I only started enjoying photography when I got my first digital camera, a Fuji FinePix S7000. Before that it was a frustrating and disappointing experience, the results of which didn't warrant the expenditure on them. Digital allowed me to take as many photographs as my batteries and memory wou Read more...

I only started enjoying photography when I got my first digital camera, a Fuji FinePix S7000. Before that it was a frustrating and disappointing experience, the results of which didn't warrant the expenditure on them. Digital allowed me to take as many photographs as my batteries and memory would allow and being able to see the results immediately answered the issues I had with photography's element of delayed gratification. Most importantly, it became an affordable hobby.

After a while I started to get frustrated with the limitations of the Fuji and so it took precious little arm twisting from my husband to convince me of the merits of having a digital SLR. There was a particular shot of a local pier that I wanted and the only way to get it without taking to sea in a boat, the cliffs between me and it being covered with red lettered "DANGER!" signs and rockfalls, was to get more zoom. Anyway, I wanted to play with lenses and pretend like I was a proper photographer.

So we got a Canon EOS 40D SLR. Very nice it is too. And I haven't even scratched the surface of what it can do yet. Never mind what other lenses I can find to play with. I honestly haven't a clue where I can go with this camera but I think it would be fun, and good for my self-discipline, to try to find out.

The only drawback I found with the Canon EOS 40D was precisely the thing that makes it feel wonderful in my hands: its weight and size. Sometimes I don't want to carry a big chunky thing around and sometimes I want to be unobtrusive. Sometimes I want to sketch instead of take on a large canvas and I find that the smaller the camera, the greater my ability to be flippant. Most importantly, there are times and places where big, expensive looking cameras scream out to be stolen. In short, I'd seen a slinky little compact digital in action. It was shiny. I wanted one. These were the ways I justified the expense to myself and Happy Birthday to me!, soon the deed was done.

Having fallen in love with the Canon EOS, we immediately turned to Canon for the compact. It is an adorable little Canon Ixus 900 Ti. We are only just bonding but I can already feel a love for it blossoming, even despite the initial irksomeness of its tiny, weeny zoom twizzler in comparison to the chunky handful of its daddy. I want a reason to play with it every day. Apart from anything else, it has a billion functions I didn't expect it to have and I feel the need to find out exactly what they are and how they work.