I must admit that when I received the Canon Powershot S90 for my trial, I was initially a little bit disappointed that it wasn’t, say the 1Ds MkIII, and kind of cursed myself for saying that I’d be happy to trial compacts as well. But funnily enough, within 5 minutes of playing with the S90 on Christmas Eve when I (quite fittingly!) received it, I did a complete 180 and was absolutely blown over.

As it happens, only a little while back I purchased the Powershot G11. I really wanted a near enough compact sized camera, which I could carry around in my pocket and take to music gigs etc, which would have full manual control and the capability to shoot raw. To be perfectly honest, I didn’t really know that there were other options out there than the G11 (and the previous models) for what I wanted, so I didn’t really even look around for anything else. Well as it happens, the S90 has exactly the same sensor as the G11, only everything is packed into a smaller body (nearly as small as my Ixus), and the lens is faster at f2 compared to f2.8 on the G11. The question I’m asking myself now is: how did I not even know this camera existed?

Obviously being smaller in size, there are less controls on top of the S90 than the G11 (and lets be honest, it’s these controls that are like a siren call to us photographers looking for a compact). But all that is forgotten once you discover the two click-stopped direct control rings on the S90, one of which is at the base of the lens and is SO very satisfying to use – from setting the aperture to any other functions you might want to assign to it. Now, after having used the S90, I feel a little bit at loss with the G11 without the nice ring around the lens, what a silly thing to omit from that particular camera.

There is really no difference in the quality that these two cameras produce. I like to shoot wide open where ever I can, and both of these cameras allow for me to do that, but the faster lens on the S90 does make a huge difference to me. It also means that it doesn’t really matter that much that the ISO range isn’t as wide as on the G11. The only ‘negative’ on the S90 I can think of is the shorter zoom at 3.8x as opposed to 5x on the G11.

Unfortunately I don’t have very many ‘proper’ samples of photos from the S90, as for some reason the battery charger was omitted from my box – and the battery didn’t fit any of my other gazillion canon battery chargers. I did have the camera with me in Finland, and the battery lasted approximately 2 minutes outside in -16C. (So it’s safe to say the camera/battery is not really the best option for ‘extreme’ conditions).

I did manage to snap a few pictures on New Year’s Eve though. The picture below was taken nearly at midnight. It was pitch black, apart from the street lights, but the S90 didn’t really have a problem. These sort of conditions also show what a difference the ability to shoot raw on a compact makes.

In conclusion, and I REALLY hate to say this, I would recommend the sleek S90 over the bulky G11 any day (not to say that the G11 isn’t a GREAT camera – it is, I just prefer the same greatness in a smaller package). If you are looking for a properly compact sized compact camera, with full manual control and raw ability, this camera is pretty perfect. I really wish I would have known about it before I bought the G11, and am now secretly kind of hoping I could exchange the G11 for the S90… :D

Recently I was invited to attend a round table discussion with Canon UK, which was organised by Canoncamerabuzz. It was an opportunity for me and a few other professional photographers to see the whole lineup of Canon’s DSLRs (including the brand new 1D MrkIV, which started shipping this week) in the same room, and hear about some of the processes behind developing new bodies and lenses.

I didn’t really have any expectations for the evening, apart from getting to fiddle with the 1Ds MrkIII (which was very satisfying indeed – I still definitely cavort over it more than the new 1D MrkIV). What I came away with was a clearer understanding behind Canon’s decisions for their line-up and who the average end user actually is (i.e. not me). As professionals, we tend to have a bit of a skewed perspective on what the next camera models should do and what kind of features they should, or shouldn’t, possess. Add to that the fact that for someone like me, coming from a film background, it’s hard to get my head around the fact that the majority of dSLR consumers these days have never even used film, which was kind of clarified to me when I was questioning why the 1D MrkIV isn’t full frame. As it goes, the market for full frame isn’t as big as I would have though. For me, it’s the only sensible thing to do but, as product specialist Mark Burnhill from Canon UK explained, the majority of dSLR users are of an age that have always shot with a crop sensor, and that’s what they find ‘normal’. To me, that seems completely perplexing! When I started my move to digital, via an EOS 350D and 20D, I felt restricted, not only in what I saw through the viewfinder, but in the fact that I couldn’t use my lenses to their full effect. So when I finally got my hands on the 5D, and subsequently the 5D MkII which I now use, it literally felt like I could breathe normally again. Until I now heard Mark rationalise the issue for me, I couldn’t for the life of me understand why someone wouldn’t want a full frame camera.

The other interesting fact was how infinitely bigger the market is for the lower end models, the pro end of the line is practically a drop in the ocean when it comes to Canon’s dSLR sales. Obviously that is going to have an affect on what the development efforts will be concentrated on. Interesting no? Perhaps this has always been obvious to everyone else, but I’ve never really even considered all of this when scratching my head about why there are so many crop sensor models, and a dizzying amount of different lower-end models with only marginal differences, about. A shocked shiver went through the room when Mark asked us what we thought of the possibility of coloured dSLR bodies, apparently that’s the latest demand from the Japanese market. Uh huh. Give me a pink Ixus to slip into my pocket any time, but please leave that sort of gimmicks out of the ‘proper’ cameras I say!

After all these ‘revelations’, my position hasn’t really changed. Ever since I started using SLR’s in the early 90′s Canon has, and always will be, the manufacturer for me, and in my opinion their lenses are head and shoulders above the rest. And the fact that even after looking at the realities of ‘where the real money is’, they keep on developing new and exciting pro gear for us to play with is a testament to Canon’s dedication to quality picture-making.

How was that for sounding like a real Canon fan girl (which of course I am)? :D

I know, I know, I need to blog about what’s been happening on the house-hunting front, about Cornwall and all the other stuff that I haven’t had time to blog aboout. Soon, I promise. Well, perhaps not a firm promise, but at least a promise to attempt!

Turns out it was part of campaign material for Terminate the Rate, which launched today. Basically, what’s happening is that BT, 3, moneysupermarket.com, NUS, FSB, GMB and Carers UK announced their stand against high mobile termination rates (those pesky additional charges made every time you call a mobile cross-network or from a landline), and launched a campaign to get them lowered to a more reasonable level.

If you want to know more, keep an eye on the Terminate the Rate blog. Oh and if you want to make your own little beaky, you can print out the template from here.

On Tuesday I attended a ’round table’ do, with some techy bloggers and representatives from 3UK, which came about through my association as an INQ1 tester. I was all prepared to share my views on what 3 is getting right, what wrong, and where I think they should be heading towards. But as it happened, I was waaaay too slow to butt in anywhere in the conversation. I felt like a bit of a dunce to be honest, but none the less, it was still really interesting, I think I went as far as saying ‘exciting’ on the night. God knows I’ve at times been really frustrated with the 3 coverage (and help desk) during my years as a customer, but after hearing for myself how they are going about trying to make a difference, I feel quite intrigued to stick around. It’s refreshing to hear from a company who genuienly wants to listen to their customers and make new ways of communicating available for everyone. A fact which was confirmed on Thursday, when came the announcement that 3 will be offering free skype calls to everyone, which I’m sure left other operators reeling.

On Wendesday I had a meeting with an author about shooting headshots for her book jackets, which was pretty exciting. She divides her time between Venice and London (jealous much?) and her flat by the Thames was as unbelievably nice as she herself was. I must say I’ve never visited such a beautiful home before. One of the things I absolutely love about my photography gigs (apart from the photography itself that is) is getting the chance to take a peek into the different lives people lead. It’s truly fascinating.

And to tie that thought into Tuesday’s 3 event, I’d add that on a personal level, the best thing that comes from that sort of things is getting to meet new interesting people. It’s really refreshing to hear new points of views and life stories. Which leads straight into my Thursday when I popped out for after work drinks with Ant from Fresh Plastic, whom I met at the round table do. I’m glad I did as the weather was gorgeous, the South Bank heaving with people, and I thoroughly enjoyed the company. Good times.

And then Friday. Less said about that the better. A complete meltdown in the office due to a network error, which resulted in a big part of the issue – due to go to press that day – having been wiped out. Long story short, the latest backup files we ended up with were from the previous Friday, so I’m still in the middle of trying to re-create a week’s worth of work by next Tuesday for there to be any chance of the magazine going out in time. Hey ho. Oh but I must say that Twitter is pretty friggin amazing. As soon as I posted about my problem the advice started flooding in from all over the world. I felt truly amazed and humbled at how many people were trying to help me! Anyone who says social networking is a waste of time has no idea what they’re talking about. End of.

