I bought me a [Casio Exilim EX-Z29][casio] (lipgloss pink) to replace a four-year-old [Canon Digital Ixus 50][canon]. The Canon in turn replaced a [Fuji FinePix F40][fuji] or something.
That old Fuji was a fantastic little camera, given me by my brother and sister about eight years ago. Its great strength was getting good shots in all kinds of low-light party conditions, often without a flash, but it eventually limped along and would make a little scrunch noise when the lens cover retracted. Time for a new Canon!
The Canon was a good camera, way over my intended budget (it cost about £220 new) but I reckoned it would be worth it. However I was always disappointed with it because it couldn’t handle low-light situations without the power of a thousand suns from the flash, and I kind of like to take pics at parties without a flash going off to announce I am taking a pic. And often you want a picture with natural light; maybe it is indoors and there’s already a lot of ambient light or something, but the flipping Canon would always insist on using the flash as soon as it determined the sun had passed midday. If I disabled the flash I would usually end up with severely out-of-focus or blurred pics. Not a Fuji!
So eventually the lens on the Canon got scuffed in the bottom left corner, leaving my pics with an irritating blurry halo like I hadn’t quite finished applying the vaseline. Time for a new camera!
The Casio was on offer on Amazon for £105 (it was another £30 if you didn’t want lipgloss pink – I fancied the idea of a pink camera) and it seems good. Took a bunch of pics which have all come out well, including some where I deliberately disabled the flash. I am happier with the Casio for point-and-click duty than I ever was with the Canon.
The difference between a relatively expensive Canon and a cheap-ish Casio is automatic picture orientation. The Canon would tag portrait shots as revolved, the little Casio does not. Minor bummer.
The lipgloss pink is not too blatant, I am pleased I went for it.
[casio]: http://exilim.casio.com/products_exz29.shtml
[canon]: http://www.canon.co.uk/for_home/product_finder/cameras/digital_camera/ixus/Digital_IXUS_50/index.asp
[fuji]: http://www.fujifilm.co.uk/consumer/digital/