Canon PowerShot A540

I finally got a digicam! Well, actually, got it in July last year (2006) and have been happily snapping away at whatever, whenever, whoever (mostly Matt; shown on left wearing Tatay's shoes). I'd been dreaming of owning a digital camera for the longest time! I've wanted one particulary to help document Matt's growing up. And the wonders of digital tech helps me to do just that, ad infinitum, without worrying about film costs. Limited budgets of raising a family prevented me from getting one sooner. My quick fix? Sell my mountain bike (whom I fondly call "Ruth"). Unfortunately, it's not as quick a fix as I thought (I'll write about this some other time...). Since my sis was going back to Singapore to graduate from her Master's degree in July, I decided to ask her to buy the camera for me. I hadn't sold the bike yet then, so I had to borrow the money from her, too. To date, my bike is still unsold, so I'm paying her on installment. Thank God for 13th month bonuses! =p

I researched the web on digicams for months before I settled on the Canon PowerShot A540. It had the best features that I was looking for, at a good price point. Advantages of this model are:
1. Full range of controls - full auto, program AE, aperture priority, shutter priority and full manual (!)
2. Accepts lens conversions (not that I could afford them; but it's good to have the option in case I hit the jackpot...hehe. In which case I'd be able to afford a more expensive camera with better features...)
3. Uses AA batteries
4. Good size - not too small, not too big (could be bigger for my big hands though)
5. Price! - my sis got it in Singapore for more than 20 Roxases less than prices in Manila shops, and with a bigger SD card to boot! (a 512MB Toshiba SD card). Although current prices match this now (bundled with a 256MB SD card).

At my nephew's birthday party in early Aug06, my sis dropped the camera while handing it over to me. A small plastic tab on the battery compartment cover promptly broke off. So off it went to Canon for repairs, and I wouldn't see my digicam again for another 2 months (terrible service!). And we had to pay 1.4k to replace the entire front part of the camera casing (my sis and I shared the repair cost). There goes "documenting" Matt (whose birthday was also in August).

A couple of months after I got the A540, Canon launched the A710 IS, prompting me to say the inevitable "why didn't I wait for that model?" Well, if I did it would've cost more (current price of the A710 is still the same as its Oct06 intro price of 23+K) and I would've missed out on a lot of photo ops otherwise. Not to mention the (cheaper price) Singapore connection would've been moot.

Anyhoo, here are a couple of pics from my field work in Vigan, Ilocos Sur. I was able to schedule it over the weekend so I brought along Cindy and Matt (and ate Jona). The first one is the watch tower outside Vigan City. It's nested on a hill and served as a Spaniard lookout point for possible invaders. From the top of the tower you can see the Philippine Sea to the West, which unfortunately, I wasn't able to take a picture of. The 2nd is pretty self-explanatory...


I've since gotten some necessary accessories for my digicam:
1. rechargeable batteries and a charger - Sanyo 2500mAh AA NiMHs bundled with a charger with a refresh function
2. a nice padded case - I actually wanted something that could fit my battery charger together with the digicam, but couldn't find one with the right amount and size of pockets. I finally settled with the Case Logic
3. bigger memory card - Kingston 1GB Elite Pro (high speed) SD card, which I had to scour local retailers for. Boy, I didn't know it was that hard to look for quality stuff here!

That'll be all for this first installment of G-files. I didn't expect I'd be so long-winded. Hopefully I'll be more concise in the following episodes...