When I took this picture with my digital camera back in the spring, I was uncomfortably aware that a few people were annoyed with me for recording the pleasant lunchtime scene.

I assumed — apparently wrongly — that they were with someone they didn’t want their spouses to know about. It seems I may have been wrong.

It’s being reported in the British press that a couple taking shots of their baby girl in the park were ordered by a “park warden” to stop taking photographs.

“Stunned, the couple pointed out that they were 11-month-old Rebecca’s parents and that no one else was using the playground at the time. The warden informed them it was ‘illegal’ to take pictures of children there.”

Aren’t we in danger of throwing out the baby with the bathwater?

The Canon EOS 30D

To mark the 20th anniversary of Canon’s bestselling EOS series of cameras, the company is mounting a massive discount giveaway over the range until the end of the year.

In detail : “to celebrate 20 years of its legendary EOS system, Canon is giving back a total of £1283 ($2656) on a selection of EOS digital SLR cameras, lenses and accessories”. This cashback offer is valid from 1 October to 31 December 2007.

There are many participants in this offer. Try here.

There’s a positive review of the Canon PowerShot A570 over at Cameratown. Here’s a short extract from it :

“… A series PowerShots have improved with each generation and — thanks to the inclusion of comprehensive manual controls and technologies such as the new DIGIC III imaging processor and image stabilization — have become a viable weapon of choice not only for beginners but also the more advanced photographer with limited resources. … this is a perfect camera for anyone wanting real photographic control without paying through the nose. Its well balanced combination of image quality, functionality and handling (and not to forget value for money) means the A570 IS just about deserves our highest award.”

The Canon PowerShot A570 is in the $250 / £120 price bracket.

Bluetooth is a technology to connect electronic devices on short distances, usually under 30 feet.

It is seen often in computer-peripherals like mice and keyboards. It’s also used a lot in phones to connect headsets and transfer data from one phone to another or to a computer.

Now, it’s available in digicams, too: for instance the Ricoh 500SE. However, how much use is it? Bluetooth is a simple, well standardized protocol using very little energy from your batteries — but it’s also rather slow, as people with multi-megapixel cameraphones have discovered.

If you are lucky, bluetooth transfers 15 KBytes per second or 1 megabyte per minute. No problem for small pictures, but a large one with high detail can take 5 minutes per image! So yes, it’s cheap, handy and easy, but has it’s restrictions.

Another technology, available for some time already is WiFi, introduced by Nikon in it’s P1 and P2 models. This is a very fast technology, but also more complicated and energy-hungry.

However, this one is going to stay and has in fact a good future if manufacturers start implementing the technology better. Sending a picture to a printer is easy, but WiFi has far more potential.

The easiest technology to start with is a small embedded webserver, so your camera can act like a wireless website sharing pictures with others.