At the request of the lovely K of Ketylo fame, my primary purveyor of high quality, durable and unusual hairsticks. They’re handmade by Mr K and lovingly decorated by the missus. The sticks are available on the site or on eBay.
Shameless plug:
They’re fantastic and while they look pretty labour intensive, they don’t cost an arm and a leg so you can afford to have *ahem* 10 pairs (like me…). Each pair is unique as the stones, findings and wood each have their patterns. The only other maker that is superior to Ketylos in my opinion is Hermès for their Horn collection… and that’s a whole other level altogether
Umm… anyways, back to the topic of my camera.

When Gina came to Paris for the first time, I decided it was time to change cameras when I took pictures of the luscious food we were eating together in various places. My first choice was another Canon, of course, so I went to the FNAC and picked out an IXUS 850.

Later that day, I changed my mind and decided I really wanted to get the best I could afford so I wouldn’t feel the need to upgrade tomorrow (fat chance) and exchanged it against an IXUS 900 Ti which had a nicer look and the same button configuration as the IXUS 500 (and former IXUS V) that I had.

Specs:

10 mega-pixel
7.7-23.1mm
1:2.8-4.9
3x Optical zoom

It has an excellent macro mode which can pick out the fabric weave on a pair of jeans (verily) or the head off a Carmencita. I’m not too happy with the image stabiliser in low light but then again, nothing beats using a tripod. My personal preference is the manual mode where each setting can be fine-tuned within certain limits (personal favourites: lighting, exposure).

Canon has always made excellent cameras but I have to say that in comparison with the IXUS 8xx series, the 9xx series is much better value for money. This one has enough settings to make it a rival on combinations with my dad’s AE-1. I am getting better with the whole digital malarky, as I’m a much better photog when I can fiddle with the settings to make up for my failings While the optical zoom is not as good as the 850, the 900 does make up for it with its 10MPix, which allows for image enhancements on par with what a 4x optical would have brought. The interface is the same, easy to use one that Canon always put forward with the notable elimination of a few flash modes (which I regret).

Best used with a 1 gig SD card, this little compact camera is a good investment if, like me, you weren’t quite ready to make the jump to digital SLR.