Batgung

My trusty digital camera died last month. I used it regularly for taking photos of ToddlerB, and photos for this site, so I wanted to buy a replacement ASAP. As an update on the price differences described previously, here is a range of local prices for a Canon Digital Ixus 40.

I started at Fortress in Sheung Wan, where you'll get the official (and lucky!) list price of HK$2,880.

Next I asked the nearby Citicall on Queen Victoria Street, who quoted HK$2,730, and on the same street asked at Wah Kiu which quoted HK$2,600. The comparison is not exact, as Citicall included 2 x 128Mb memory cards, while Wah Kiu only offered 1 x 128Mb.

Canon include a 16Mb card in the box, which is good enough to prove the camera works, but not much else). I'd already decided that a) I wanted a much larger card, and b) that I'd buy a fast SD card so I can use it for recording videos. So the bundled cards above useless as they were too small, and probably the slowest they could get away with.

A day or so later I was in Wanchai and visited the 298 Computer arcade on Hennessy Road in Wanchai. The shop I am most familar with quoted HK$2,530, but then I was quoted HK$2,460 at another shop on the same floor. Both prices were for the basic camera with the bundled 16Mb card. I stuck with the cheaper shop, and added a 1Gb card and a spare (clone) battery, for a total of HK$3,290.

All the above prices included the official local warranty, so there was no difference in reliability of buying from the different shops.

In 298, both shops also offered grey-market imports ("soei faw" in Cantonese), which would save another HK$330. However their shop warranty has a 7-week turnaround in case of problems, and only lasts as long (1 year) as the official warranty, I decided to stick with the official version. (Again as mentioned in the longer article, if you are a visitor buying to take it home with you, the official HK warranty is probably meaningless to you anyway. In that case the cheaper the better.)

I've had the new camera for a couple of weeks now, and love it. When I bought the previous camera, I'd decided that I'd sacrifice features and lens quality for something I could easily carry in my trouser pocket. That way I'd be likely to use it a lot more. The first one I bought was an earlier Digital Ixus model, and I was very happy with it.

The new Ixus 40 is thinner, but still very solidly built. It has twice the resolution (4 megapixels instead of 2), better functionality, screen and user interface. I'd happily recommend it if you are looking for a digital camera.

I did wonder about reliability for a while, thinking that my first Canon had died after only 3 years and six months. I was comparing it with older 35mm film cameras that seemed to last forever. But then the Canon had had a fairly rough life, and I'd taken over 6,000 photos with it, so I figure that three and a half years life is acceptable.

The other thing that I've been pondering is how these new cameras and low memory prices will affect video camera sales. This little camera will take around ten minutes of reasonable quality video on the 1Gb memory card - similar quality to watching a VCD I guess. Given that I'm just catching moments of ToddlerB's life rather than making a movie, the camera seems to be doing just fine. It will be interesting to see how often our video camera gets used over the next twelve months.

MrB