Hmm, what next. Oh; the camera.

We took the camera in to a local shop to consult with someone about the popped-off lens, and were told that it would cost as much to fix it as to buy a new camera. When I expressed incredulity because the rest of the camera is fine, the clerk said apologetically that the lens was the most expensive part of a camera, and we’d need a new one. It was going to cost us somewhere in the range of $150 to $180, as well as losing our camera for six to eight weeks.

At this time of year? No thanks. So I did my homework and read reviews until I was cross-eyed, and bought a Canon A430 4.0mpx Powershot. It takes lovely pictures, and the lag time between shots is minimal, as all the reviews said — so long as you’re not using the flash. If the flash is being used (which, let’s face it, is most of the time for me because I do a lot of indoor photography and it’s December, for heaven’s sake, which means there’s next to no light anyway), depending on the ambient light it can take up to 15 seconds to recharge. I’m wondering if this has something to do with the level of the rechargeable batteries that I put in the camera, so I’ll be experimenting with other batteries over the next little while to see if that affects the wait time as the troubleshooting section of the manual said that low battery power can slow the flash down.

A marvellous redeeming feature, however, is the continuous shooting option. When set to this function, the camera will take pictures about every half-second for as long as you hold down the shutter (or until you run out of room on your memory card). (The flash still needs to recharge though, damn it.) And the focusing half-step before pressing the shutter down completely is great too.

Overall, I’m very pleased with it. It’s got a lot of terrific settings and modes, equivalent to or greater than our Olympus camera had. In lag time between when the shutter is pressed and the picture taken, it’s faster than the other camera in capturing a moment; but the other camera was quicker at recharging the flash and being ready to take a second photo. Win some, lose some. December light isn’t exactly ideal for photography anyway, so that can only get better.