{"id":4,"date":"2005-04-04T21:03:00","date_gmt":"2005-04-04T12:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2005-04-04\/4"},"modified":"2015-04-02T18:59:07","modified_gmt":"2015-04-02T09:59:07","slug":"4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2005-04-04\/4","title":{"rendered":"I Love my New Camera"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
Old S20 behind, new SD500 in\nfront<\/center><\/div>\n\n

I've taken about 12,000 digital\nphotos<\/a> in the last few years, mostly of my son<\/a>, and mostly with a 3.2\nmegapixel Canon\nPowerShot S20<\/a>. The S20 is<\/span> a fine<\/span> camera – good picture quality, small\nenough to fit in a shirt<\/span> pocket, has good battery life, and its 2,048 x\n1,536 images are large enough to easily make 8x10 enlargements.<\/p>\n\n

But the S20, and indeed all small point-n-shoot cameras I checked<\/span> a few<\/span>\nyears back, has one exceptionally annoying problem: it made my baby look\ndopey. This is because just moments prior to the flash firing, the flash\nwould fire a less<\/span>-bright pulse to help the camera judge the exposure\n(similar to the red-eye pre-flashes, but this is just one, and perhaps only\na quarter<\/span> second before the real flash where the picture is captured). The timing<\/span> was such that my son was still blinking (due to the pre-flash) when\nthe picture was taken. Compare this picture where he\nlooks half asleep<\/a> with this one taken just 14\nseconds earlier, with his grandpa<\/a>. In the former<\/span>, he's not sleepy, just\nblinking. At least<\/span> the effect this time is that he looks sleepy, not\nretarded.<\/p>\n\n

This is a problem that no one but a new<\/span> parent would notice, as no one\nbut a little<\/span> baby would blink at the pre-flash. But if you<\/span>'re that parent\nand you want non-retarded pictures of your baby, it's a\nhuge<\/strong> deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, it is with great happiness that I now<\/span> have a Canon IXY DIGITAL 600<\/a>\n(which is called the Canon\nPowerShot SD500<\/a> in America). This camera rocks<\/em>. (It's the\nsmaller of the two cameras in the pic at the top of this post; the pic was\ntaken with my wife's Panasonic D-snap AS30<\/a>\ncombo camera\/video\/ipod, which is super convenient at less than half an\ninch thick, but not so great for close-up work.)<\/p>\n\n

Here are a sample\nshot<\/a> or two<\/a>\nfrom the IXY600 \/ SD500 (which have been post-processed a bit<\/span> with\nPhotoshop, so I guess<\/span> it's not fair to use these as examples, but I like<\/span>\nthe pics and it's my blog, so shoot me).<\/p>\n\n

Some features I like:<\/p>\n\n