We had seen it before (same trip in 2005) but what with this being the middle of summer it was much greener! And also this time I had a camera with a nifty Tiltshift setting, and I went a little crazy with it what with the view and all. TINY TRAINS ARE TWEE!

Why yes; yes, I am enjoying the tilt-shift setting.

I’m still playing around with the new camera. I was right, it does eat batteries. But it only takes two, not four, so I think the lesson is just to be prepared, carry extra batteries, and always know where your charger is.

The zoom thing really confused me. It has a fabulous zoom – you can be less than half an inch away from the object. But here’s why it took me so long to figure out – the last few cameras I’ve had, you stand wherever you’re going to stand and adjust the zoom from there; with this camera, you tell it you want to zoom and it tells you where to stand. You can get close or pull back, but it adjusts automatically once it’s decided how far or close you’re standing. You can adjust how far or close from the object it thinks you are, but that took me the longest time to figure out – it’s not intuitive at all and I even had to break out the manual. I KNOW, RIGHT?! Later today I’ll play with the zoom (instead of the tiltshift, heh) and share some more photos in the next day or so.

One disappointment - I thought it had a panorama setting, like the old camera. It doesn’t. It has a “widescreen” setting, and I suppose I could line up two or three widescreen photos and mash them together in Photoshop or something; but it doesn’t have an automagic panorama like the other one. Not that I used it *all the time* but I did like it when the opportunity was there.

Initial results are happy! I can see this thing is going to to eat batteries – it only takes two where my old one took four. Fortunately they’re the same type of battery and that means twice as many rechargeables. So it should even out ultimately. I can keep a shit-ton of photos on it, so I’m not worried about being at Disney and have having to buy a new card (not that THAT’S ever happened). I love the zoom, but may need to read the manual to get help with the automagic focus which, doesn’t, really. I think I will love the zoom. If I can get it to work.

For the most part is has many of the same properties as my other Canon, the Powershot A630 that’s been developing issues. So I feel pretty comfortable with it straight out of the box, and am looking forward to learning all the new features with this one.

Here are four of the “fun” or “play” settings –

1. Miniature puppy – TILTSHIFT SETTING FOR THE WIN! Y’all may get tired of tilt-shift photos.
2. Poster puppy – I don’t think I “get” the poster setting. I may have to RTFM and see what it’s supposed to do/mean.
3. The wide blue sky – so pretty! so wide!
4. Fish-eye kitteh – far too creepy for me to use often. Or ever.

You can tilt-shift your own using TiltShift Maker.

You can tilt-shift your own using TiltShift Maker.

You can tilt-shift your own using TiltShift Maker.

You can tilt-shift your own using TiltShift Maker.

You can tilt-shift your own using TiltShift Maker.

You can tilt-shift your own using TiltShift Maker.

You can tilt-shift your own using TiltShift Maker.