Ah, my new Canon Digital Elph 550 came in last night. I got her all charged up and have been running around terrorizing my children with unending flashes.

The camera is tiny, about the size of a deck of cards. I did the important stuff first, you know, set the “turn on” sound to a bird song and the shutter click is now a dog barking. I’ll get sick of that soon enough, I am sure, but it makes the kids laugh.

Many people ask me to help them pick out a digital camera. I warn them about shutter lag, the time between when you press the button to take a picture and when it actually snaps, the uselessness of digital zoom (don’t EVER use it), and the conundrum of new cameras with higher megapixel ratings yet not necessarily taking a better picture, just a bigger file.

This particular camera, however, amazes me. Turn on the camera and it is instantly ready. Press the shutter and it shoots. I did basic shots of the girls, then started playing with the white balance to get some fun ones of still life objects. The camera also does video, so I am going to have SOOOO much fun with that.

Anyway, off to play! I’ll post anything else fun I take! But watch out! This camera is so small, I plan to take it everywhere! Nothing goes undocumented!