Canon SX150, Lowepro Dashpoint 20 & Lowepro Apex 60

Once upon a time... Lowepro made the D-RES series of camera pouches. I had one of the smaller ones. It held every one of my AA battery pocket cameras and had plenty of internal pockets for extra batteries. With the AA cameras I had a spare set of rechargeables and a spare set of lithiums to cover the all too common loss-of-capacity-without-warning eventuality of AA rechargeables.

Then Lowepro stopped making the D-RES, and mine wore out. And Lowepro's more versatile bags with internal pockets were all focused around the ultra-compact end of the market. Canon make a great camera in the SX100-150 series, but there isn't any longer a bag that has internal pockets and fits the camera easily.

On the right there you have a Dashpoint 20, about the smallest pouch that will fit a SX1xx. But, there are no pockets except for a small elastic one for a spare memory card. So no room for spare batteries.

What else is available? Well I tried a few different things. The latest is seen on the left - the Apex 60. It's very nice, but as you can see it's a lot wider. The size of it is an embarrassment to carry on your belt compared to the camera, which will fit in the pouch two directions with lots of spare space. It is designed with the Canon GxX series in mind, which is significantly larger.

The problem with Lowepro's range is there aren't a progression of sizes. The similar Apex 20 and 30 models are nearly the same size, then there is a big jump to the Apex 60. 

Bearing in mind I am using an SX150 at the moment until I decide what should replace it, I am using the Apex 60 until I work out the answer to that question. That may well be the SX170 back in the Dashpoint 20 or something smaller, again.

SX150 again

So back to using the SX150 for the first time in 20 months and it's great to be using such a good camera again. One of the reasons I stopped using it is because I couldn't get a pouch that would hold two additional NiMH AAs as well as two lithium AAs for "emergency" backup. But I will get by for now with just the two extra NiMHs. I have just bought a 4 pack of Eneloops to make sure I have some that will give me a decent amount of charge capacity, and they can also be used in the Speedlite flash that I have for my EOS so they will not be wasted. 

Yes it is great to be using this camera with all of the features it provides and the picture quality may not be as good as some other cameras but you don't care so much about that in that sort of price range. Even with the ISO bumped to 1600 for taking photos at dusk, I am reasonably happy with the kind of photo. Noisy yes but you expect some sort of issue for getting handheld photos at 1/13 of a second in that kind of lighting, otherwise you would use a tripod. I am more concerned that some of my photos taken in low light conditions were a bit blurry. Well, the manual focus would take care of that.

One of the advantages of a lithium battery camera which I had forgotten about is a proper battery meter. When I picked up the 150 I noticed, no battery meter display. It wasn't until the unexpectedly short shooting time for what must have been a set of batteries with insufficient charge reared its head, that I remembered that on these AA battery cameras, all you will get is a flashing red "battery low" symbol and that is all. There is no battery meter whatsoever that will give you any advance warning, which is partly the reason why I used to carry a set of lithiums in addition to the spare rechargeable set with my AA battery cameras. It's one more compelling reason to push on and get the 170, or if it happens first, a successor. The 170 is now almost two years old, and it's still using the same dated Digic IV chip that the 150 had, which is becoming a focal point of independent reviewers. OK, I don't expect to see the same technology as the SX2xx at twice the price so fair enough but at some point they must be going to update the processor and maybe the sensor (CCD as compared with CMOS in a lot of modern cameras). Then again at that price point there have to be some compromises.

How to set the image number you want on a Canon camera

As we all know the Canon cameras number images sequentially and this counter can be useful to know how many images you have taken on a camera. However when you take a memory card that has been used in a different camera and put it into your camera, the counter gets reset according to the last numbered image on the card, rather than according to the last number it used when it took the previous picture.

However by following a simple procedure you can change the counter in the camera to whatever you want when you put a new card in the camera. (Note I do recommend each camera has its own cards so as to avoid these problems if you swap cards between cameras).

