March, 2009

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The Go-To Camera

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
Canon SD500

Canon SD500 - click for a closer view

One of the cameras that I have been using for the last two years, and my main “carry it around in my pocket” camera is the Canon sd500.  It’s one of the smaller cameras in the digital Elph series (I believe it’s named “IXUS 700” in Europe), and has a CHDK hack available that lets you access more than just the standard powers features of the camera.

This is important – I will be doing a lot of writing about the CHDK hack.  In fact, it’s the single reason why I recommend grabbing this type of camera for the pocket.  It’s not as good as many other cameras, but for $200 you can have a near-professional camera thanks to those hacks.

Main features (which matter to me):

  • 7 megapixel
  • 37-111 mm (equivalent) lens
  • Custom white balance
  • Macro and telephoto modes
  • Selectable ISO from 50 to 400 (with decent auto detect)
  • Good battery life
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Why Chimp?

Monday, March 30th, 2009

Why am I doing this?  Really, I just want to scribble down the things I’ve learned before I forget.  That’s it.

See, I track almost 100 photography blogs.  Each one has a different focus and topic.  On any given day I have two- to three hundred posts to glance at, read through, and internalize.

That’s a lot of information.

So I read things, then forget them.  The few things that I’m really ready for sink in, but then I don’t use them and they slip out.  Writing them down helps me learn.  If it helps you, then that’s great.

Now, tracking all of these blogs has given me a bit of perspective on the concept of a block.  Some really are blogs: daily details about unimportant things.  Barely above Twitter.  Others are a bit better: more personal, very giving.  These are really more of online journals, in my mind.  A very few are extremely informative and insightful, written by experts.  These are the online magazines, far to professional to even be considered in the same country as the others.

This site is more of a journal. It will have my daily tasks, things that I’ve learned, things that interest me.  It is mostly about photography, but I will freely wander away on other topics.

Please come along for the ride.  Hopefully there will be something interesting for you.

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