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I just realised that my digital camera is 1 year, 1 month and some days young. I forgot to celebrate its birthday so I figured I would make it up to her with some kind words here. It has served me well, my trusty Canon PowerShot A75. I would have linked it to its product specs on Canon’s site if it was still in production. Since that isn’t possible, here’s a picture instead:

Say Cheese!

Heh… I guess she isn’t very photogenic :>

I remember making the purchase a year ago. WL and I had been looking around for one for a while at that time and decided it was time. I had initially intended to get it as a birthday present for her but I suppose things don’t always turn out the way you planned. Anyway, we bought this beauty from Mutiara shop in MidValley. It was around that same time that the PowerShot A85 and PowerShot S1 came out and we were debating whether or not to get the latest model (BIG SCREEN BABY!). After some soul searching and several telephone phone calls to Yit Weng, we finally decided to go with the A75 (partly because I couldn’t really afford the price difference). Thanks YW. Never had the chance to apologise for interupting your fun at Genting Highlands.

It wasn’t long after I bought the camera that Lincoln bought his A85 (the model that I had almost bought! Rich bastard!!). And not long after that Ee Laine bought her A85 as well (Rich woman!). It was almost as if WL and I had started a trend! Soon after that Sanjiv bought his digital camera (?Sony Cybershot I think?) and a I can’t remember who else followed after that.

A colleague of mine just bought a brand spanking new IXUS 700 and another is thinking of buying the new PowerShot S2 IS. My opinion on the matter?

The IXUS is a very sweet model; all 7.0 megapixels in a sleek compact body. The only bad feature is its usage of proprietary batteries. Unlike my A75 that uses standard AA batteries that can be bought off the shelf, if I forget to charge the batteries for the IXUS the day before, I will be wishing that I had bought the extra battery pack. Trust me, it happesn. It happened to me during our trip to Bangkok. Fortunately, all I had to do was hop across the street and get a fresh set of AA batteries.

The PowerShot S2 is another cool model. Big brother of the PowerShot S1, the following are only SOME of its features:

• 12x optical zoom!
• Image stabiliser!
• Flippy screen so you can take cool pictures of yourself!!
• Stereo sound for video recording!!
• Ultra Sonic Motor (USM) - supposed to provide quick silent zooming. I just noticed that my camera was going “tek tek tek tek” when focusing to take the picture above!!!
• Some uber cool optional accessories!!!

Although not as great as a full SLR (like the one Yit Weng carries), it is as close as it gets. But enough about the pros. The downside to the S2 is that at 500+grams fully loaded, it is almost double the weight of the regular PowerShot; although once again, not as heavy as an SLR. I suppose at the end of the day, its always a trade off.

Placing the IXUS 700 and PowerShot S2 IS side by side and you’ll be looking at two different ends of the scale (SLRs aside). One is a sleek, beautiful, fully automatic point and click camera while the other is big and bulky but gives you almost full control of the camera and packed to the brim with features. As a matter of personal taste, I prefer the S2 over the IXUS.

So, where then does my humble camera stand on the scale? Well, lets just say that 1 year down the road, I have no regrets with my investment. It has accompanied me to the top of Mount Kinabalu, documented my ride through the rapids of Padas River, almost drowned in Tasik Kenyir and yet, through it all, the protective sticker covering the screen is still on! I rox or what? Either that or I’m not using the camera enough.

Happy belated birthday!