Photography Problem Solved - For Now

I am now the proud owner of a Sony Cybershot DSCW-55, which I’ll use for the remainder of my trip around the Bay Area to take some photos, after my Canon Powershot failed. I got it from Best Buy for the bargain price of $240 including a 1GB memory card. Not bad for a 7.1MP camera, especially given that current exchange rates almost halve that price when converting to pounds.

Advantages:

Disadvantages:

I’m really not sure what I’ll do when I return to the UK. It probably depends on how many the Canon will cost to fix. I might sell it on Ebay once fixed and part-buy an SLR with the proceeds (I really should have followed Adrian’s advice originally and bought the 400D in the UK). I don’t really want to keep it; I’m most unimpressed with Canon now, and I get the impression the Sony will probably do everything I want from a compact. We’ll see.

Comments

@Ella, yes, I'm interested. No, I can't afford it :( @Mark, thanks for the tip (no pun intended) - I'll look out for that. Sounds really useful.
Andrew, if you are smart while you are still in the US buy a Kennsington dual power supply, it has changeable tips, you can use it on a plane and in a wall socket in the UK and US, it has changeable tips and can support a laptop and camera/phone concurrently, they do tips for Sony Cameras, I have an older DSC T1. You can buy them at lots of big US electronics stores, try Frys on Market St. Here is an Amazon link for the one I have, its lighter and thiner than the standard IBM power supply. http://www.amazon.com/Kensington-33197-Adapter-Notebook-Computers/dp/B0007W1K8M/sr=8-1/qid=1172173664/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-9934911-0164619?ie=UTF8&s=electronics Make sure you get the tips you need though, Kensingtons website had the one for my Treo out of stock for months. I take the power supply to recharge phone/camera et al even when I don't take my laptop
Not sure if you're still interested in this but hey: http://www.dpreview.com/news/0702/07022208canoneos1dmarkiii.asp
[...] Andrew Ferrier’s Blog « Photography Problem Solved - For Now [...]
Yeah, like I say, I shall probably still buy the 400D. I'm pretty unimpressed with the E18 error though. I shall be recommending people away from Canon compacts. In a way, I can understand what you say about the Memory Stick. But I came to the realisation recently that I hardly ever take the memory card out of my camera. Once it's big enough to hold all I need before I get to a PC, that's enough. That's a typical situation for me, and with a bit of judicious pruning of the obvious duds on the camera, I don't have a problem. Plus my read-it-all USB card reader at home reads Memory Sticks, and memory is a cheap part of the whole package (a 1GB Memory Stick was $40).
Fair points about Canon. I've been happy with my 350D but appreciate your frustration both over the Powershot, and the warranty for the 400D. Personally, I avoid Sony due to the proprietary MemoryStick technology. It just seems too limiting to me. I'd rather be able to reuse my storage in another camera or device if I chose to do so.