HD Video with the Canon Powershot s95

I‘m back from my trip to Mexico with hundreds of pictures in tow! I had an amazing time. I’m very happy with my new camera purchase I mentioned in my last post: the Canon Powershot s95. Great colour, amazing quality in low lighting and very clear pictures where stabilization would usually be a concern. (I have very crisp photos I had taken from a moving car.) Besides the great low light photos, the other main reason I bought this camera was because it shoots video in HD. (720p) The older s90 model had good reviews as well but didn’t have the HD video feature; a huge seller for me.

My next experiment was choosing where to try hosting some of these videos. Lately I’ve been unimpressed with Youtube’s compression and upload times are pretty crazy. Then again, I haven’t been encoding the video files at all so the file sizes are pretty big. I thought I would try out Vimeo’s free account.

Bonus Points: Vimeo’s site is actually pretty!

With the free account, you get one HD upload per week with 500MB/weekly cap, pretty good! I’m uploading a video as we speak, and it seems to be much less painful than my Hd youtube experience.

Meet my test subjects/guinea pigs! The first video features Weezy, shot in low lightning and uploaded to youtube (raw video)

Here is the video I uploaded to Vimeo, my dad jumping off a cliff into the cinote below. (another raw video.)

Overall, I’m really happy with this camera because it’s so small I can just throw it in my pocket and bring it with me. I’m starting to realize i’m a creature of convenience. If it’s convenient, hell.. if it’s easier, we’ll do it. I tend not to carry my old chunky camera that resembles a DSLR, it was just a hassle to bring in it’s giant carrying case. Not to mention it ate batteries as if they were candy. ;)

Finally, a new camera!

For the last little while, I’ve had to deal with my cell phone camera to take all of my pictures. The results were usually less than impressive which is why i’m SO excited that I finally have a new camera. I picked it up this weekend because i’m leaving for a trip to Mexico tomorrow and plan on taking many photos!

Of course the first picture I took on my camera HAD to be a picture of my dog, Weezy. :)
I’ll leave you with one of the good ones. I’m excited to leave the rainy weather behind for a while, see you in May!

Puppies are the best blankets

2 weeks ago, we adopted a new puppy into our household. He’s been getting along rather well and loves to snug up on the couch. Please meet: Weezy!

Here I’m using him as a puppy blanket. I’ve taken so many pictures of him that i’ve lost count – but this is the most recent. I even made a desktop wallpaper: