Multidock

On a less tyrannical road than my previous post, I received in the mail today a new point and shoot camera to replace our ailing one which has finally died after about 5 years of good use. This camera gets used daily in my wife's business, so it definitely has gotten a workout (being dropped in Key West, Florida did nothing to prolong its life though...).

I found a great deal on a Canon SD1100 and I was very impressed. Very similar to my old S400 ELPH, but smaller, quicker, MUCH larger view screen, and several other niceties. I would recommend it highly to anyone needing a good point and shoot.

Now, to the one nitpick on Canon. We now own 4 Canon digital cameras, so I don't think you can say I'm not a fan of theirs. We have the S400, the SD1100, our 400D SLR, and a ZR50 mini-DV camcorder. All 4 use very nice, rechargeable Li-Ion battery packs which all have awesome runtime.

Now - guess how many of those battery packs allow charging inside the device over USB? None. A bit annoying, especially if you forget to turn off the camera after dumping pictures onto the computer. So, since I can't use USB for charging, I have to use a battery cradle instead.

Okay - guess how many of these 4 cameras use the same cradle? Yeah, the answer would be none. Amazing - they really couldn't come up with a common charger? The chargers aren't exactly small to begin with, so taking a little extra space to be more flexible really wouldn't be an issue.

Guess I can't be too hard on my company for not having a universal dock yet. Why is this such a hard thing for companies to achieve?