A Bit Of (Photographic) Fun

I am constantly amazed at the relentless march of consumer technology. in 1996, I was using a pocket camera (an early Canon Ixus) that was using the APS film format. Something of a step down in film quality as compared to 35mm, but a great little camera. For 35mm work, I had my trusty Olympus AZ-300.

I made the move to digital in about 2000, again a Canon, this time an early Powershot. I switched back to the digital IXUS range in about 2004 with the Digital IXUS 400. That’s been our point-and-shoot camera until a few weeks ago when it was finally replaced by an IXUS 300 HS.

In just six years, the IXUS range has evolved to a point where I can now shoot HD videos as well as take photos, and the camera has a range of digital effects built-in that I find somewhat overwhelming. For example, whereas a few years back, if I had wanted to take a tilt-shift shot of our house, I would have had to invest in an expensive lens built for the purpose for my Canon SLR camera. Now, I just have to select the “miniature model” effect from the IXUS 300 HS’s menu and I turn this:

into this: