Gretchen is the proud owner of her FIRST digital camera! As odd as
it may sound, I had to do most of the shopping for her. Well, it's
not like she forced me to do it; I really wanted to help her find
the right one, baby. I've been extremely happy with my
PowerShot
G2, and assumed that anything else from
Canon's lineup would be just as impressive. After reading a few
reviews, seeing some sample pictures, comparing features, and
balancing prices, she wound up purchasing the
Canon
S200. My initial impressions (as she hasn't
had much time to break it in) are positive. This thing is small! I
guess that's why they call it an Elph? The movie mode can capture
an 640×480 AVI @ 20fps (compared to my G2, which maxes out at
320×240 @ 15fps); total time seems to be vary between 3 and 10
seconds, though. While low-light scenes aren't its strongest suit,
the S200's overall “still image” quality beats the heck out of her
old analog device. [One hour film processing? What's that?!] I'll
encourage Gretchen to post the first snapshots to
her blog so you can judge
for yourself. It comes with a measly 8MB CF card, so I suggested
the 128MB upgrade (at CompUSA, where they had a $30 rebate on a
Lexar 4x). I also finally picked up that
Dazzle
6-in-1 Digital Media USB reader (with a $20
rebate, also from CompUSA). It was a good day for shopping.

As I've lamented before, I left my tripod in San Francisco
Des Moines. There have been times in the past week when I could
have used it. A quick trip to Wolf this morning rectified the
situation. I'm not an expert by any means; I settled on Tocad's
Sunpak 8001 UT. For my needs, the unit is adequate. Its controls
are not the most fluid I've ever used, but the feature set is what
ultimately sold me. There's a bubble level on the plate AND on the
apex, a lock for its legs (for less-than-full spreads), and the
rubber feet can be adjusted to reveal metal spikes. I didn't
discover the “bonus” second quick-release plate until I got home
and unpacked the box. Perhaps it's time that Gretchen and I took a
photography class? With a digital spin, of course. You're never
too old to learn something new – and if you think the opposite is
true, you're letting something else get in the way. When you get
too comfortable with your routine, you should be uncomfortable.
When curiosity doesn't kill you, life does.