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Friday, November 20, 2015

Another One Bites the Dust

I'll admit - I'm often hard on cameras. I replaced this one with a new Canon SX260 that we took to Alaska a couple years ago. The Canon lasted a year so I rolled back to this one. I bought a FujiFilm X-S1 that I took on the Grand Canyon trip and other river trips, but I took this old lightweight
Olympus as well.

It started out as a waterproof camera - until the LCD cracked. The crack didn't affect it's pictures and I quit rolling my kayaks several years ago, so this one would often end up in my pocket on hikes or on the water. Unfortunately, it died recently after seven years or so of hard service. I'm pretty sure if I look on the shelf at home I'll find one more predecessor that also bit the dust.

With a Black Canyon trip in the near future, I had to make a quick choice. The forecast was for lots of wind so I didn't want to fuss with the X-S1 and its large waterproof Pelican Case. While I haven't had good luck with Canon cameras (n=1), I really like the pictures I see coming from them. There was a Fry's Electronics about a mile from where we were staying in Vegas, so shopping was easy. My new Elph 160 isn't waterproof, but then neither was the Olympus for the past three years.

20 Megapixels, 8x zoom, and small enough to fall out of a shirt pocket. Seems like lots of value for just over $100. We'll see how it likes PFD pockets, pants pockets, shirt pockets, and my geocaching fanny pack.

(I considered the Elph 170 because I liked the blue color, but apparently others did too - they didn't have any more in stock.)

6 comments:

  1. I have an older model of that camera. Been used and abused, but still takes good pics except for some artifacts showing up on maximum zoom. Always liked Canon. Bet you will too.

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    1. I'm pleased with the quality/cost ratio. I seem to have lost the ability to do macros but then I haven't found an owner's manual to read yet.

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  2. We have one that's been around a few years. I hated it at first because it was not reliable...always saying that it needed new batteries...even with fresh ones. But it started behaving a year or so ago and it seems to take sharper photos than my Nikon DSLR. Good choice!

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    1. It's been living in my pocket for the past couple weeks now. At least this time I was smart enough to add a layer of screen protector film over the screen so maybe it will last longer.

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  3. Those ELPHies are good cameras. I have an older one. That's also what Mark uses. And at that price, being "waterproof" is not a deal breaker!

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    1. I'm really happy with both the size and the price. Not so sure that I'm happy with the lens quality, but it's clearly good enough for web publications.

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