"What Camera Do You Use?"

That seems to be a very popular question directed towards me in the last few months so I thought I'd write a review about my "baby" - the Canon Powershot G12 (please don't give my baby the evil eye, say mashaAllah, thank you ;)). 

I'm an amateur photographer. I don't know much about cameras but I do love being creative and photography is a form of art that allows me to capture moments of my life that I want to remember. The photographs I take are also a glimpse into how I view my environment and the world we live in. I also aspire to be a writer/journalist someday, inshaAllah, therefore it's important for me to have a grasp of what it's like to see the world through a lens. 

What made me choose the Canon Powershot G12? 

I did some research before purchasing this camera in late 2010 and found that it had lots of great features. As I said, I don't know much about cameras so what I have to say about the G12 will mostly be in laymen terms. What I really wanted was a user-friendly semi-pro camera, especially one that was compact enough to fit inside my handbag and the G12 is perfect for me in that sense. I really didn't want to carry a huge DSLR around with me everywhere I go.

Picture quality is of course a crucial factor in the decision making process and I was impressed with the sample images that I had seen. The wide angle lens is not interchangeable but it can zoom up to 5 times. The G12 also records high definition videos and that wasn't a priority for me at first but I realised that it was a useful feature to have. It has an articulated LCD screen which means it can be flipped out and turned both ways so the G12 does have the feel of a video camera. The LCD screen is also collapsible so you can fold it in nicely behind the camera and it will look like any other DSLR albeit a little smaller.

Price-wise it was reasonable for a Canon digital camera. In December 2010 it was around RM 1800+ (I'm sure it's cheaper now). I can't comment much on the technical aspects of the G12 because I'm still learning about how this camera works. It has great auto settings which basically does most of the work for you if you're an amateur like me. At the same time, if you want to be more experimental you can use the manual option and explore the possibilities with the G12. I have to say the macro setting is just awesome as you can see from some of the pictures I've previously posted. If you want a more in-depth review this guy does it 100 times better than I ever could.

Clearly, I adore my G12 and so far it has worked beautifully, mashaAllah a million times! I'm very happy with it, alhamdulillah, and I don't feel the need to buy the latest camera out there because it has everything I need in a camera. I don't think you need to have the latest of everything to be creative because creativity is the ability to successfully relay ideas and emotions. Your mind is the greatest tool you'll ever have and technology is just an extension of the imaginative mind. 

"Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things." 

Steve Jobs