Aaron Hollman's Blog

I used to really be into photography. I was a photographer for my journalism class in high school and during my senior year, I was one of two yearbook photographers. I did everything from loading the film into canisters to taking the pictures and then to developing the 35mm film. My camera of choice then, a Pentax SLR so I really got into the manual settings for pictures.

Since that time and the development of the digital camera, I have been on a point and shoot system, using simple, digital cameras. My first digital camera was a Kodak 3.2 megapixel point and shoot that set me back close to $300 — on clearance. I thought I was getting a deal. Recently, my wife and I retired the Kodak and purchased a new one, a Canon PowerShot SX110 IS.

Right away, I loved it. The best way to describe it is as a medium range camera, somewhere between the simple point and shoots and the professional SLR cameras such as the Canon EOS Rebel. Suddenly, I had control over my manual settings once again. I immediately went out and started snapping away, adjusting settings for each shot. I was addicted to photography once again.

At any rate, here is an overview of the camera. New users will first notice that it is light weight and compact, taking up very little space. There is no internal storage on the camera but it does come with a 32 MB storage card, yes thats right 32 MEGA bytes. This card is so small that you can only fit twelve full size pictures on it, but no matter, I was going to buy a larger card anyway. I opted for an 8 GB SDHC card. This card will hold over 3300 full size images, enough to last a while. It is a standard SD card in size, but the HC (High Capacity) allows the camera to write its image data to the card at a faster rate since it is a version 2.0 of the SD card.

Some of the stuff I like:

Battery life

Very good battery life. I went through over 400 full resolution images on the set of batteries the camera came with. These usually aren’t the best batteries in the world.

10x optical zoom

I love the 10x optical zoom. This allows me to get in close on unsuspecting objects, mostly birds, and snap away getting really good shots. This, combined with the image stabilization and the continuous shooting feature, is a win-win-win for me.

Image stablization

This is not just for those with really shaky hands or who move too quickly while taking a shot, it is almost necessary with the optical zoom. While zoomed in on an object, the lense becomes more sensitive to any little motion. The image stabilization takes care of most of this.

Continous shooting

All I can say is, “Thank goodness!” I have no reservations about firing off 20, 30, or even 50 shots a pop while I am trying to get one good shot. Be warned though, this only really works well with a high shutter speed, a low ISO speed and no flash. Once the ISO speed gets above 400, don’t even bother with the continuous shooting. The flash is a continous shooting killer. It takes a few seconds for the flash to recharge so continuously shooting with the flash on shouldn’t be bothered with.

Timer feature

Mostly built for lovebird couples who want to take pictures of themselves doing stuff I don’t want to think about, this feature also has a practical use. It comes with a built in two second timer. This is a great feature I never even considered before using it the other night. If you want to take time exposure pictures, especially night shots, the two second timer eliminates the camera shake from pushing the trigger button. As a result, time exposure images come out much better than the steadiest hand on the trigger.

Multiple presets

If you have no experience with camera settings, this camera is also for you. It contains eight presets ranging from night scenes to portraits with most things you’d need in between. There are also settings that give priority to the aperture setting and the shutter speed. Perhaps the most important preset is the ‘auto’ preset. This is the Jack of all Trades setting that will be good for probably 90% of shots.

Manual settings

Greatly missing the control of the manual settings from my high school days, I was pleased to be able to adjust them once again on the PowerShot SX110. I have taken what I consider to be some great pictures with manual settings. Setting the aperture setting to its lowest level (widest opening) sets a very tight depth of field allowing you to focus on one thing but blurring out the foreground and background; it is a great effect that I greatly enjoy.

Macro setting

This has to be the best macro setting I have seen on a camera. It will focus up to the end of the lense. It is great for those REALLY close up shots.

---

Some stuff I don’t like:

Came with 32mb SD card

As I mentioned before, I wish it had come with a bigger card. I think digital cameras are so prevalent now, that people are used to clicking away and not worry about wasting film. Twelve pictures is not going to last someone very long.

No viewfinder

Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I really miss my view finder. I have a real hard time holding the camera out in front of me to take a picture instead of right up to my eye. I also have difficulty finding the subject of my pictures in the view screen when it is zoomed in. At least with a view finder, I could make an educated guess as to where the subject is.

Manual focus

Of all the manual settings I like, the manual focus has to be my least favorable. It is tedious and tiresome spinning the little select wheel and watching the pop-up focus screen trying to focus on the subject. It is also slow. Maybe a small lense focus would have been a better way for Canon to go on this model.

Camcorder feature

If I want a camcorder, I’ll buy a camcorder.

Digital zoom

Here is one of the most confusing and useless features that almost all cameras share. It is there for mainly one purpose, to sell the camera. If I want to digitally zoom in on a picture, I will use one of the many available photo organization applications out there, like iPhoto ‘09. Let me say this clearly: A digital zoom is no different than cropping an image on your computer.

Its not an SLR

‘Nuff said.

Summary and Features

I do recommend this camera to those who think they might want to get into photography as a hobby but are not sure yet or the casual user who wants to have a little more power than with a point and shoot. In fact, this is a good camera for almost every user. If you want to see some of the pictures I have taken, go to my photoblog which is at Aaron’s Photoblog. There are not very many photos there yet, but it will grow eventually.

I have not played with all the goodness or found all the great features yet, but here’s what I can sum up for basic features. If I run across something I think everyone should know about the camera, I will post it as a comment to this post.

Batteries: 2 x AA
Memory: SD or SDHC
Shutter Speed: 15 – 1/1600 seconds
Aperture: f/2.8 – f/8.0
ISO Speed: 80 – 1600
Optical Zoom: 10x
Digital Zoom: 40x (remember what I said about the digital zoom)
Cost: @$270.00 USD
And much, much more.