| A Perfect Camera for Video Slideshows |
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| Written by Day Tooley | |
| Friday, 22 February 2008 | |
 Camera envy. Lens envy. Pixel resolution envy. Now and then one or all of these wash over me when I notice other photographers doing their thing. This spring I was surrounded by Nikon and Canon digital SLR's with their interchangeable Viagra lenses in my photography class. But then, I remember why I love my $599 Canon SX1 IS camera. First of all, it has zillions of pixels (10 MP), more than I ever need. All the way up to 3648x2736. But one of the formats is 3640x2160 (widescreen 16:9 format) which matches HD television. Anybody making video these days needs to make HD format their standard. About 7000 images fit onto a 16GB SDHC memory card. By the way, 3640x2160 works out to 7.9 MP, still almost 4-times more than necessary for 1080p HDTV which is 1920x1080 (2.1 MP). Nice megapixel calculator here. Secondly, it has a "hot shoe" that accepts an external flash that can bounce light off of ceilings and walls to illuminate big areas and eliminate shadows. Third, this little camera is a compact 585 grams (20.6 ounces) and can take 1920x1080 HD Video movies with stereo sound that rivals my video camera. About 50 minutes of video fits on an 16GB SDHC memory card. Oh, there's a fourth indispensable feature. The LCD can be twisted in any direction to allow shooting from awkward positions – such as waist height or with the camera held above the head. Just what a paparazzi photo journalist needs to see things from a more creative angle. Did I mention the 20x optical zoom? That's equivalent to a 29-580 mm lens in my classmate's SLR cameras. (A Nikon 70-300mm lens costs as much as my complete Canon SX1 camera and you're still only half way to the subject!) For the more technically curious, read the review at Digital Photography Review. Nearly all of the video slideshow examples on this site between September, 2007 and June, 2009, including the video, were shot with my previous nifty Canon S1 IS camera. Take a look here. Update: After getting this camera in late June, 2009, I proceeded to drop it into Crater Lake (shallow end) in August. That was not a good thing. I sent it back to the Canon offices in Illinois for an autopsy. Totally dead. Not revivable. But I was still impressed with the choice, so bought an identical replacement ($529.95 through Amazon). Sigh! Comments (0)
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 22 July 2010 ) |
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