The RubeTube

I've got a new camera, a Canon PowerShot A710IS. (Picture from Amazon.com, also see an in-depth review here.) This is the first digital camera I've ever bought for myself. It was heartily recommended to me by Andreé and I bought it through Andreé's officemate JC (thanks JC!) who came from Japan, where electronics are much cheaper than here in the Philippines. It set me back "only" 12,500 pesos; in most stores here, it sells for 24,500 so I definitely got a very good deal!

So far my experience with the A710IS has been absolutely fantastic... I love it! Why? Because it just works. Most of the shots I take with it turn out great straight out of the camera. Of course, some of that is my doing (hehehe) but still, this camera gives good results much more often than not. The image stabilization works like a charm and I never thought the 6x optical zoom would come in handy in so many situations. These two features make it possible to capture some shots which other cameras wouldn't be able to, like this shot below, which was taken from inside a moving vehicle. The 6x zoom helped me capture the entire scene through a tinted window which had just a small circular untinted part. The image-stabilization helped neutralize the bumps during the ride. (And it's amazing how I was able to keep the horizon straight!)


Also, I quite appreciate the A710IS' full manual controls (ISO, white balance, aperture, shutter speed, focus) since I'm trying to learn the ropes of digital photography. As an added bonus, it's still reasonably light and compact (it'll fit in your pocket) but not too small that it becomes difficult it to grip. It also runs on 2 AA batteries, so getting extra juice is never a problem.

On the minus side, like most non-DSLRs, it doesn't work too well in low-light conditions (especially indoors) but the image-stabilization helps out a bit here. It also has some trouble with high-contrast scenes, but again, this problem isn't specific to the A710IS. I also would've liked a vari-angle LCD like the A640, which can come in handy at times. But despite these shortcomings, the A710IS is a fantastic camera which really lets you just "point and shoot". If you want to look at some shots I took with my A710IS, check out my photos from our Boracay getaway (the camera arrived just two days before the trip!).

Since this was my first camera, I was very willing to burn some cash for accessories and whatnot. So I went and got myself a Sanyo Refresh Quick Charger Max (2700 mAh maximum, comes with two Sanyo 2700 mAh batteries) which I bought from Luey via TipidPC for only 1,400 pesos (thanks Luey!). I also bought an extra pair of Sanyo 2700 batteries (175 each), plus four Sanyo Eneloop batteries (99.50 each); I'll use the 2700s is my primary batteries and keep the Eneloops charged as backups. For storage, I bought a pqi 2 GB SD card (920 pesos from CD-R King) and for a case, I bought a Case Logic TBC-3 with lots of room for batteries for 580 pesos.

So all in all, I spent 15,228 pesos for the camera and extras. Still a bargain! What's next for me? A tripod!

(Addendum: Damn, maybe I should've waited for the A650 IS? 12.1 megapixels with a larger sensor than the A710, the newer DIGIC III processor with face-detection, a vari-angle, higher-resolution LCD, 6x optical zoom with image stabilization, and even a dedicated ISO button, it seems! Well worth it despite being heavier with 4 AA batteries. Oh well, such is the world of digital camera... there's a newer model every month!)

Labels: :D, A710IS, Canon, digital cameras, gadgets

Don't you just love opening packages?

Dad came home yesterday with a surprise package: a brand-new Canon Digital IXUS i Zoom. My brother bought a Canon Digital IXUS II a few years back and it worked fine for a while, until it conked out sometime two years ago. He turned it in for repairs, and I don't know why, but the good fellas at Canon decided to just totally replace it with a IXUS i Zoom. How nice of them, except that they could've done it before I went to Singapore, Seattle, and San Antonio. (I had to make do with a lousy film camera on those trips.)

Anyway, this new IXUS is pretty neat. 5 megapixels, 2.4x optical zoom, yadda yadda yadda. It has a nice "cradle" which is used for charging and connecting to a computer. They were also kind enough to provide two power cords with different plugs, except that neither of them fit in standard Philippine power outlets. Geez.

If you followed the link above to the IXUS i Zoom, you'll notice that it's dated August 22, 2005: my birthday last year. So I guess I'll be keeping this to myself as an overdue birthday present. I don't think my brother needs another digital camera anyway; he's got a PowerShot A620 anyway (we just love our Canon digital cameras, don't we?).

BTW, it's my nephew Anton's 3rd birthday today and we have a little family get-together to celebrate. What a great opportunity to try this baby out!

Labels: :D, Canon, digital cameras, gadgets, IXUS i Zoom