Cuz you can clearly see what I’m capable of doing with it (click on all pics in this post for a higher resolution image).
Actually, the photo above was taken on my old HP 733 Photosmart camera. The Canon Powershot A720 IS (or perhaps the A650 IS) is the camera with which I hope to replace what has become a barely serviceable dinosaur. While we’ve been able to capture plenty of memories (and more than a few herpetological records) with it, it does have it’s drawbacks. For starters, it has 3.1 megapixels, which used to be a fair amount, but, as with all things kilo, mega, and giga, has been left in the dust. It also has only 3x optical zoom; I would like more. But the main reasons I am looking at new cameras are more related to quality issues than cutting edge features.
The picture below illustrates one of the reasons I am moving on. As you can see, the average quality of candid shots in full point and shoot mode on the HP 733 is, well, below average. This was the best of several shots, and its still only ok. By the way, this is what became of the cantelope above. Ella nearly put a hole in the countertop eating hers.
And while taking the shot above, the other two big quality problems with my current cam manifested themselves. For some reason when I take a picture, the 733 can take several seconds writing it to the memory card– occassionally it never does “take”. This can cause me no end of frustration when taking several pictures in short succession. Also, my battery ran out. This camera gets about 75 shots per set of batteries. Irritating.
This next photo was taken at my cam’s highest f-stop (smallest aperature or opening), which is 4.8, in order to get a greater depth of focus (or is it field– I still get those two mixed up). I also adjusted the white balance to compensate for the afternoon sunlight that was flooding this west-facing window.
Really, the box of crayons makes it, no?