It’s snowing in Burnaby as I write this. That’s strange, particularly since I don’t remember it being all that cold when I was out earlier.
Having been inspired by Anne (who said she was doing the same), I went out to take some pictures. My Rebel XT is at school, but I did have the Canon A710 that I got Dad for Christmas (but haven’t sent yet). It has image stabilization, so it seemed quite well suited to night shooting and the long exposure times that come with it.
Indeed, image stabilization is cool, as you can see from the results.
The first shot I took, that metered to a full second was too long for my hand and the image stabilization to hold still.
While I was waiting for my beverage at Starbucks, I found the exposure compensation setting on the camera (so I could tell it not to try to get a bright picture, and leave it a little underexposed—that shortens the exposure time). Back out on the street, things got better.
The exposure time on that last picture is 1/4 second. That’s really long for a clear hand-held shot. I wouldn’t get anywhere close to that without the stabilization. Thumbs up.
But, my vanilla creme wasn’t nearly hot enough to offset the cold and damp that came from going to get it. Should have stayed home and made hot chocolate or something. Thumbs down.