The final decision....

I've finally decided to buy the Canon Powershot SX200. It's small and compact, but it has a 12X zoom, and more importantly, it has full manual controls, plus aperture and shutter priority. I know it's not a perfect camera. People's main concerns seem to be the flash that pops up automatically (though I found in the shop if you cover it with your finger you can keep it from popping up.. as long as you don't move your finger) and that it has no viewfinder. But... I've probably used the viewfinder on my camera about 2 times in the 7 years I've had it... so... really I'm not concerned about that. The cover for the USB port seemed quite flimsy, but I guess that if it did fall off, it wouln't be the end of the world. The one on my camera is fairly flimsy too, but it's never given me a problem over the years....The controls, though, seem ultra easy to use when I tested it in the store, and that's my biggest concern with cameras. I don't want to be searching through menus for 5 minutes to take one shot.

I went to the Canon shop in Shincheon on Saturday. They were sold out, but I put my name down for the shipment coming in on Monday. It's going to be 468,000 won, wich is $351.00 USD today with the exchange rate. So.. basically I get the same price. I may get a memory card with it, though, which in the US, I guess you can't get for free anymore. My friend bought an IXUS while we were there, and they gave her a 4GB (!!!) memory card for free!(!!!). I'm hoping they'll do the same for me. I'll def buy an extra battery to go with the camera, since I don't want to risk running out of juice on a trip. Those cost about 47,000. I wonder if I can get that cheaper online or at Yongsan? I'm also wondering if I can get a small tripod... but that's something else I'd be better off getting in Yongsan... but... would I really use a tripod though???

Here's the CNET inital preview of the camera:



By the way, the IXUS my friend bought, while I would never buy it myself because it has very few options to play with (of if they are there, I couldn't find them, which is basically the same thing to me), actually takes some nice photos. She had it out last night and she took some amazing low light photos with no flash and they are as clear as day. I was shocked. So, if you are just looking for a point and shoot, this might be a good line to look at. I forget which model she got though. I think it's the newest one. It seemed a little pricy for what it was, and it doesn't take AA batteries, but it's another option out there.