Sunday, October 26, 2008

Requiem for a Canon SD200

I don't think I owned a camera before 2004 - maybe there was a 110 back in the 70s. But when digital cameras started getting small, I went out and bought the smallest, cheapest shirt-pocket Canon I could find: the SD200. It's pretty much traveled with me since then wherever I took my briefcase. I'm not a real photographer so the simplicity of a frame and a button suits me. And it's been gratifying to test the creative limits of that simplicity and to capture little pieces of those various destinations.

But lately I've begun to notice that the little guy is beginning to show the wear and tear of travel. The switches are less reliable, I have to hold it a certain way in order to upload photos, it randomly shoots video without my prompting. I will be sad when it finally gives up the ghost. But as a celebration of its workmanlike performance under stressful conditions, I'll try and stay current in posting its final works here at the end of days. It would want it that way.

Friday morning at La Défense ...















Sunday morning in Montparnasse ...

3 comments:

Zeke said...

I bought a SD100 in 2000 and used it for years. I now own a SD870, which has a wide-angle lens (well, wide for a shirt pocket camera) and image stabilization. Tough to beat those little Canon cameras, especially that old SD100. It was a tank, solid as a rock.

Scott said...

So weird... Literally, this morning I was thinking about you and your trusty SD200, and wondering if you had "traded up" yet. In my mind, I clearly pictured you contemplating its future.

Craig Bob said...

Too weird! Like Zeke, I found myself staring at the SD870 last week. But I felt so dirty afterward.