About two weeks ago I was looking at some images taken on my “small, walkaround camera”, my original Nikon Coolpix 4500. While it performs magnificently for macro shooting, it washes out the finer details of landscape or basically anything non-macro. I’m rarely overjoyed with shots from it anymore, what with it being slower than my Digic II cameras that have spoiled me so, and that it’s got a few dead pixels that actually show up in the final images.

So I did some research and most of the point and shoot cameras I’d want are priced upwards of $500, that’s just more than I’d want to spend. I don’t need 20d quality, but I do need something that I can tuck into a pocket when walking about the city and something that if I leave it in my car and it get’s stolen, I won’t be out a lot of money. Enter the Canon Powershot A540!

It has what I’m looking for, plus a black and white mode just for kicks. I managed to get a good deal on a Sandisk 2GB SD card (never trust the Staples store, go to their online site first and check out what price they sell it there, garaunteed it’ll be cheaper online…but they pricematch). Saved $60 on that card! Downside is it takes AA batteries, but it seems to drain them quite slowly…I bought 2400Mha rechargables for it though, which seem to drain all by themselves when left out of the camera…and fast. But when they’re fresh they seem pretty good, so far.

Anyhow, we went for a walk at McCullough Lake after getting it to test it out, here’s one of the shots just to entice…