KISS: Keep it simple stupid

Mom took this with my Canon PowerShot S90: a true point and shoot.

Ah KISS: a fine command and so very appropriate in so many places. Buy a simple camera like a Canon PowerShot S90 and reap benefits for years to come.

Simple cameras carry lots of benefits. Remember, the goal for most of us is simply capturing a good picture. Often simple cameras making capturing simple, good pictures easy.

I wanted a picture at my 68th birthday party with two of my granddaughters. I didn't want a selfie with my arm extended. I wanted a moment captured and captured by another. I gave my S90 to my daughter, the mother of the two adorable little girls.

The S90 has a fast lens, f/2.0, and when set for low-light photography will continuously fire until the SD card is full. It may fire as fast as about two frames per second but many dispute this claim. Whatever the speed, it isn't fast enough for sports action but it will capture the action around a birthday cake.

Mom wasn't familiar with my camera but that wasn't a problem. The oh-so-automatic little Canon doesn't demand familiarity to deliver good pictures. I set the camera to its low-light setting, made sure the lens was set to wide angle in order to take advantage of the fast lens, and told mom to frame the picture and then just hold the shutter button down. The camera would do the rest, I said.

Mom did, the camera delivered, and I got my memory photos. There's a lot to be said for KISS inspired cameras.

Note: the successor to my camera, the Canon S110, has a continuous capture rate that can hit 10 frames per second used in low-light level mode. The technology behind these little cameras is anything but simple and the engineers responsible for their creation are certainly not stupid.