Category Archives: canon

canon, iphone

Apple iPhone 4 photo quality for a point-and-shoot snapper

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Is the photo quality on Apple’s iPhone 4 good enough that I could leave my Canon IXUS 801S at home?

Unfortunately I think not. At least, that was my impression after taking a few snaps today.

Here’s the Canon:

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and the iPhone 4:

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With the iPhone 4 you tap to focus. I took multiple shots of this flower from various distances, trying to focus it correctly, but it has a tendency to do a better job on the background foliage.

Next, a snap of a record sleeve. Better for the iPhone, but still not great. Here’s the Canon:

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and the iPhone:

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It’s not surprising that a dedicated camera takes better snaps than one built into a phone; and I still think the iPhone camera is excellent. But I’ll keep packing the Canon in my bag.

canon, linux, software, software development

Canon’s bad dialog, weak Linux support

While installing Canon’s MX700 all-in-one printer on Windows, I spotted this for my collection of bad dialogs:

do you want to restart the system now?

Hint: if you ask the user a question, it’s good to allow for more than one answer. Even if you close the dialog by clicking the x at top right, it still reboots the system.

I was also interested to see whether the printer works with Linux. Canon doesn’t offer Linux drivers. Nor does it seem keen to hear from customers about this:

Linux printing for other printers

The CAPTCHA test always presents 8 zeroes, which it then rejects as invalid.

I haven’t quite given up.  There are Linux drivers for the Pixma MP520 which are rumoured to work somewhat. When I have a moment I’ll give it a try.

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