1. Format the new card in the camera and take a photo with it.
2. Take the card out and put it in a card reader on a computer.
3. Rename the image to the correct number e.g. IMG_xxxx.jpg
4. Change file numbering in the camera menu to auto reset
5. Put the card in the camera and take a photo. This new photo should have the correct number.
6. Change file numbering in the camera menu to continuous
7. If you need to put another card into the camera then format it in a PC before you do so, so that there are no images already on it, otherwise the problem will repeat itself.

Replacement for Ixus 135 Camera - SX170IS

Around 20 months ago, beginning of October 2013, I bought my very first Ixus, the 135 in a very fetching blue colour. The Digital Ixus series of cameras were first produced by Canon in 2000 and like some other Canon models the name was previously used on a series of film cameras. The Ixus has gained a name for itself as a solid high quality metal bodied compact camera. It was kind of inevitable though that Canon would rationalise its low-end camera ranges and the Powershot A series which was basically plastic equivalents of the Ixus, have been phased out. But instead of keeping the traditional metal body of the Ixus, the new models are now plastic and definitely aimed at the budget market. Since my 135 is now playing up, with a lot of lens errors occurring for no obvious reason, I will have to replace it soon. 

My choice of replacement will be the SX170IS, which is rather larger with a much longer 16x lens. It is a descendant of the SX150 which I have had mostly in a cupboard for the past two years. The 170's main advantage over the 150 is the switch to lithium batteries which although proprietary, make the camera smaller and easier to use and hold their charge very well. I had used AA battery Canons for so long that I was very anti anything else, but I have made the jump across to lithiums quite strongly in the last few years and now I don't want a bar of AAs at all. Both models are otherwise quite similar with the PASM exposure modes and manual focus being strong points of the design. It lets you have a fully manual capable camera at quite a good price even if its low light perfomance and burst speed, among other features, aren't super hot. 

But while I am saving up for the SX170 at around $250, I will be going back to using the SX150 for a while. It means having to carry extra AAs with the camera which is annoying but that is what will have to happen for a few weeks anyhow. Once upon a time the Powershot A series cameras were all the rage as a camera range that were all AA based but as time has gone on the use of AA batteries in these cameras has gradually diminished to the point the A series had all gone lithium about three years ago and the SX 1xx series looked a bit odd as a reversion to AA battery power. Now even this series has changed over to lithiums and there are no AA battery cameras left by Canon at all. When I got my Powershot S1 ten years ago the fact it used 4 AAs seemed almost normal but now it seems quite dated. The Fuju Finepix cameras however continue to use AA battery technology in a number of series, most notably the ultrazoom S range, with no sign of diminishing this trend in the near future. When I bought my Powershot S1, a Fujifilm S series was the main competitor, and I was pleased I forked out a bit more for the S1 as it was undoubtedly better than the Finepix which was a bit cheap and basic in its design, but quite popular amongst the more cost-conscious and less quality-discerning camera user community. I think it was the S5000 that was the equivalent model to the Powershot S1 at the time, one of its unfortunate features being the lack of a lock on the battery door that could cause it to disgorge its contents at a mere bump. Yes, I chose the more expensive Canon and have never purchased any other brand since.

So of course I will want to get switched to the SX170 as soon as I can but naturally it has to wait until I can stump up the dosh for it. But it will be good to go back to a fully manual capable camera in my belt pouch again which has only been possible in the last 10 years with the SX150 as every other camera I have carried therein has been auto-only capable. These have included the Powershot A400, A450, A460, A2000, A2300 and the Ixus. One of the reasons AA batteries have fallen out of favour in the compact camera community is their low current delivery, typically this results in quite slow flash recharge times. Another of course is the bulk which makes smaller lighter cameras harder to deliver. The Ixus range has always used proprietary batteries as well as of course the EOSs, so I have no real difficulty with that design aspect becoming more established but the batteries are relatively expensive to buy and you need to make sure you have a spare if you don't want to get caught with a flattie.