Yesterday was finally Lucy & Richard’s wedding day. In the morning it looked like it was going to rain, but luckily the weather held out and what started as a gloomy morning turned into a gorgeous sun-baked afternoon. The wedding was brilliant, even if I was absolutely cream krackered afterwards. And again, I could go on and on about how cool it is to be able to get to be a part of other people’s lives if even for just a brief moment. So very very cool indeed. But yes, I was way too trigger happy and the editing work looming ahead freaks me out a bit. Not going to even start on that until next week though. I’ve booked a couple of days of annual leave from the day job, which, when added to the Bank Holiday weekend, should hopefully give me enough time to process this wedding. Dreading and looking forward to it in equal amounts. :D

But today has been all about re-charging. I was sorely in need of a day off, so today I ‘ve been concentrating on catching up with my Sky+ recordings and unread magazines. Even got around to reading the David LaChapelle special edition of PHOTO magazine I got in Paris. That was a long time coming!

Oh and can I just finish up with sharing how much I love Red Direct, the online store for Red magazine. I especially adore the little catalogues that come with the magazine, so well layed out, bursting with such perfectly photographed pictures of their brilliantly edited collection. Someone there really knows their stuff. Is it weird that flicking through the catalogue gives me immense pleasure even if I didn’t order anything…

Wow. This turned into a bit of a monster post! I guess a day off can have that effect… :D

We started off from the 3 stand, above. Pictured are our hosts Seb and Matt, with a fellow blogger, Rocktographer. Our first challenge set the pace for the day really.

We plunged head first into the, sometimes bizarre, world of all things gadgetry.

All the boys really loved the Nvidia 3D gaming and Roland V-Drums demos. The Minoru 3D webcam though, not so much. I tried it with the glasses and couldn’t really understand what the point of it was. There was also a puzzling amount of all sort of ass-jiggling equipment on show, which made for some amusing viewing at times.

Above are the most useless, and the most bizarre gadgets, that I chose for my challenge. I really couldn’t understand why anyone would want to wear an ugly thing like the Swap ‘smart watch’, which is a watch+phone+camera+mp3 player etc, etc, all in one, when you could just, you know, use your phone. LG had a similar product on their stand, called the 3G Touch Watch Phone (LG-GD910), which looked a tiny bit more attractive, but still, I would classify these as completely useless. Perhaps in the future, when all that technology can be packed into small enough space to look at least remotely appealing on your wrist, I might start warming up to the idea. What I found to be the most bizarre aspect of the show was the multiple stands for different companies selling electric cigarettes, such as the E-Lites. Just say no.

Here are some of the gadgets that managed to raise my pulse somewhat. I really liked the look of the Emtec Movie Cube S800, attractive and useful, what more could you ask for in a gadget. I gave the ‘most innovative’ title to the Wattson energy monitor (no picture of that sorry!) from DIY Kyoto, which was an absurdly sleek looking for such a ‘green’ and sensible device. Oh and also, the Sony OLED TV’s were pretty damn impressive. But what I found most sexy and desirable (as per the challenge) though, was the Vita audio system, possibly mostly for it’s absolutely beautiful design. And the dude demonstrating it for me wasn’t half bad either! :P

My second challenge was to find something that could take my photography to the next level. I must say, the camera gear on show didn’t do an awful lot for me, but then it wasn’t a camera show and not aimed at professionals. The top model there was the 5DmkII, which I already use. I did drool over the Canon PIXMA 9500 at the Warehouse Express stand though (never mind that they didn’t have the Canon PIXMA Pro9500 Mark II on show), it would be kind of great to be able to make A3 prints, but I could never find the space for such a monster! I did manage to make two purchases though, in the shape of a Gorillapod and a mini umbrella/flash bracket kit for my 580EX II.

The most dense gathering of geeks was around these pretty cool RoboSteel sculptures, which are hand-made from scrap metal auto-parts. They were pretty slick I must say, but then again, I was part of the gathering! :P

The girl in me really warmed to the different sleeves for gadgets on show. While DigiSkins had the widest selection of skins on their stand – some of them really cool designs – I for some reason preferred the smaller stand for Wrappz. Their skins seemed somehow more durable, and also they were the only ones offering software for completely customisable skins, which I think is pretty rad. I got a few samples from Wrappz and thought I’d give them out as I don’t own either of the devices they’re for. If you want to win a skin for either a Sony PSP 3000 or an iPhone 3G, comment on this entry with your preference and I’ll draw a winner sometime next weekend (unless no-one’s interested that is!).

