Sunday, December 12, 2004

My new Digic

Got myself a 5 megapixel Canon A95 digital camera from Dell.com. It arrived day-before yesterday. Got a deal from a Deals2Buy link, 15% off and a $30 coupon. My other option was a Sony DSC-V1. My friend advised not to go with Sony since it uses proprietary accessories. Also, I did not like the flip-flash, right where the left hand would rest. They have corrected this in DSC-W1.

Canon got a good review from CNet. I wanted a camera that gives quality pictures, smaller is size and was not pricey.

Canon A95

I got some accessories for it.

1. Dazzle Hi-Speed Universal 8-in-1 USB Digital Media Reader/Writer (from dell.com). Cool gadget. Creates a drive in Windows Explorer. You can read and write files into the CompactFlash card just like using a floppy drive. It is easier than connecting the camera directly to the computer.
2. Lexar 512MB CompactFlash Card (from buy.com). Camera came with a Canon 32MB card. I still need the bigger one to store more images.
3. Panasonic BQ-830 Battery Charger (from Cotsco Store). A95 runs on AA batteries. Made sense to buy a charger and use rechargeable AAs. Canon's charger is pricey.
4. Centrios Executive Camera Bag (From Circuit City Store).

The camera was put to good use yesterday on our kid's first visit to a temple (Venkateswara Temple at Malibu). Here is a snap that was taken yesterday,


Malibu Temple Posted by Hello

When I was ready to post my pictures to the web, I found the size of the images was too big. It took like ages to upload one picture to Yahoo Album. Then I googled around to find how I can batch compress all the pictures. I found this interesting article about it. That helped me find this cool tool called EasyThumbnails. It asked for a folder that had the pictures and converted all of the pictures in it to a smaller size and put them in another folder. That's is all I asked for. And it is free.

4 comments:

Saheli said...

Beautiful picture of the Malibu temple. How would you rate the shutter lag of your new camera? Can you take "action shots" that are pretty instantaneous and well focused?

Ganesh said...

I have not tested advanced options. But I think this review at CNet should answer question.

It says, "Though it performs respectably, the last-generation Digic chip in the A95 struggles to hold its own compared to better-optimized competitors. In most cases, we were able to grab the first shot in a little more than 3 seconds from power-on. Shot-to-shot times ranged between 2 to 3 seconds, the latter with flash, with shutter lag averaging around 1 second. Two continuous-shooting modes let us snap up to 14 pictures at a rate of about 1.5fps; go into Fast mode, and you'll get a continuous, unlimited capture at 2.2fps."

Ganesh said...

Saheli,

It has been close to a month since I purchased my digic. I can answer your question now. It has been difficult to take instantaneous shots with this camera. My kid similes at times. I almost always miss catching the smile. Camera takes a couple of seconds before it actually takes the picture.

Anonymous said...

Nice page, lots of information and resources,
Nice pic of the temple, A95 is nice camera.
Few other deal sites
http://www.edeals.com
http://www.dealsofamerica.com
Also heard about others but I visit these three 

Posted by subu