For today only, Amazon’s offering the Canon Powershot A490 for just $49. This is a decent 10 megapixel camera, but the main attraction is its size. I never go out on the course without at least a compact camera in the bag. I’ll take the big Canon Rebel with an 18-270 zoom to new courses, to ones that I know are particularly scenic or that have a good chance of wildlife. But for my home rounds, a small camera like this one does the trick. You never know what you’ll see on the course. I also like the fact that this takes AA batteries, like my earlier Canon compact. With a batter operated model, you don’t have to worry about recharging the lithium, or getting out on the course with a great pix, only to find that the battery has died.

Amazon is having a one-day sale on Photoshop Lightroom. I do all of my image sorting and processing with this software. It’s terrific and easy to use.

The regular price is $299, and its available now for $119. I’m going to pick up a second copy for my office computers (my current copy is on my desktop machine at home).

This idiot bird chose a spot about five feet into the rough off the fairway. The photo’s not very good—I forgot my Canon and had to take this with the Blackberry.

Photo taken with a Panasonic DMC-ZS1 f4.0 ISO 125 1/400

I recently had an experience with a failed SD card from my camera. There were some photos on it that I desperately needed, and nothing I could do would allow me to access the card. My Canon EOS wouldn’t read the card, nor would the internal card readers on my laptop and desktop. I finally put it into an older point-and-shoot camera, which recognized the card. I then connected the camera to the computer as an external drive and pulled the photos off it from there.

I got lucky.

Doing some research on the problem, I found a bit of software that could solve the issue. If that happens in the future, I’ll try this free Digital Image Recovery software. The company makes other pay products, but this one, at least for now is free.

I’m a big fan of the Canon camera line—most, if not all the photos here on GolfBlogger were taken with a Canon, and in particular my EOS Xsi. Amazon right now is holding a one-day sale on the Canon Powershot SD4000, which might be of interest to golfers because it not only takes still photos, but also does 720p HD video. You can keep it in your bag and use it to film your swing on the course, as well as snap those nice panoramas that courses so often boast. Get it with a Gorillapod and you can have it cling to your bag while you swing.

Taken after my round at Dunmaglas Golf Course.

Taken with a Canon Xsi and a Tamron 18-270 lens f 5.6 1/320