Word got out that DeLorme was giving a $50 rebate to purchasers of the PN-20 and PN-40.  I became super excited because that meant I could get a PN-40 from Amazon for about $290 after rebate.  But it was not to be.  On the DeLorme forum, they eventually said the rebate did not include online retailers that were already discounting the unit around $340.  Oh well.  A co-worker has a PN-40 coming in soon that I will get to poke and prod.  In the meantime, I will read up on the unit and buy the thing in March when the caching season warms up again.

Last night I was comparing prices on the PowerShot SD1100.  I had my spreadsheet all made up.  NewEgg had it for about $159.99 with a free 4GB SDHC card and case plus $8 shipping.  Amazon had it for $158.95 with free shipping, but I would’ve had to buy a 4GB SDHC card for about $9.  So it ended up being a wash.  This morning NewEgg lowered the price to $149.99 with the card and case and free shipping.  Guess what.  Amazon lowered their price to $149.99 with free shipping.

I’m going to buy the SD1100 from NewEgg.  I did a size comparison between my A70 (which is shipping to Canon tomorrow for repair) and the SD1100.  I used the website sizeasy to make the comparison.  The SD1100 is definitely smaller, but not a whole heck of a lot smaller.

I will likely pick up a smaller case or pouch at Wal-Mart or Best Buy.  I want the camera to be pocketable or able to be clipped to my belt.  My secretary has a similar ELPH and she has a nice small case for hers.

Now what will I do with my A70 when it comes back from repair?  I guess it will be a nice spare since I plan on actively using both the S5 and SD1100.  The A70 had been relegated to a spare until I tried to use it this weekend.  Ironically, I always had the A70 in my bag that I take with me to work and geocaching.  I just quit using the thing.  Who knows how long the thing had been dead for.

I’m buying the SD1100 and retiring the A70 for a variety of reasons.  Even though the ELPH has the same optical zoom, it has higher resolution (8MP versus 3MP).  That means there will likely be more noise, but the higher resolution means I could get around the lack of zoom by taking a photo at the highest resolution and cropping later.  The 8MP gives me a better ability to crop and still keep things looking big.  Also, the SD1100 has more scene modes and image stabilization.  Of course, there is the size advantage.  I guess if I don’t like the SD1100, I can always give it to my mom.