First stop this morning is the supermarket, mainly to fill up with petrol, but also to get some supplies in for next week, I don’t really like going shopping after work, too hungry, so now it my only chance.
Then off home, it’s a pretty quiet trip, especially considering the bank holiday effect. Yesterday the motorway I use to get home had a nice 75mile traffic jam. However I manage to get away with very little in the way of jams, there were the odd one or two, mainly the M5/M6 junction, and further up where someone had had an accident and left there car in the crash barrier.
Back home and a light lunch followed by some shopping. My parents are looking for a new cordless phone for home, and I’m looking for a digital camera. More specifically a Canon Digital Ixus V. This following a few reviews, and recommendations from Bob Walder, and an ex-flatmate.
The phone was easy enough to find, however the camera was a fair bit more tricky. I tried the usual large electrical retailers, Curry, Comet, Dixons and Staples. Two had never heard of it, and the other two said it was so new they’d not had any in yet. This was interesting bearing in mind how long Mr Walder has had his.
Anyhow when I get home (small market town, no large shopping center, population roughly 8000), I try the local small photo shop. They specialise in photography, but mostly SLR cameras and the like. However I hit very lucky, and they have just the camera I want, last one in stock, same price as the other places (if they’d had any).
Back home the battery has already been charged, which saves me waiting, and off I go. Seems like a pretty decent camera to me, bloody small (almost to the point of looking like a "toy"camera, it’s almost identical size to a credit card, obviously a bit thicker though), detailed pictures, nice high res, lots of colour, some neat features too. One of which is definitely a gimmick, but cool all the same, and that’s the panoramic shot mode. The camera helps you line up a series of up to 26 shots (A-Z). Then you use a nice bit of software by Adobe, that stitches them all together. Just for entertainment, below is a panoramic of the street I grew up on, click for a bigger pic (130K). my car is the red one directly ahead, just washed, hence the wet road.

Obviously the software on the PC is the smart bit here, but the camera does a good job of helping, showing you the edge of the previous shot, so that you can line them up. Anyhow, with that and all the other stuff I’m pretty impressed.
And now, as I have some way of taking pictures, and putting them on the PC, expect a few more in this diary (provided the camera stays alive).
With the afternoon gone, I get some food, and then off to the cinema to watch planet of the apes. Entertaining, not quite how I remember the original, nice effects and all that, but still not amazing, 6/10 I reckon.
And then sleep, not easy on a hot day.

Posted by Phil on August 25, 2001 12:00 PM | Categories: Misc