About a month ago, I purchased a Canon S95 camera for about $400. I sought it out because I wanted the ability to capture non-blurred photos in low light. It has lived up to its reputation as a good low-light pocket camera.

After I purchased the camera I traveled to Europe and then to Chicago. I’ve been exploring a few of the special settings of the camera and decided to share a few of the photos here at DI. One of the settings allows you to take “miniature” looking objects, such as this Norwegian town along a fiord (click the image for a larger image).

The S95 also has a wider angle lens then most other pocket cameras, allowing you to take in larger scenes.  I really appreciated this in the Berlin monument regarding War and Tyranny–the beautiful space completely fit into the camera.

I was also able to fit large scenes like  the Eiffel Tour (I patiently waited for the even clouds to ripen before capturing this image). 

Of special interest to me is the “high dynamic range” setting, allowing you to take three photos with one click on of the shutter button. Then the camera itself processes all three photos into a single HDR photo. It’s important to completely stabilize the camera, or else the images will not coincide. I haven’t used a tripod yet, but I have used walls and fences–anything that might work to allow me to keep the camera steady.  The following photo of Napoleon’s tomb is an HDR photo.

This photo of the main hall of the Field Museum in Chicago is another HDR photo.  Notice the ghostly people walking around. This is a multiple exposure technique, and these ghosts are an artifact whenever you’ve got movement during the 3 seconds during which the camera is taking the 3 images. I rather like the ghost people–it shows movement within the finished still. There will obviously be times when I don’t want ghosts in my photos, however.

One other trick I’ll mention is the ability to take “stitch photos,” which combines several photos into a single panorama.  The scene below, taken of the city of London from the top of St. Paul’s Cathedral, consists of four separate shots.  The camera offers a slick way to take the shots, and you then stitch them together, using special software provided with the purchase of the camera. 

I’ll end this post with a gallery of other photos I took recently with the S95.   Most of these are HDR photos.  If you don’t see the gallery, click on the title to this post, which will take you to the permalink version, where you will see the gallery.