Back to the land of near-90s temperatures

I'm back. It was kind of exciting: flying into town yesterday was the first time I've actually been able to recognize city landmarks from the sky as we descended. There's something about that that makes this place feel a little bit more like home.

I've completely discombobulated my circadian rhythms, though - Sunday night I slept for twelve hours. I was in bed with the light off by eleven, I think I got up once in the night to pee, and then I woke up around 7:30 am. I looked at my watch, thought, "Oh, it's way too early to get up yet," and then the next time I opened my eyes, it was eleven am. I very nearly overslept for catching my 4 pm flight! I guess I was tired.

So in contrast, last night I stayed up till 3 am. For no good reason. Well, no reason at all that I can tell, beyond online shopping (sometimes I get a little obsessive. Okay, a lot of times...). And then the cats woke me up by 8 this morning and I couldn't get back to sleep. (I think the blinds at my parents' house cut out a LOT MORE light than mine do.) So now I'm sitting around feeling pretty dopey - yesterday I had that "I've slept too much" headache all day, now I have the "I haven't slept enough" headache going on. I foresee a nap in my future.

Anyway, I do have a reason for posting, beyond telling you about my sleep patterns: I seek your advice, o internets. I am contemplating buying a new digital camera for my European travels this summer; one of the dials on my current camera is jamming, and more importantly, it's a big and heavy brick (comparatively speaking). What I'm looking for is something that a) takes decent pictures, b) is point-and-shoot (I am NOT a photographer), c) is up to date but does not need to have vast numbers of bells and whistles - just the basics, and d) most importantly, is LITTLE and LIGHT. Oh, and e) ideally, inexpensive. I don't want something so cheap that it's a piece of junk, but my standards aren't very high - most of these pictures will end up either on the internet or in Power Point slides. Any suggestions?

Comments

[turtlebella]

I am not at all up on the new digital cameras. But I will address the inexpensive part. I have (twice) bought digital cameras through amazon.com- they regularly have good sales and I have gotten what I think are good cameras (in that they do what I need them to) for very reasonable price. geez, I sound like a corporate shill. Not at all intentional!

[Philosophy Factory]

We really liked our little Nikon---it is four years old, so I'm sure their stuff has improved a lot since then. If you have a Best Buy or Circuit City nearby go and try them out. I found the most important part of being happy with a camera is the way it feels in your hands. Are the buttons small? If you want to change settings is it a major computer programming process?

If you already have a laptop and are planning to take it with you to Europe, then you don't need a huge memory card, but you'll probably need one larger than the one they'll sell you with the camera. Also make sure you get the little gizmo to read the card -- there is nothing worse than having to delete photos because you ran out of space.

I'd say figure all this stuff out and then go shopping on the internet...

[Alice]

My camera is Sony DSC-W5; I bought it last spring and it works great.

[rageyone]

I have a Cannon PowerShot SD400. I'm not sure of the cost, but it fits in my pocket and takes excellent photos. All of the shots I post on my blog are from it.

[Lisa]

I have a Cannon Powershot SD 500--buy an extra memory stick if you think of it--that's my bestest advice.

[CafeSiren]

You need to consider battery types. If "little and light" is your aim, then you are talking about a lithium battery (rather than the AA-run clunkier models). This means bringing a charger with you, and making sure that you have the correct plug adapter, if you're traveling abroad.

As far as pixel resolution, I'd recommend going for the highest that you can reasonably afford. I found out that many archives now let you snap pictures of medieval docs (w/o flash, of course), and you never know when you'll want this.

And, of course, save that receipt, b/c if it's a piece of work equipment, the cost is tax-deductable.

[CafeSiren]

Oh, and once you figure out what you want, check out ButterflyPhoto.com. Good deals there.

[Rudbeckia Hirta]

I have a Kodak EasyShare V550.

I am very happy with it. My main complaint is: wimpy battery.

[sb]

I forgot to mention that about the L1: I've taken pics of docs with it and they're always readable later :) The things I use aren't as handwriting-heavy as your stuff is (just a guess), but still.

[phd me]

I used my niece's Nikon Coolpix S1 recently and loved it - fits in your back pocket, easy to use, takes good pictures. It's hard to find the S1 model now (maybe they don't even make it anymore) but the S5 looks like a good little camera for an amateur.

[Diana]

I am all over Canons. My camera is an SD400/Elph which is the really tiny one and I love being able to fit it in a pocket and have it everywhere, because the #1 rule for good photography is to not forget your camera.

[jo(e)]

Here is the advice given to me by a photographer when I was buying my camera: "Get a Kodak Easy Share platform digital with between 3 and 4 pixels, a 4X optical zoom. Make sure it is an optical zoom, the digital zoom is a marketing gimmick. Most people think the more pixels the better but it just means slower processing time and more storage space. With 3 megapixels, you can print out a nice 8 by 10 with plenty of resolution. On the Kodak cameras, I would look for the Schneider lenses -- those are the good ones."

I bought a Kodak Easy Share CX7330 and have been pleased with it. It is small and light.

[Mel]

Canon Powershot, mine is old but still small and light. Newer ones even more so. I haven't used it in archives, though -- is that part of your plan too?

[shelly]

I'm glad you had the opportunity to make the trip to see your mother and glad that you're back home safe. (In the sweltering heat...)

[meg]

I love my Pentax Optio s4i (although now it's an s5i).
1. Smallissimo. Smaller than the Canon Powershot 400/Elph (which Special K has).
2. Great battery life, and the charger is very lightweight. I only charged it twice during our month in Spain last year, and I took about 300 photos.
3. Doesn't use the memory stick or any of those other proprietary formats (which require or at least want an external doomahicky). Just uses SD cards (I stole the one from my Treo). I never had to download photos while we were gone -- they just hung out on the SD card till we got home.
4. Super-macro mode (so it can take photos of supertiny things, including handwriting).
5. Great photos.

My one dislike is that the on/off button is right next to the shutter button, so there are some false starts and "Doh!"s when you first get the camera. But the above points are things I would look for in any camera.

[Caleb]

I just got a new digital camera and am loving it: the Canon Powershot A620. It's point-and-shoot, but probably has more "bells and whistles" than you're looking for, and it's a little heavier and bulkier than the Canon Digital ELPH models that others have recommended. It also runs on AA batteries, which does add some weight. It's worth considering, though, whether you want a camera that can't run on AAs at all: if you get stuck on a daytrip in Europe and your battery runs down, you can easily buy some replacement batteries. But if all you have is a Lithium ion battery, you'll have to wait until you can recharge it.

One website that I found very useful when doing research on cameras was the Digital Camera Resource page.

http://www.dcresource.com

[Dirk van de Broek]

Great blog i really enjoy reading it

Dirk van de Broek.