johnridley | Stuff's so cheap now...

2 months ago when I first looked, 8GB SDHC cards were $90, and I thought that was a good price. Newegg ran out. When they came back in stock at the end of January, they were $67, so I bought one. They're now $41 after a $15 rebate. For an 8G card. The cheapest 4G is $31 so 8G is a bargain right now. It's a touch slow but not enough to impact taking photos unless I shoot high res in burst mode for more than 8 shots or so.

I think part of the reason they're selling 8G cards so cheap is that people are having a hell of a time getting them to work. They figure "it's an SD card, it'll work." No, it won't. Most equipment, both cameras and readers, won't handle SDHC. Even brand new stuff on the shelves now. That's why if you read user reviews of SDHC cards, a whole lot of them read "This thing doesn't work, it's a piece of crap." when in reality, the review should read "I didn't bother checking compatibility before I bought this even though every review and product description warns to do so."

I also just got a new camera; a Canon A710IS. It's identical to the A700 I had at Berzerker last year, which SR/L/K now has. She wanted a new camera for her birthday, and I thought, if I buy her a new camera, it'll be another A700 because I happen to think that this is practically the perfect point-n-shoot. So I gave her mine, because I don't really need a camera much in the wintertime, and I figured by spring they might come out with a new model. They came out with the A710IS shortly after, which just adds a megapixel (not really needed) and image stabilization (definitely needed, especially out at 6x (210mm equivalent)).

The new camera is also something like $120 cheaper than the old one, despite being an upgrade. At well under $300, it's a steal IMHO.

And most importantly, it can handle SDHC cards. The A700 didn't, so it was limited to a 4GB card. 4G would have barely handled my weeks' shooting at berzerker last year (the total was 3.85 GB). I figure 8G allows for the extra megapixel and gives me some overhead in case we do some extended vacationing.

I think I'll get a new memory card for the SLR at some point too. I don't use the SLR all that much, but when do, I wind up taking a fair number of photos and sometimes a bit more than 1GB would make me more comfortable.

My decision of when to use the SLR over the point-n-shoot is really a matter of responsiveness. For instance, I took photos at a cub scout event on Saturday; during the ceremony, there was a lot of stuff that happened pretty fast, I wanted to be able to snap the zoom in for closeups from across the room, then out for group shots, take 5 pictures in 10 seconds while panning around to different people, and not have the camera decide that something IT wants to do is more important than taking a picture when you push the button. The SLR is perfect for that; you can move and shoot fast and the camera just becomes an extension of you in a way that a point-n-shoot never can IMHO. Also when needed, the external flash on the SLR can step up to almost anything; point-n-shoot flashes are good for 10 feet at a stretch.

The point-n-shoot is perfect in all other ways; it's small, I always have it with me, it's got a long lens reach, lots of memory, etc. Sure, there are some compromises; obviously with a tiny lens and an imaging chip measuring a few millimeters on a side, physics just demands that there must be a price paid in image noise and a few other things, but in general it takes darn good pictures. In reality the A710 electronics are pretty much as fast as the SLR for taking photos (faster in some regards) but zooming and framing are not as good as an SLR and never will be.

When I bought the SLR, point-n-shoots, honestly, sucked. At this point, if I didn't already have an SLR, I wouldn't buy one. If I did more serious photography I would, but I don't, and I don't like lugging an SLR around unless I'm there specifically to take pictures. I do get a few photos with the SLR that simply wouldn't be possible with a point-n-shoot, but not many, and I could live without them.