My first digital camera...

This is my first digital camera, modelled here by Mrs Sleepyduck.

(Before I go any further, I should make it clear that Mrs Sleepyduck is not her real name. We aren't married and even if we were, I'm sure she would keep her own name. But for current purposes, she can be Mrs Sleepyduck.)

The camera is an original Canon Digital IXUS. I bought it in March 2001. I was obviously feeling extravagant: the price was £429.99, but I got it for £365.95 after airport discount at Heathrow. You could get a Nikon D40 for that nowadays and have change left over for the flight.

Basic specs: 2.1MP, 2x zoom (35-70 equivalent), ISO100 equivalent.

It's a beautiful wee thing: all metal and built like they used to make 'em. It feels like you could drive a lorry over it and it would work afterwards.

Picture quality? Judge for yourself - this picture was taken with it. Not too shabby, I reckon :-)

There are two big problems with this camera:

Shutter lag - press the button... wait... wait... wait... click!

Battery life - quoted as 85 shots with the (tiny) LCD monitor switched on, I recall this being on the optimistic side... Not that it really made too much difference, as that would fill a (hideously expensive) 48MB CF card...

The battery doesn't hold much of a charge nowadays, but it still works :-)