Test Shots and a Day Early.

I woke up, and saw that the UPS tracking page showed it as out for delivery a day early. It arrived at 3PM ish. Well, after a first days shooting (or half of a day), I’ve got some results. You can see them here. Be warned, they’re 3-5MB. But the included lens is an 18-55MM, and the wide angle side of it isn’t bad with f/3.5, but the zoom part is a slow f/5.6, and isn’t good for much than bright day. I haven’t noticed much noise going as high as ISO 800, which is a major plus (especially when compared to the lens that came with it). The built in flash is quite good as well, I almost blinded myself. The AF (even with a non-USM lens) is quite accurate and snappy. And I can continue to take pictures in single shot mode as fast as I can press the shutter (thanks to my fast memory card). Burst mode is also fast and I can get about 20 shots in rapid succesion before starting to see a slowdown. However, if I wanted to shoot RAW+JPEG, I’d need the Extreme III CF card (Twice the Read/Write Rate as the Ultra II, which is what I have). Battery life is average, with only a 700mAh battery (my old Powershot s230 has a 840mAh) lasted about 600 pictures. I do plan on getting a 900mAh secondary battery though, at least they recharge rather quickly (about 60 minutes). Overall, I’m impressed, and I’m sure the quality of the shots will go up as I get more used to this camera. But I definitly need that 70-200mm f/4L lens for zoom (and the fact it’s faster than the stock one). The camera’s name is ‘Artemis’ by the way, from the Greek Goddess of the Hunt. I’m still hunting for a name for the 18-55 f/3.5-f/5.6 lens, let me know if you have any suggestions.