A couple of months ago I decided that I needed a small compact camera that I could use instead of my Canon 350D when travelling. I occasionally go to see my friend in Northern Ireland and usually fly there. Taking the 350D is a minor chore because I usually take my laptop as an entertainment centre. This means that I dont have much space for the camera and usually end up leaving it behind.
So I decided that I needed a specification for this camera. But before you can specify anything you need to know what you actually want to use it for. This turned out to be harder than just saying taking pictures :)
My uses (yep there was more than just one use for this camera) are:
General holiday snaps Photographing airport buildings macro photography would be nice if I could include it
Now general holiday snaps are taken usually in the day time but occasionally at night so a low light/high ISO would be useful and flash.
Photographing airport buildings is actually quite difficult when you want to use the photograph as a base for textures in flight simulator models. The problem is that you cant always get close to the building in question as its at the far side of the airfield and your not allowed to go there. So a long telephoto lens is a useful inclusion.
For macro photography you could do with being able to get closer to the action. So a macro focus capability is ueseful and the closer the better in my book (Shadows aside)
I also thought about user interfaces to some extent but wasnt put off with the possibility of learning a different one to the Canons.
Notice price hasnt reared its ugly head yet? All this has to come at a price so I conveniently ignored it!
I started looking for telephoto coverage because I wanted a "Long" lense. This quickly weeded out the chaff so to speak.
I quickly narrowed it down to one of the Panasonic Lumix ranges then started looking at reviews. I was hooked almost on the Lumix DZ5, it even boasted video at 720p (High definition - which is what I shoot weddings at with my BIG camcorder) even the demo videos looked tempting. However I wasnt hooked on the price £450 or thereabouts - This was a little bit of shock. I got over it and started looking for a supplier, preferably local as I was getting close to needing it for a trip.
Not a single one in stock locally - oh hum. Then I noticed the Canon Powershot. 100IS. Its reviews were good - The lens has an incredible 44 - 440mm optical zoom range with a 4x digital extender taking it to 1760mm!!! It needs the image stabelizer built in.
I could also get it locally - Its price in Currys £229, and I had a voucher for £50 to spend there so it cost me £179 - Wonderful !! Price mattered in the end.
The two images below were at full zoom hand held with the image stabalizer on. The one with the water is of Hesham power station taken from Fleetwood beach across Morcambe bay in a gale!!
The second is of the white church, Lytham, taken from the far end of Fairhaven lake.
