I broke down and placed the order for the Canon SX1IS from Newegg. I originally placed it with Amazon, but it was going to take them 4 weeks (!) to ship it, so I opted to pay $10 in shipping to get it sooner. I also purchased some after-market additions from Lensmate; specifically a 58mm filter adapter and a better lens cap. I’ll be experimenting with a polarized lens for some outdoor shots. I’m really looking forward to using it on our upcoming vacations – and the size of it looks very manageable for Mary Lou too.

I also snagged a couple of Digital Photography books from Amazon (those did ship in a reasonable time), and am hoping to get a few tips to squeeze some extra performance.

So… hopefully we’ll be posting some cool shots soon!

dpreview.com Canon SX1IS review

Digital Photography Reviews (dpreview.com – a very good site) posted a review of the Canon SX1IS. While they didn’t pan it, some of the issues they spotted have certainly given me pause in my intent to purchase one from Amazon as soon as it’s released. I’m not a big fan of Nikon offering in this space (the P90). The Pentax Optio X70 looks promising, but there’s very little published on it yet, and while it’s sure to be less expensive ($400 instead of $600), I’m not sure the lack of full HD video and no swivel on the LCD display makes it a better choice. The Olympus SP-590UZ, the Kodak Z980, and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28K look about the same as the Pentax (while differing in some areas, like optical zoom, etc.), and I think I’d choose the Pentax over those, all things being equal.

The only camera that has really stuck out to me in my research is the Casio Exilim EX-FH20. The 40 fps option look pretty intriguing. The 1000 fps “movie” mode looks gimicky. It doesn’t have the flip-out and rotatable LCD, and HD-mode is limited to 720p, but the very forgiving “capture images before you even press the button” feature does look pretty cool.

All-told, I still think I’m going to get the Canon, but am mulling our other options, too.

Windows 7 update

Windows 7 Build 7068 is available as a torrent – both 32bit and 64bit versions are available. I’m downloading them both as I type. It doesn’t look like any radically new stuff has been added, but we’ll see. I’m hopeful that they’ve fixed some driver issues and added some tweaks for the taskbar.

We’ve had a Sony DSC-R1 for a few years now, and while it’s fine for my purposes, it’s much too large and complex to act as a convenient point-and-shoot for my wife. It’s also not a DSLR, so we’re stuck with the built-in lens. There are after-market options, but adding a special & expensive lens to a non-SLR just doesn’t make sense to me – and, plus, I’ve pretty much sworn off Sony for my consumer electronics. So, I’ve been in the market for two cameras for awhile: a DSLR for me, and a nice, accessible, point and shoot Digital Camera for Mary Lou. My primary reason for wanting a DSLR is to add a telephoto lens.

Several times in the past couple of years, I’ve come close to buying one or the other, but not both. I’ve toyed with the idea of buying a Canon, a Nikon, or maybe even an Olympus, but price (especially if you mix a zoom lens in), complexity, and the fact that nothing really has everything I’m looking for has stopped me from pulling the trigger. Features I’m looking for in particular include:

• Very good zoom capability – I want to be able to shoot wild-life that we occasionally run across, such as deer, birds, foxes, etc.
• Rotatable Live View – shooting kids through a viewfinder just stinks, and catching an “over the head” or “around the corner” shot is difficult without Live View.
• Image Stabilization – I’ll never buy another camera without this. Too many shots have been ruined by my inability to be incredibly still.
• Good sensor size – I know that you don’t need a huge number of megapixels to shoot a good picture, but having the ability to crop in Photoshop later on without losing any usable (printable) pixels is a big plus. I’m not a pro photographer, so being able to snag a couple of faces in a group shot and make them look like hi-res portraits in their own right is nice.
• RAW format – again, being a non-pro, I’ve messed up quite a few shots that were over- or under-exposed, and without RAW format to fall back on, I don’t think I’d have been able to salvage anything.

In any case, I think I’ve made up my mind to buy an upcoming Canon that has a decent set of features, and that may suffice for both of us: the Canon SX1IS. I’m intrigued by this model’s high-quality CMOS sensor, its inclusion of pretty much all the features I’m looking for, and some bonus features tossed in (30fps 1080p video, face detection, wireless remote control, auto Red Eye removal, i-Contrast, etc.). It looks like it’s still going to be pretty bulky ( close to 2 pounds with batteries) compared to some pocket cameras, but I suspect that that won’t be a problem due to our shooting habits. I’m not sure whether I’ll start off with ‘normal’ AA batteries, or pick up the NIMH + charger. I’ll also be going with a ‘normal’ Class 6 16GB SDHC Memory Card (hrm – maybe 2x8GB would be better for backup).

As far as I can tell, the only thing this set up doesn’t have is the ability to add lenses (but with 20x zoom, I might not need it), and Bluetooth connectivity.