I’ve long been a hobby photographer. Aside from the need to take photographs for the day job, I enjoy photography as a hobby.
My first ever ‘proper’ camera was a Zenit E, which gives my age away. Built like a Russian tank, large, heavy, basic but reliable and perfectly capable of capturing great images when in the right hands.
Fast forward to the digital age and my camera collection more recently included a Nikon D70, one of the first affordable consumer DSLRs, and two Canon compacts, an iXUS 65 which pulls duty as the holiday camera and a TX1 which was bought as a camcorder replacement.
But none are ideal. The D70 is too big and heavy. You can’t use it without looking like a paparazzi. It also has a small, low-res LCD and a, now meagre, 6MP resolution.
The TX1 was bought in Hong Kong and promised 1080i HD video in a compact camera that was equally capable in snapshot mode. Despite its superb optical zoom, it wasn’t great, the from factor was too small for video and not ideal for stills.
That leaves the iXUS 65. That has always been a great camera. It was one of the first to eschew an optical viewfinder in favour of a large rear mounted LCD and despite only having 6MP, the images stand the test of time. I bought a waterproof case for it and it’s our default holiday camera. We have some superb pictures taken snorkelling off a boat in Turkey and in the pool in various places.
