Goodbye to an old friend

Ok, it isn’t really as serious at the title sounds.  I’m saying goodbye to my faithful Canon SD800IS Point and Shoot. The 800IS was my first digital camera, and my reintroduction to photography after many years of shooting video (you can read my About Me section if you want the whole history). The 800IS was a fantastic camera.  It took great pictures and was incredibly durable – it survived more than one drop from the shirt pocket.

I like having a P&S, and use one pretty frequently (despite having my D90).  This past summer on my trip to California, I took only the 800IS. For a number of reasons (one of the main ones being days at Disneyland and California Adventure), I knew I would be easier to just carry the P&S. The 800IS did great as always, but it really started showing its age:

• It lacks much in the way of manual control
• I have become very attached to shooting in RAW
• Its low light performance was never great, and when my iPhone 5 took better night shots, I knew it was a sign

So I decided it was time to look for something else (a subject for another post).  I’ve passed the camera on to my daughter, so it still has more use ahead of it.

The below picture was taken the summer that I got the camera, and I think the ship sailing off in the late afternoon is a fitting tribute.