Memories

Last night, I was up late as usual. I found myself looking at pictures trying to get an image that I could use for my desktop background. The current one was already about a month old. While browsing on pics, I found this picture we took about a month or two ago. This was where we bought our very first piece of property. It isn't much to look at but it represents something significant to me.

I got married seven years ago. About a year later we decided to start saving to buy a a piece of land we could call ours. It was a big decision, but make it we did. We were trying to make ends meet and we just had our first child. It was a risk to put our money in an investment that wasn't as liquid as cash in a bank. We managed to get enough to make a down payment and eked our way through the monthly payments. Difficult as it was, we made it. It was a significant achievement for me and my wife.

Four years ago, we were still renting an apartment. We didn't have any savings to build a house on the property because all our money was going to the monthly payments on the property. Luckily, we got a break. Long story short, we managed to borrow money to finish the 1st loan off and start payments on a 2nd property.

Three years ago, we moved in to our new home. This place is not so big, but it is ours. We have 6 years to go on the mortgage but we'll make it. If the way things have gone is any indication, we will make it. We have a great motivation to keep this home. This is where our 2nd child was born. This is where we have managed to build relationships with people who like us have been trying to find the perfect place to start building families. Incidentally, my wife is part of the organizing committee for this year's Halloween Trick-or-Treat. There are even more kids this year than last. My son really enjoyed dressing up last year. He had a great time. Seeing the smile on his face really makes for a great time. This year, maybe the little one could go with us. It feels good to live here.

As I scrolled over the thumbnails, I saw my life pass by in front of me (pun intended). There were many more events in between the ones I just shared, many pictures that told different stories. A lot of up's and down's. Many crying moments over a scrape on the knee, or images of the 1st blooms our orchids had. I saw a few of my son playing in the large sala of the old apartment. Pictures of us as we celebrated birthdays, anniversaries , christenings, weddings, fiestas, house blessings, holidays and what-have-you's.

As I went through them, I couldn't help but feel nostalgic, tired, proud and happy at the same time. We had come such a long way. We had a lot of help doing it . We had both good and bad, but we felt our family's love and support all the way. We have a happy life. And I will say that if I have learned anything in the past few years, happiness should really be spelled "Happyness" - without the "I" .

Time for a New Cam

Prior to last weekend's birthday party, my wife was panicking. Our trusty old Canon PowerShot A510 was showing signs of its age. We bought it from Amazon back in 2005. It had served us well in the last 4 years. A few days before the weekend it started getting flaky on us. You know how most digital cameras have a shoot and preview buttons? Well the one on our camera happens to be a slider switch that you thumb up to shoot and thumb down to check the saved pics. For some odd reason our cam would randomly switch to preview mode every now and then. So random that at times I couldn't get to shoot a single pic. It would stay at shooting mode for half a sec then go to preview. At times, I could well take 3-5 pictures before it started getting doing that again.

So the choice was to have it checked and repaired or buy a new one. I've sort of convinced my wife to approve of that, in principle. No commitment yet, but at least she has agreed to replacing it. Now comes the tough part. Being the geek that I am, I started browsing around for likely replacements.

My first stop was Canon Philippines. I wanted to stick with Canon, I really liked how they've built their cameras. Before going digital, we had an Olympus film camera. My sister-in-law had a Canon SLR. The comparison couldn't be farther. I had a chance to use it a few times, and boy was I hooked on Canon. Add to that the fact that the Powershot series has diversified over the last few years that the line already includes everything from the most basic point-and-shoots to the more advanced short-of-being-a-DSLR models.

So off I went and found three options at 3 different price points. A basic point-and-shoot for around 8,000 pesos, the successor to the Canon PowerShot A510 priced around 12,000 pesos and the latest cheapest DiG!C4-equipped cam. I would have jumped at a chance to own a more expensive PowerShot SX20IS, but I have more immediate financial priorities. I have to strike a balance between a camera that'll serve me as long as the PowerShot A510 did at the best possible price.

So the three models I was choosing from were the PowerShot A480 10 MP with 3.3x Optical Zoom, the PowerShot A590IS 8MP with 4x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and the PowerShot A1100IS 12.1 MP with 4x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom. Prices between the US and Philippines were almost the same, except for the A1100IS. Surprisingly, the A1100IS is sold in the US at roughly half of it's price in the Philippines.

Each of the three have their unique advantages. The PowerShot A480PowerShot has the best price, listed around US$100 in most online stores. And at 10 MP, has a lot of resolution. The A590IS has same form factor as the PowerShot A510, with a comfortable grip, Image Stabilization and manual controls that one can fidget with. Unfortunately, you can only push it to 8MP max. It's continuous shooting clocks in at only 1.4 shots per second. The movie mode FPS is a whole third slower than the A1100IS.

Compared to the 12.1 MP count on the PowerShot A1100IS, you'd be missing a lot. The A1100IS can also take 2 shots per second in continous shooting mode and can take closer macro shots than the A590IS. It's equipped with the DiG!C4 processor, which should span a few years before it's considered obsolete. But here's the best part. If you look at online retailers, the A1100IS is cheaper than the A590IS. So if I can just get someone I know in the US to buy this for me, then I'd be getting the best camera for our needs. Best price-performance ratio, if you asked me.


UPDATE:  I ended up buying a Powershot SX120 IS after reading all the reviews and seeing the online price (almost half the local prices).  >>>