Pipe dream camera shopping

August 18, 2007 | In Technology | No Comments

A few years ago my parents bought me a nice HP digital camera. For its time, the camera served up a good deal of features (including a 3 mega pixel offering) but the camera is starting to become pretty long in the tooth. First off the battery life of the camera is horrible. The camera eats through the AA rechargeable like I go through a can of Mountain Dew. Not good. It also has a rather small display mode and a few other features that are making the camera feel out of place.

While I still like the camera, my experience in photography has excelled over the last few years. From taking a photography course to taking photos on a daily basis, the need for a better camera has finally started to come forward. With some planned travel in the near future, and a yearning for more personal photography, I’ve decided I’m in the market for a new camera.

I’ve been thinking about my needs and have come up with the short list of the three cameras that are floating my boat – from the reasonable to the pipe dream.

• Canon PowerShot A550 – This small compact 7.1 megapixel meets a lot of my needs. It’s a camera that would be easy to take with me anywhere I need to go and with a price tag that puts it within my reach. At around $150, this is probably the camera I should go with.
• Canon G7 – This is a camera I use every day at work. I love the thing. It’s feature packed, small, powerful and a joy to use. The price tag however starts to reach the higher end of point and shoot cameras at around $400.
• Canon EOS Digital Rebel – This is the ultimate camera in my eyes. A digital SLR that would allow for swapped out lenses. The camera would allow my creativity to flourish – but at the same time isn’t really made for every day shots that I’m really interested in.

One thing you might notice, I have a bit of a Canon bias. I think most photographers will tell you there are two options to consider – Canon or Nikon. I’m not a fan of the Nikon line at all. I’ve had a lot of trouble with their D1 line and just prefer the Canon line.

All this is really pointless as I can’t really afford to go for a new camera now. I might however in the near future revisit this line of thinking. I’ll keep you posted. And I’m leaning towards the A550. See what that camera can do for yourself.