Death and Rebirth

[ase]

Dear beloved external hard drive (late April 2007 - about now),

When I named you after Rosalind Franklin, I had no idea what I was intimating for your lifespan. Please cough up my music mixes. Now.

Sadly, A.

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Now that I have my bonus in hand, and have hit my minimum savings goals, it's hardware time. Since I can get a 1 TB external now for the same price I paid for 350 GB in 2007, the only question is: can my ancient desktop handle modern peripherals?

The other big hardware purchase is the camera. (Camera!) I'm looking at the Canon SX110is with a thoughtful eye. The breakdown:

PROS
- It's in my budget (less than or equal to $400 for camera, batteries and backup, memory storage and backup, and bag - no backup needed)

-Roughly purse-sized. (I tend toward capacious bags.)

-Manual control format.

-Awesome spinny wheel that brings Canon's detailed (cumbersome) interface up to my instant gratification speed.

-10x zoom.

-SD / SDHC card format compatible with the baby laptop's built-in six-card reader. (I am assuming SDHC backwards compatibility: please correct me if I am wrong.)

-takes AA batteries.

CONS

- NO OPTICAL VIEWFINDER. Since my reaction to n storage capacity is to stuff in n+1 items, LCDs tend to have a limited life-span, seperate bag or no.

-Does the lens threading thing mean I can't stick the camera on a microscope? There's a rumor we're getting a dissecting scope approved, and I feel a moral obligation to share the next wacky extraction sample to cross the bench.

-no CHDK for the sx110 (or its megazoom predecessor, the sx100) yet. CHDK is one of the reasons for getting on the Canon bandwagon!

- CNET says "meh". CNET likes the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H50 more. I don't, mostly because I'm not ready for 15x zoom and (especially) not ready to deal with twice the weight. I think. But the point is, CNET had (minor) reservations. ( A side by side comparison illuminates several pros and cons. The categorically appropriate compare-and-contrast would be the DSC-H50 with a slightly more upmarket Canon, such as the PowerShot S5 IS.)

The other option is to go with two cameras, a small cheap point and shoot and the DSC-H50 or even more upscale, but I mention this mostly so I can mock the stupidity it displays. Jumping back into a hobby by investing in the most expensive option possible is neither smart nor wise.

If anyone has anything to say about the SX110, now would be a really good time to weigh in.

Comments

[ase.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info. Yay new-to-you camera!