Finally, today I got my hands on a new digi cam. It's a canon SX100IS, Powershot. A phenomenal upgrade over Sony's P32 which had a resolution of mere 3.2 mega pixels, decent though back in 2004 when I paid 16,000 Rs. for that. The package included a 32mb memory stick which I traded for a 128mb module. The software cd shipped with the camera was useless and corrupted. Moreover, Sony's P32 had a decent score of 7.3 on cnet reviews at that time when I dared to spill almost one month's salary over that piece of technological advancement just one day before Basant. Additionally that camera was shipped with a handy pouch and rechargeable batteries coupled with a decent charger.
Anyhow, my new Powershot boasts a score of 7.3 on cnet and was shipped with a 16mb SD card which I failed to trade in with a 4gb class 4 SDHC card. This new camera carries 8 mega pixels in it. Things have changed quite a lot in the previous years. It has 10x optical zoom, a larger lcd, surprisingly no optical view finder (a thing of past probably), multiple face detection, capability of a lot of manual adjustments which were absent in the older machine (P32) and no pouch and no rechargeable batteries (utterly disappointing). I wonder whether if I wished for those manual adjustment options that were the basis of high score given by the gadget gurus on cnet. The software cd ver. 31.x bundled with Powershot again proved useless as a better handy alternative picassa is available free of cost.
P32 accompanied me on my first orientation trip in pipeline construction department of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines. Moreover, this gadget helped one of my friends make his Rishta Pakka when he sent one of the photos taken with it to his would be in laws as well as recorded the memorable moments of my Convocation in UET.
Powershot has yet to shine and prove its worth. I am optimistic that it would not disappoint me in demanding moments where the previous P32 failed and will be operating seamlessly in the hands to pro and casual shooters. Although, chances of screwing things up by giving this Powershot in the hands of a novice shooter are bright.
Anyway, the bottom line is that Canon Inc has filled as much juice as possible in the package, more than what people expect in the price range.