At this time my only digital camera is a tiny little Canon S200. This camera is now (circa 2006) discontinued, but it is amazing how much mileage I have gotten out of this little PowerShot S200 2.1 megapixel camera. It is still working fine after over 4000 images and many trips into difficult and hostile places.

Perhaps some people with a full featured point and shoot or a digital camera look down their noses at a litle marvel like this, but consider this: a camera in your hand (or pocket) is worth two in the bush (or sitting at home). Also I don't think I am ready (or even willing) to drag my Canon 20D down hundreds of feet of ladder into old mines or on rock climbs (unless the express purpose is photography). Navigating the ladder in the photo on the left was a tight squeeze for hundreds of feet, and the little S200 slipped into a pocket. It was also the camera that got toted along on a hike that turned into an unexpected delight (and yielded the photo of the dunes on the right).

The S200 aka "Digital Elph" was introduced in 2002 as an upgrade to the S110. It has a 2.0 Megapixel CCD and a 2x optical zoom (35-70mm) It takes images up to 1600x1200, has a sturdy stainless steel body, and had a MSRP of $399 (although I think I spent around $250 for mine). It uses Type 1 CompactFlash cards and uses a proprietary Lithium-ion battery. They say it has a 1/2.7 inch CCD (how about those dimensions?! that comes to about 9.4mm). I have never regretted owning it.

It's only mis-feature is the ability to take movies, and the number of times the selector switch has been bumped into movie mode to my utter consternation are legend, so the logical thing is to replace it with a camera that is entirely UNABLE to take movies. The other thing that would be nice would be for it to simply focus and shoot faster. It is frustrating to try to shoot moving animals for example. It's compact portability make up for all that.