The New-to-us New Camera

3681Well, we all go through transitions and one has come upon us here.

For many years now we've been lensing with a trusty little point-and-shoot job called the Canon PowerShot S100. That camera was a workhorse and never let me down ... until she did.

It's like this: The last several shots were gotten, then we stopped for reasons at the Fred Meyer Stadium store. I saw some likely snaps out the 2nd floor (I posted one taken from the crap camera of the very tablet I'm writing this on ... I have a DigiLand 1032, very low cost but punches well above its weight in just about every category of functionality except that one). What happened was the camera would power on, the lens barrel would extend and then the camera would report LENS ERROR, then power down. Many years of flawless service and then ... splat. That camera's lens barrels are now jammed out, and the camera is essentially useless now, unless we get it repaired.

Since the S100 came out in 2011, that's kind of a non-starter as well.

A good friend, Rick, bestowed upon me a camera he was no longer using; the Canon PowerShot A1200, a camera from slightly before that. Functions fine and takes great shots. Doesn't do as much but is a great bridge. We are grateful for Rick for the boon of this camera; it meant that I didn't have to cut my rate of picture-taking and, going foward, will make a fine adjunct to the range of amateur equipment we have access to.

Thank you again, Rick. A lifesaver you are.

I do still desire a camera that has functions and capabilities in the range of the S100. Calling the used tech places we love, we came up empty-handed here. However ...Stuff, that redoubtable electropawn store on SE 82nd at Otty, did have this little baby, which we have acquired:

Allow me to introduce the Canon PowerShot SX230 HS. This, as the S100 and the A1200, is a 12.1 MPx camera that supplies all the functionality that the S100 did, and  was released about 18 months before the S100 was. It doesn't do Camera Raw, but then, I never used that. One really beautiful thing about it is that it offers 14X optical zoom ... even the S100 only did 5X optical zoom. And that means something to me because I love playing with in-camera effects I can create with zoom. The more optical zoom the better ... digital zoom cuts down the image, but optical zoom gives you all the image at every level.

It also has that great intuitive Canon interface that I already know quite well. I hope to get an S100 (or its equivalent) back into the toolbox at one time. Until that time, though, this looks to have all the chops to become the workhorse I'll always have with me, as the S100 was.

And so it goes.