting him repaired. He went out and returned in about a week and has worked fine since. I'm VERY happy with their service even though I'd earlier been rather ticked off that he died in the first place.

While I cannot guarantee that I'll buy another Canon camera, I am still enamoured with them and am no longer mad at them. The experience simply told me to consider other brands in earnest.


20071216 2115 - Obsidian bytes the dust

Canon is officially on my poo list. I knew I'd be considering a different brand of SLR when Dale's XT experienced its lovely little death. I did not, however, actually expect my poor Sid to up and die like he just did.

This is what I know of the Canon products I've had experience with.

*Dale*
PowerShot - blew a fuse after warranty period expired
Rebel XT - internal short circuit on battery terminals made camera inoperable (age: ~1.6 years)
Rebel XTi - purchased 6/15/07, still kicking (but for how long we wonder)

*Our friend Chet*
Began experiencing oddities with his Canon PowerShot S3 IS. They appeared to be just like the fluky power issues with my S2 earlier in the year.

*Me*
PowerShot S2 IS ("Orion Oxide" or "Oxide" for short) - at 1.5 years old, it began having intermittent issues with "low battery" shutdowns with fully charged batteries (and brand-new alkalines)
PowerShot S5 IS ("Obsidian" or "Sid" for short)- this one isn't even a year old and has already become inoperable due to aforementioned reasons. It was originally a backup to the finicky S2 but quickly became my favourite until now.

My husband and I are avid amateur photographers and expect to progress through higher end cameras as we learn and grow into our passion. We love the optics that Canon offers, and we love the quality of the photographs that can be had from Canon products. However, we are far less than happy with the longevity of the electronics within our products.

Having had problems with four of five Canon cameras and five of six products we've been exposed to, we regret to say that we are seriously thinking of seeking another brand of digital cameras to fulfill our growing needs. It is shameful that the quality of the internal electronics is so lacklustre that it will not even make it through its warranty period. One would think that if Canon can create such works of art, they'd know how to make them so they don't self-destruct under normal use.

I suppose at some point this week, I need to call Best Buy and/or Canon and see about getting the little bugger fixed. I am so disappointed my heart aches.

20071014 - Battery issues and filters

Dale tells me that his friend Chet has reported similar problems to those of my own PowerShot S2 IS: His camera tells him the batteries are dead when they are not, and consequently shuts itself down until it fixes itself. Chet has the S3, which is the successor to my S2 and the predecessor to my newest, the S5. Now I'm worried. It seems to me that Canon is screwing up their power in every way imaginable; Dale's SLR simply quit and never worked again because when the battery was inserted, its memory was rewritten to tell it it had no power left when it did indeed! So, my next camera, which will be an SLR, is NOT going to be Canon, despite my love for their quality and features otherwise. Those things are useless if the camera won't work, eh?

In other news, I do want to get into filters more. Yesterday I finally began playing with something called a "spot" filter. It's a piece of glass with a hole in the middle. Doesn't sound very fancy, but the glass is concave, which blurs everything BUT the center, and the center itself is encircled at times, depending on how far the filter is from the lens. I've placed some examples under "October 07" in case you'd like a looksie.


*20070704 - New Camera: "Obsidian" - Canon PowerShot S5 IS

Dale's camera died a week into our trip. We went to Best Buy to get him a new one, and Oxide's oddball fixing-themselves flukes kept haunting me: What if HE died? Worse, what if he died at some inopportune moment, like Dale's did out in the middle of the darned desert?! Shudder!!

Well, the clerk, Erick, heard my concerns, and also how I had been thinking of getting an SLR down the road - just not right now. So, to get the S3, upgrade now without adequate research, or take a chance on Oxide failing? In answer to this, Erick suggested buying the PowerShot S3 (since it's like Oxide and I know I like it), don't open it, and then return it in two weeks if Oxide doesn't die on me. Talk about earning a customer's respect!!

Well, Erick The Most Awesome Knowledgeable Photo Gear Ever Clerk could have sold me any camera in the store at that point. But, upon seeing just how interested I was in the PowerShot series, he told me to wait a moment as he went off to drag THIS bad boy out: The S5. It wasn't on shelves yet, having just arrived that day. He opened one and handed it to me to play with. Yeah!! He did!!

So needless to say I ended up outright buying the S5. His name is Obsidian (natural name for him considering he's all black). Personally, I swear his colours are a bit better, but I've been using an intensifier so it could just be a delayed reaction to how it's changing things. Trust me - filters are a VERY good thing on digital cameras...