We wrapped up the day in the Sony Super Theatre, where we got to enjoy a live show hosted by the presenters of The Gadget Show: Jason Bradbury, Suzi Perry and Jon Bentley. For the first time in my life I was a VIP, which meant I got to sit on a blue seat instead of a green one. :D Awesome. The show was good fun, with a lot of interactive games with the audience. It was a nice way to end the day.

It was a long old day (and I know I whined enough about getting up at such early hour!), and train delays meant I wasn’t home until after 9pm. But it was all good fun – I got to see a lot of toys, and got to know new interesting people. So I’d say it was well worth it!

Bookings for my wedding photography are rolling in at a nice pace. I’m now at a point where I have turn people away as there’s only so many weddings I can do while still being in full time employment as well. In fact, I’ve just about booked all my annual leave until the end of the year, just for wedding work. No holidays for moi this year… Oh how I yearn for the time when it will be possible to ditch the day job and concentrate just on the photography. It still seems such a long way off though, with us being nowhere near qualifying for a mortgage big enough to buy even a cave in the area we live in (out of commuting necessity). Oh well, just trying to keep my head down and push through it, as hard as it is. Fingers crossed it will be worth all the hard work in the end.

Hmm, I think I’m gonna head out to grab some lunch while there seems to be a break in the rain.

Despite me trying everything in my power to synch the INQ with my computer, I just could not get it to work. Not sure if it was the truly craptastic sofware, my Windows Vista 64-bit, or both, but after hours of tearing my hair out I just gave up. It’s a shame really as I really wanted to love all sides of the INQ, but in order to use it as a real phone I just need to have all my contacts and calendar synched. Same goes for getting pictures and music in and out of it. No matter how many times I was told I could connect it as a portable hard drive, I could not copy anything to or from the phone. Meh.

Given all the synching problems, I’m actually quite surprised how I much I do use it though. The fact that you can be connected to people without having your whole traditional phone book on your phone, goes to show how the idea of the INQ is very much on the right track. Social media is such a powerful tool for keeping in touch these days that you almost don’t miss the traditional ways of communicating.

One thing where the people behind the INQ have seriously missed a trick though, is with the design of the phone. It’s been given this generic metallic hi-end mobile device look, not far off from my Nokia 6500s for example. However, when you pick the phones up, the difference becomes obvious. The INQ just feels so much… cheaper. Despite the metallic look, it has a plastic-y, light feel to it, instead of the feeling of a quality product. With a product that you hold in your hand it’s not enough to just ‘look’ a certain way, and with the INQ the look and the feel just don’t correlate. I’ve been using it for less than two months and already the metallic coating on the navigation button is showing signs of wear – not good.

Taking into consideration the ethos of the phone – young, forward-thinking, affordable – I have no idea why they have gone for this mock hi-end design. I think the designers should have gone completely the different direction. If the INQ came in pretty colours (and maybe also in white), reminiscent of the original mini ipods, but with a Japanese-gadgets-inspired hard plastic with rounded corners as material, I think it would be an instant hit with the younger demographic who are most likely to be interested in the INQ in the first place. Also, since they went to all the trouble of commissioning artists to create original artwork, which was used on the ‘manual’ cards (how many times will anyone look at those? Once, I bet – the first time they open the box.), why not take that idea one step further and have the artwork actually on the phone? I think all of the images would work great on the handset, either as hard plastic covers or even as changeable picture under a clear plastic cover. Now there’s a unique product that would interest just the people the INQ is aimed at…

The ultimate most annoying thing about the INQ however is something a lot more practical, or not, as the case may be – battery life. Taking into consideration the fact that I’m not even making phone calls, it’s incomprehensible to me that the battery hardly lasts a day. I charge the handset every night, and even so on some days it dies on me before the day is through. That just seems completely unacceptable to me. Also, let’s not even go into the decision to have just a usb connection for the charger and the headphones… what silliness.

Kind of annoyed that I can’t offer any more in depth reviews on the camera and music side of the phone. But for what’s it worth, even in it’s half-baked state, the INQ has proven to be a useful little part of my gadget family.

And I guess it’s gotten a few other people hooked as well since it just won GSMA’s award for Best Mobile Handset at the Global Mobile Awards 2009.

As a side note, if I was ever to be unfaithful to my baby, it would be with this gorgeous Vivienne Tam Special Edition HP Mini 1000. Just look at it, how gorgeous can this tiny beauty be!