Canon PowerShot SX 230HS front powered down - taken with my iphone camera

Amazon is not my preferred method for the purchase of camera gear, nor do I usually buy anything without trying it out first - but the story is one I’d like to share as part of this review.

These days I own a Canon Digital SLR - sadly it is too bulky and heavy for me to carry around on a daily basis.

Early in March then, I hit the net and began to research a camera that met my requirements for a second camera to take with me everywhere:

1. A small, light, digital camera with manual override
2. A camera easy to find in the depths of my handbag
3. A decent zoom range with a reasonable lens
4. As many megapixels as could be squeezed out of a little camera
5. Great performance in low light conditions
6. GPS

With unerringly impeccable judgement I read about the Canon PowerShot SX 230HS that, I only realised later, had just come off the drawing board. After harassing every camera store in Melbourne and checking out camera forums and websites - I reluctantly accepted that it would be a month or more at least before it would be available for sale in Australia.

The camera was going to be available in black (boring), pink (also boring) and blue (not as boring as the former colours - but seriously, what’s wrong with purple or green or plaid, oh well, maybe not plaid). According to the Canon website - Australia was only to get the pink and black versions and, of course, I wanted the blue.

So, I found a blue SX 230HS for pre-order on Amazon and after agonising about it for a few days - I finally ordered and paid for one - together with priority delivery from the States. Then I sat back to wait. Cue one monster earthquake with Tsunami chaser for the following day.

Inevitably, Canon was one of the many companies hard hit by the Japanese earthquake. Canon tragically lost staff and plant in the devastation. I resigned myself to an indefinite but probably lengthy delay.

I was mistaken - Canon rallied and Amazon notified me that they were expecting stock in the second week of May - yah! I was doubly delighted when on the Thursday before Easter, DHL landed in Melbourne carrying my precious little package and Australia Post finally delivered it into my waiting arms on the Wednesday after Easter.

So is worth it? You bet. Suffice to say - it fulfils my requirements and delivers many features that I didn’t expect in such a small package.

Canon PowerShot SX 230HS lens fully extended - taken with my iphone camera

2. It’s tiny so I bought it a brightly coloured sturdy padded zippered case which serves both to protect the screen and iris covering the lens and makes it immanently visible to both hand and eyes when it’s hiding in the cavern of my handbag.

3. The Canon has an impressive 14x Optical Zoom plus an additional 4X digital zoom making for an incredible film equivalent range of 28mm through to around 390mm from one small but mighty lens.

4. It is only capable of 12 megapixels (4000 X 3000 pixels) depending on which aspect ratio you choose), it’s true — but that’s still better than most compacts as well as letting me print out a A2 poster size if needed.

5. With a standard ISO sensitivity of up to 3200, it never ceases to amaze me how well it works in low light conditions. Having said that, tonight our little valley was engulfed in fog and I went out a couple of times. The pictures here were taken as the the fog was lifting. Since then I have located several other features for taking night shots - so these are taken on Auto with no further processing.

Street light after fog has started to lift

Looking towards the far side of the valley after fog has started to lift - unprocessed

6. GPS - why? You may well ask. In 1996, Thatch and I travelled overseas for the first time and while travelling and photographing (I had a beautiful Olympus 35mm film camera then and Thatch a Sony Mavica) - we lamented about not having access to GPS location data for our photographs. We were journaling daily and uploading these entries together with pictures and videos to our website. These days it’s called blogging or twitting or facebooking and everybody, their relatives and livestock do it - but back then it was unusual. The luxury of GPS would have allowed us to accurately name some of the landscape features that we visited and photographed.

15 years later and the rest of the world has finally caught up with one of the many items on our wish list. The SX 230HS GPS data is in a separate log file rather than in the EXIF file as I expected, nor does the GPS work indoors, but despite these limitations it’s possible to log my photographic journeys on Google Earth.

Screen capture of mapping function - exports to Google Earth.

Add to all that the fact that my camera is blue - need I say more? Maybe a bit more:

Pluses - light, compact, powerful. SD memory chip plugs directly into my MacBook Air or in the case of my PC, the camera attaches through a USB 2 interface cable. It records HDMI video clips of up to 30 minutes in duration. It has all manner of special effects, some useful - such as the hi speed burst mode (8.1 shots per second) and super slow motion video (120fps) and some are totally inexplicable - such as the toy camera, the miniature and the fisheye effects.

