I just had to write about the new camera Tim bought, it is amazing and I’m very impressed to say the least. It does some amazing things.
Apart from being really small and having a great zoom it takes movies (see below), good ones at that, panoramic shots or as the manual says ‘wide shot’ (see below), it’s very small and the interface is really easy to use meaning it’s really easy to switch from movie to portrait to macro (see below). It also has a big easy to see screen, I covered it with a protective film normally used to protect IPAQ’s etc.
The other cool feature is ‘stitch’, you know how sometimes you want to take pictures of the scenery and you need three shots to fit it all in, ‘stitch’ will tell you where one shot ends and you can then match it up with the next shot to get a seamless 3 or 4 or whatever number of pictures panoramic shot, really cool!
Tim actually went onto Amazon and did a review he was so impressed with it, I’ve included his review below.
Here’s a picture taken with ‘wide shot’ from the front of our house, as you can see it includes more image side to side than a normal shot.
Here’s a scary picture of Tim’s eye taken with the macro feature (remember boys will play!!!)
and the video above was taken with just the ambient light, i.e. no extra lighting o
r external microphone which I think is pretty impressive in such a small camera. To see the real quality click on the up arrow and select HQ for high quality, see a snapshot of the ‘up arrow’ on the right but click on the one above. You may only get this option after pressing play.
Tim’s Review:
I was nervous when I started the process of trying to buy a new camera because there are so many to choose from and the rate of improvement seems almost to be almost monthly.
I picked this camera because:
It has a wide angle lens, this can make it better for taking pictures in rooms as you can get more in the picture.
It takes video, I wanted to be able to make simple videos without having to drag a larger format video camera around with me wherever I go.
It records sound along with the video as well as simply acting as a sound recorder, this lets me record conversations without the need to always take notes.
It is ultra compact, this means I can carry it everywhere I go using a belt clip so I don’t miss snaps because I didn’t want to carry a camera. I’m lazy like that.
It is manufactured by a camera company and not a computer company, the implication being that the optics are in theory better.
On using this camera I discovered:
It lived up to all the above points and is also really easy to use, point and snap or get picky about specific settings.
The video is really high quality and with the 16Gb memory card I also bought, it can in theory take up to 4 hours of video.
The battery seems to last a long time. I bought a second which I keep just in case in the case.
The picture quality is excellent, I certainly can’t fault it and the screen is remarkably bright and large.
It comes with a download cable but I bought an extra memory card which came with a USB stick so now I don’t need any cables. The camera comes with a charger that you plug the battery into directly.
Negatives:
Not much, I would have liked a jack for an external microphone although it seems to pickup the sound remarkable well without one.
There does not seem to be a wide screen Video mode, though there is for still photos.
Summary:
By the time I bought an extra battery, 16Gb memory, leather belt clip case and a table top tripod I had still spent less than $300.00. I therefore think that this camera was a great deal.
If you actually want to see what the camera looks like click here:
Here’s the other stuff he bought:
Transcend 16 GB SDHC Class 6 Flash Memory Card with Compact Card Reader
Premium Nb-5l, Nb5l Lithium Ion Replacement Battery for Canon Digital Camera
Sunpak 620-101D Tabletop Tripod with Mini Ball Head