After I read about the Canon A710 IS not being released in malaysia over at Sunflower’s place, I was a bit worried as I have my eye on this camera.

To: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 5:27 PM
Subject: RE: Customer Enquiry/Feedback@xxxxxxx (30332)

Dear xxxxxxx,

We thank you for interest in our digital camera. We regret to informed you that at this moment of time the said product is not being released in Malaysia. As so we are unable to provide you the pricing.

We would like to apologize for any inconvenience caused.

We thank you for writing to us and have a pleasant evening.

“Customer Delight”

Best Regards

Canon Helpdesk
ME Division
Canon Marketing (Malaysia) Sdn.Bhd
Tel:603-7844 8333
Fax:603-7844 8222

I made some enquiries via my contacts with Canon Malaysia and they confirmed this camera is to be released in Malaysia within the next two weeks or so, the price has not been confirmed yet.

I think it’s just a case of bad English and what they meant was the camera wasn’t released yet in Malaysia so they didn’t have any pricing information, that’s all. They didn’t mean the camera won’t come out here.

As a customer service representative they should really make it a bit clearer what they are saying as they do give the wrong impression.

Sue bought the camera this weekend, info and a couple of test shots here.

She got the camera for RM1399 with a original case and 512MB SD card from Canon Shop Level 3 KLCC.

Sorry for the lack of updates, I’ve just been a bit depressed about the whole photography thing since my camera got stolen from the back of my car.

A momentary lapse in concentration and I left the camera in the car for a few minutes and it was gone.

I’ve NEVER left it in the car before…this was the first time, just plainly forgot for a couple of minutes, by the time I went back to the car it was gone, too late.

Better not to leave anything in the backseat at all, I’ve seen cars broken into for just a jumper or plastic bag even!

So if you own any kind of camera, laptop or valuable electronics do carry it all times.

Worst I’ve heard so far after having my camera stolen, some poor fella was at petrol station, filled up his car, just went to the window to pay, by the time he returned to his car all his kit was gone!

Another similar with laptop, just stopped at ATM to check his balance, came back and laptop was gone..

I’m not sure exactly how they ripped the window out but if you see the pic there is a small dent at the back of the window frame it seems they forced something up there very hard through the seal and behind the window so it shattered then ripped it out. The window couldn’t be smashed normally as it was tinted, they must be quite experienced at this.

You can see the ripped out window under the car.

The police said there is a gang in SS2 that run this operation.

Even a national photographer from Philippines lost his full kit in SS2 on a trip to Malaysia recently (1D with all lenses).

Crime rate is getting bad, careful where you park folks wherever you may live.

Ah well from a photography point of view perhaps it’s a sign to upgrade, D200 here I come?

Well as I’ve mentioned this one a few times here it is! The first review, I’m really tempted by this camera as I’m a great lover of the Canon Powershot A series for their full manual controls.

I almost bought the A700 for my mom but the 6x optical zoom without any kind of stabiliser isn’t all that useful, finally a A710 with image stabiliser and a very resonable 7.1 megapixels.

The A700 was already an excellent camera, I’m really happy to see a Powershot A series with a stabiliser!

I’ve been looking for a good compact camera to use for food shots and as a backup for my SLR just in case the battery goes flat or it’s too bulky to use (sometimes shopping malls stop you from taking pictures if you are using a SLR but not if you are using a compact).

It also uses AA batteries which is good for travelling and it means my old rechargeable AA from my Powershot A70 won’t be wasted!

ISO performance is clean up to ISO200, at 400 above it’ll only be good for a mid-size print, I thought with the new Digic II processor this might not be a problem, but I guess it’s just basic physics, you can only do so much with a tiny sensor.

The PowerShot A710 IS takes an already excellent camera — the A700 — and adds some one really useful feature (image stabilization) and one not-so-useful feature (more pixels). Despite going up from 6 to 7 Megapixels, the A710’s photo quality remained very good, with noise levels that are perhaps lowered than on its predecessor. When you look at the whole package — from the photo quality to the image stabilizer to the manual controls — you’ll see that the A710 offers a lot of camera for your $400.

Full review here.

I’ll be waiting for some reviews from other sites and I shall go and try it out when it hits KL.

Purpose
As fake memory cards have now proliferated throughout the marketplace, it is important to be able to spot a fake. This page includes methods to spot fakes, and examples of fake cards.

Why should you care?

• Inferior quality card - you’re not getting what you paid for
• No warranty - when the card fails, you’re out of luck
• Fake cards sometimes have invalid partition sizes, making it likely to fail
• It will drive costs of genuine cards up

Spotting a fake
Unfortunately there is no software which will test the card, and ensure that it’s genuine. You must manually scrutinise your card, (both visually and by testing it’s performance), to get some idea of it’s genuinity.

Presentation quality and differences

First thing to look for is poorly printed labels and material; most fake cards have slight differences from the real deal. Most manufacturers have a page where you can download high resolution pictures of their cards. Below is a list of manufacturer image page links:

• Sandisk
• Sony
• Olympus

Example of fake 1GB Sandisk SD Card

(Click here (http://www.pointful.com/files/files/incoming/disk_fake_vs_real.jpg) for high resolution image)

This particular card was also missing a notch, making it quite easy to spot:

Example of fake 2GB Sandisk CF Card - courtesy of mpot’s Fake SanDisk CF article (http://martybugs.net/articles/fakesandisk.cgi)

Note the faded red print on the back, and the “TM” next to “CF” at the top right side on the fake:

Note there is no serial on the bottom of the fake (serial blurred on the real one):

Note the fake box has no hologram:

Another example of Sandisk 2GB CF Card - courtesy of Mark Tranchant (http://tranchant.plus.com/notes/dodgy-cf)

Note the poor print and alignment of label:

Note the poor quality workmanship on edge, print quality and alignment of text:

Fake Sony Pro Duo 2GB

Note that the fake card has poor quality printing and does not have the same various extrusions and intrusions as the genuine card. With the number of lips and dips on the genuine card it isn’t difficult to spot the fake.

Fake Sony Pro Duo 2GB Ultra II courtesy of OCAU forum user Slugoid

Note there is no hologram sticker

Note the incorrect corporation name of ‘Sorry Corporation’

Note the incorrect serial number

Note that the front of the card looks very similar to a real card.

The SanDisk card manual was different to the real thing as well (note that the manual on the right hand is from a Sandisk Ultra II, wheras the manual on the left is for a ‘flash memory card’):

Performance issues

The second thing to look for is performance issues. Sisoft Sandra (http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/index.html?dir=&location=downandbuy&langx=en&a=) is a suite you can use for testing, with our example card, we got a less than stellar performance:

The fake 1GB SD Card card is a green line, and the red lines are similar specced cards.

Disk capacity and formatting

With most faked cards, the capacity is overstated by the disk being prepared with incorrect parameters, when partitioned. It is quite difficult to detect fake cards, by just the size of the partition, but sometimes the card will fail, if we do a format from the command line. The sandisk card from above failed thusly:

If you try this, and your card fails it will be unusable. To reformat it with the original parameters, you could try and put it in your camera, as it will not do as thorough checking as the format command does, (of course this won’t make a fake card good).
There’s a large thread in OCAU’s Photography Forum here (http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=479877) with more info about memory cards.

Whole article from Overclockers

Camera Labs has been extremely quick in getting out the first look Canon 400D (Rebel XTi) review out.

Image from Camera Labs

It looks like a decent upgrade from the 350D although surprisingly the 350D seems to perform better in some areas, I don’t think it’s worth an upgrade from the 350D but if you are still using a 300D (The first Digital Rebel) I think it’s definatley worth it!

I haven’t gotten my hands on one of these yet but I do plan to and snap some pics.

Ultimately the Canon EOS 400D / Rebel XTi is a great entry-level digital SLR which improves on its predecessor in many respects. It has higher resolution without compromising noise levels, a wide variety of anti-dust features, a bigger screen which doubles-up for detailed shooting information, the AF system of its bigger brother and fast overall handling.

The only thing that’s missing is a cheap lens bundle with Image Stabilisation. This will undoubtedly have potential buyers carefully weighing it up against the Sony Alpha A100 which costs much the same, while those looking for a tougher product may be tempted by the Nikon D80.

But this aside, it’s hard to fault the EOS 400D / Rebel XTi. Canon already had a great product with the 350D / XT, but rather than resting on its laurels has upped the ante and delivered a worthy successor. The new 400D / Rebel XTi is a great camera to use, produces excellent image quality and is one of the best budget digital SLRs to date. It may have very tough rivals, but still comes Highly Recommended.

Read the full review here.

It’s a valid point about dust reduction and I did mention I’d love to see Nikon come out with that in their future versions!

Not sure about in body image stabilisation though, I don’t think Nikon or Canon will go down that route with all the money they’ve invested in ‘IS’ and ‘VR’ lenses.

I’m still all for the D80! But next time I buy I’ll be hoping to buy something around D200 level rather than the (slightly above) entry level SLR I’m using now.

Apologies for the posts about products at the moment, but I’m in Dubai now and Flickr is totally banned here so I can’t really upload/post pics till I get back home.