Minuses - I have noticed some lens distortion - although I’ll allow that could have been user error. The camera does not come with a printed manual. It’s a bit of a tap dance to access some of the functions - such as Macro focussing for example - you have to access the menu to set it to ensure that it works reliably otherwise if you are in Auto mode - it may or may not select it for you. Finally, and I’m certain this is the case with all point and shoot cameras, the shutter cannot be locked open for extended exposures.

Essentially it’s a camera of compromises for me - but on balance I am very happy with it. Being able to carry it in the basket of my treddlie as I explore the river valley bike paths near my home, is something I would never consider doing with my DSLR. Not surprising considering how often I’ve dropped my bike or fallen off or gotten tangled in it.

Canon PowerShot SX 230HS -back of camera detail - taken with my iphone camera

In sum, it’s the most fun I have had with a point and shoot since Thatch bought a Sony Mavica in the 90’s. I remember that some people were rather scathing about the Mavica then, but neither Thatch nor myself could understand the criticism. Certainly a few more than 2.1 mega pixels would have been useful - but it was an excellent and versatile camera nevertheless - truly the Polaroid of it’s time.

Meanwhile back to the Canon SX 230HS - the image colour balance is pretty accurate; once you set the correct white balance and the stability adjustment is just wonderful making even my increasingly wobbly picture taking acceptable.

I confess I use it often in automatic mode because the software usually does a more than adequate job and I seldom have cause to use the flash. In part that’s because it is rarely on - cupping the camera in my hand effectively holds the flash down at start up. It saves media in JPG and MOV formats. It has auto and manual focus

Just a few words about the esthetics of Canon PowerShot SX 230HS. THE 3.0 inch screen takes up most of the back of the camera. The shell of the camera is made from matte anodised aluminium I’m guessing. The finish of which has a very satisfying and sensual appeal to it. The edges are smoothly bevelled and the function buttons are unobtrusively set into the contours. It fits beautifully into a small hand and despite having little heft to it - it is easy to manipulate and keep steady unlike other digital compacts that I have owned or used.

So now for some more pictures:

Flower growing in my front yard

Maribyrnong river reflects the bank veretation

quarry face through foliage

Glass vases in afternoon light

My favourite all time digital camera was the Sony Mavica that my husband Thatch had bought quite a few years back. It was the Poloroid of it’s generation but a bloody good camera as well - but while Sony released many upgrades - they never built a Mavica that could rival an SLR. So I dabbled with digital but always returned to my first love until the print quality began to approximate film. I had also discovered that you could do so much more in the digital darkroom than I ever could in my real one.

Since taking photos without a flash has always been the golden ring for me. The canon EOS 50D came with many megapixels (suffice for a decent print size) and a sensor that could take a photo in an unlit closet. Yep, many megapixels meant that I needed a new faster bigger stronger computer to handle the processing of these megapixels. No no! Stop twisting my arm!

The canon I purchased is a brute of a thing - heavy; made more so by virtue of the dual battery pack I’ve installed. All this weight exposed a limitation. Taking a sharp picture was proving difficult except in the best of lighting conditions. What to do? I needed stability so that I could focus effectively - that much was obvious. A tripod takes up much more real estate than is sometimes practical and takes up too much time setting up when you are on the move. I have a gorilla pod (small flexible tripod) for those times when it is useful - but I scoured the net for an overall solution.

Joolsus the grey

In the end I bought a slik monopod; but it is heavy too and I often feel like Gandalf the Grey when I walk about with the chunky leg extended staff-like, topped by the mystic eye of my camera and telephoto lens. But it does work and together with the pistol grip ball head that pivots smoothly and locks securely - I have a solution that is largely successful and marvellously adaptable.

It is not the final solution though. There has to be something out there that is small, light and compact but strong and stable, perhaps like a waist mounted, shoulder supported steadycam like unit for my camera with a pistol grip and ball head that also lets me move around easily and that folds out of the way when not in use and is repositioned in milliseconds.

So that’s my wish list - anybody have any ideas?

P.S The accompanying photograph was taken with the Sony Mavica.

Illustrator has always intimidated me - but it can do so much more than I ever imagined. Thanks to all the people out there on the net whose tutorials I devoured and in turn learned many of the techniques that I used and some that I made up in the course of experimentation.

Lots of things have happened in the last 12 months, the best thing is that I am now freelancing as a designer for both web and print. This is week two and I feel as though I’m on holiday. I expect that will change as I get used to the new routine.

I’m still reorganising, sorting and weeding - clearly I have a ways to go but my expectation is that my pontifications will be regular again - or perhaps that should read - at last.

Finally this afternoon, I have selected a pastel that I did of a blue vase. The vase itself was not as wonky as mine turned out.

Blue vase - pastel

Let me know what you think of the new theme.
Jools

If anyone is interested, it is being done with mechanical pencil on cartridge.

Logging off, Jools

I managed to talk myself into the basket of one of the balloons and we even got off the ground… oh about 1 metre off the ground, but I have been smitten. I would dearly love to go on a balloon flight. Any time of the day would do me. Oh my yes.

Oops sorry, pontificating again - though seriously Christmas has lost much of the magic because of penny pinching and political correctness. You don’t hear people saying “Merry Christmas” much in shops any more in case they step on cultural toes.

Study wise this year was pretty good, I have completed my first year studies and begun some second year ones. Next year I plan on doing more drawing because I need a structured environment to make sure I actually do draw regularly. Like exercise and diet it tends to languish in favour of my present infatuation. Yes, I’ve been spending considerable time on the net (too much time some would say) looking at images, downloading tutorials and the like, not actually doing any work, but it has been fun.

I still think I am making progress, slow but steady though and I have gone from drawing stick figures to drawing reasonably respectable sketches and it gives me considerable pleasure to see the changes. I have included a copy of one of the last pieces I did for assessment for the visual literacy unit this year.

I want to start concentrating on volume and shadow - my attempts in that area so far have been less than successful - still that is why I am attending classes after all.

This year I’ve met some great people and renewed some old friendships, listened to many hours of terrific music and read some good books, drunk more cups of coffee than are good for me and have made a start to getting my cholesterol level down, conserved water and succeeded in killing some perfectly innocent plants in the process. All in all it has been a rollercoaster ride in many ways.

So until 2008, I’d like to wish my readers a very joyous and safe Christmas, a happy holiday season and a New Year full of adventure and bounty. I hope that 2008 brings us all peace, health and prosperity.

Logging off, Jools

The first is a long way from finished sketch of Jenny, one of our models. I refer you to some sketches I did of Jenny about a year ago. I like this new picture because I think it shows some progress.

What follows are some studies I did after visiting the Collingwood Children’s Farm. The sheep were really good value because they just stood and held a pose for quite long periods - as long as no-one come around with food.

My life is so full of firsts that I marvel at it all, my first ever drawing of a duck, a sheep, a pigeon. I’ve also had a go at some cows, pigs, goats and chooks - chooks are very difficult mainly because they never stay still and sheep are probably the easiest because they do, actually cows are good that way too.

I have much to write about and pictures to share - so it won’t be as long until the next post - promise.
Logging off, Jools

My phone is a Motorola Razr that I had covered in stickers and fake rhinestones. I was puzzled so she went on to ask me if I had forgotten my much decorated school books. To tell the truth I had no idea what she was talking about.

A few days later I had a flashback to a tatty two ring binder extensively scribbled over in biro. You know the kind of thing that kids do, with, I’m sad to say - lots less style. Still I now knew what my friend was alluding to. I’d like to think that I’ve come a way’s since then, but I’m not so sure.

This weekend I stripped my phone back to the bare pink titanium. My, it looked naked. The layer of protective stickers was decidedly tired. Couldn’t have that - so, what to do? I discussed the idea of getting the phone body laser etched, but Thatch only laughed. Nothing for it then but to rummage through my sticker stash (doesn’t everybody have a sticker stash?).

I had a sheet of unused silver scrolls. The idea, in defiance of my previous sffort, was to create an understated, elegant border.

What I got instead was overkill, pure and simple. Ah, talk about bleeding edge. I resisted doing the back for about 24 hours before it too succumbed to a silver surfeit.

The white blurred patch on the top left of my phone is my phone number taped there as a memory aid. Every little bit helps.

Just a side issue before I fade from the screen, I think Motorola have always had the most stylish phones. My phones have always been hand me downs.

I once had a black StarTac from my Brother In Law until it stopped working - I loved it. It was and still is my ideal phone. When the Razr came on the market with the exception of all the extras like a camera etc, I thought it a worthy successor.

I waited for a couple of years until the price came down enough to justify my buying one when I still had a mostly working Nokia that someone had discarded for the latest model.

Logging off now before they find me, Jools