Inner Geek

I am terrible at buying electronic goods and would much rather spend money on other things (like new clothes), so as a result I'm always a million years behind everyone on the technology front. But my birthday came early this year and the Rayman has become to the rescue, saving me from a slow and painful digital camera death. As I've said before, I don't want to be mean to my old camera (an entry level Canon Powershot that the Rayman also bought me about six years ago), but I did some comparison shots, and well, the new one is just great. I decided on a Canon Powershot SX200IS. It's very compact, so it is a perfect daily/travel camera, but the great thing about it is that it has full manual controls. The 'template' settings the camera comes with will probably be ok but having the manual control is great when you want to start experimenting with effects, like deliberately underexposing, playing with blur, grain and so on.

This is the old camera, just on normal view, but with white balance set to tungsten.

New camera, from same position. On auto mode (didn't adjust white balance). The big difference is the 28mm wide angle lens.


Old camera, on maximum zoom


New camera, maximum zoom (amazing - those woman are in the photo on the far LHS. You can only just make them out in the photo before).


Old camera at closest focal setting


New camera at closest focal setting

I decided against a DSLR because I actually have a cupboard full of old cameras, including a Nikon F2 that I inherited from my dad. It is older than I am and was the professional camera in its day. One day I'm going to get it all cleaned up and start using it again. It's so heavy though so not a great camera for the handbag. I also have my eye on a Lomo LC-A (inspired by this girl) but am saving that for later.

Ok, just had to get that all out. I hope my photos look better from now on and I promise no more camera geek talk!