A new digital camera...

My 5-year old 4-megapixel Nikon Coolpix 4300 digital camera conked off some months ago, and I was looking forward to buying a new camera. This Christmas I bought a 9-megapixel Canon camera (SX 110 IS) from J. J. Mehta at Dadar. This camera has some nice features: 10x Optical Zoom, Image Stabilization, Face detection (now a common feature in most cameras).

I would have preferred Nikon, but there were some very enticing features that made me interested in the SX110IS.

1. The 10x optical zoom seems to be non-existent in Nikon in the Rs. 16K price range
2. Like most Canon Powershot cameras, this one too uses standard pencil (AA) batteries. This is a great advantage while traveling. If the batteries are dead, a new pair can be bought at most stores (or one can keep a spare pair handy. This is better than the Nikon models, since most of them use Nikon-specific Li-Ion rechargeable cells.
3. The SX110IS can shoot video at 30 fps, which is a reasonably good resolution by video standards.

Here 's a sample from my new SX110IS: This is a cropped image (courtesy Gimp) of a stray near the building where I stay. The image is shot with the full 10x optical zoom.

PS: The dog parks itself on the top of a car probably to get a good view of all that it surveys. The 2 black lines towards the left and right are of the window grills.