Camera

I bought my first camera, I guess, at about age 19.  I was in basic training at Fort Knox and bought an Instamatic to take photos.  As I recall, it was inn my foot locker and got dissolved by a bottle of spilled bug dope.  Whatever was in that bug dope ate that camera until all that was left was the metal shutter assembly and a thin film of black plastic goo on the bottom of that drawer.  The Drill Sergeant was impressed.

Fast-forward to the mid '9-s when I bought a Canon SLR, the 35mm film camera.  I loved that camera and still have it, although I have upgraded to the digital version.    I still use that camera, but it's big and bulky.  It takes great photos, but it is big and bulky.  I've taken a few really great photos with this camera, and I don't consider myself a photographer; just a picture-snapper.

That said, I got this particular camera during Christmas 2010,  Canon, and everyone else has made remarkable strides in digital photography since that time.  The old DSLR still has a place in the camera bag, but nowadays I snap more pictures with my smartphone than anything else.  It's the camera I have with me, it's lightweight, it's convenient, and it's with me.  Like anyone else's smartphone, it takes photos and video, sometimes rivaling what is possible with the big bulky DSLR.

Recently, I started looking for a dedicated camera to complement my photo assets.  The companies have made remarkable strides in the technology, and I have a sooper-seekrit project coming up next year.  I wanted a camera to document the project, and one that would take credible video without sacrificing a month's salary.  So, like most modern researchers, I went immediately to YouTube and started looking at reviews.    I knew that I wanted good photos, 1080p video and reasonable sound quality while not stretching the bank account.

I settled on this one.  The Canon Powershot ELPH 360 HS.  It is supposed to be in later this week, and I"ll charge the battery and start playing with it.  I'm looking forward to seeing how the Image Stabilization works, how good the audio quality is, and how best to transfer short video clips.  It'll give me about 10 months to learn the camera before the project kicks off.