No Paper Crafting...but...

...I did spend the day with my new camera.  I'm about halfway through the manual but got overloaded and had to take a break.  So far so good.  I did learn from my friend, Janet, who takes awesome photos that the Canon SX230 received the Gold Award as the top camera in its category (compact cameras) from dpreview.

Here are a few photos I took...untouched...
This is Isabella...trying to act like she's not interested in what I'm doing.  This photo was taken about10 feet away and zoomed in partially.  No flash...just natural lighting in my living room.

 Another shot of Isabella...here she is wondering what I'm pointing in her face.

 This was taken outside on automatic.  It's a little overexposed but was also taken during the middle of the day with the sun really high.

 This is a closeup of my laptop...you can see dirt particles on it so I think that's pretty good! LOL!

The camera does have some features like "smile detection" where it won't trip the shutter until it detects a smile.  Not exactly sure how that works yet.  My hubby and I tried it and it did take some shots of him when he was smiling but I promised him I would not post them here! LOL! 
Another feature it has is night time shots when you don't use a tripod.  It takes a succession of 3 shots and then merges them to get the best possible photo.  Don't ask me how it knows what the best possible photo is but this one was taken in that mode and I thought was sort of nice... Again...no flash was used and I just held the camera in my hand.

Today is going to be one of those great days...I'm meeting up with 2 girly friends at Archiver's where we are taking a little card class.  We'll do a little shopping, a little cropping, and a little lunching...and then I'm going to my daughter's and will babysit AG and NBG tonight.  This will be the first time I have both of them by myself (well, that's not exactly true...I have stayed at the house while my daughter ran to the grocery store but this will be for the evening).  I thought it was time I did that...and I think it will be good for my daughter and son in law to have a few minutes to themselves. 

Maybe I'll get just a few more pictures! :)

Happy Crafting!!!

A New Toy!

My name is Susan and I am addicted to cameras...

There...I said it...although this is one addiction I am not really committed to curing or rehabbing!  I love cameras...I have since I was a little girl when my mom would occasionally let me use her little Kodak Instamatic with the flash cubes.  My dad had a nice Leica which was very cool but I was not allowed to touch it! LOL!  I do have that old camera of my dad's...he was quite the photographer and I inherited his love for photography. 

Anyway, I cannot walk past a display of cameras without stopping.  I have to pick up the cameras and feel them in my hands.  I am not into video cameras...they just don't do for me what a point and shoot or DSLR camera does!

I've been researching compact cameras as my trusty point in shoot is not being so trustworthy these days.  It's kind of finicky...some days it works just fine and then somedays it just doesn't seem to get a good connection with the battery.  So....I've been reading up on cameras and had it narrowed down to a few different ones.  I've read tons of reviews...looked online, in stores, etc...and decided on the Canon SX230.  Now I will admit that I pretty much ruled out other manufacturers. I've had Nikon in the past...as well as a few others but I'm really a Canon girl at heart.

Here's how it came:

I opened the box and this is what was in the carton:

...a smaller box, a camera case, a 4gb memory card, some manuals, and some cables.

Here's the camera front:

And here's the back of it:

This camera is slightly bigger than the Canon 880IS I have and would have preferred the same size but this camera has a 14x zoom.  That's huge for a small point and shoot!  And it also has manual controls which are also not quite as common on point and shoots. It also has a GPS system built in so you can pinpoint where photos were taken which may be helpful when I go to Scotland and Ireland in a few months!

I'm charging the battery...will try it out and let you know what I think!  If I don't like it...it's going back and next on my list is the Canon 4000IS.  :)  It is probably a little more similar to my old point and shoot and has gotten good reviews from Consumer Reports but I'm hoping I'll be satisfied with this one!



Happy Crafting!