Canon Powershot S2 IS and Mercury

Finally, after weeks of reading (and re-reading) a number of reputable reviews, hundreds of owner comments, and thousands (ok, maybe I'm a bit over-reacting) of posts from different forums -- I bought one.

Yup. I got myself an S2 as a Christmas present, along with a 1G SD card, four pieces of 2500mAH rechargables, a Lowepro bag, and a Vivitar tripod.

Man, I was pointing and clicking away! Shooting at this and that! I was literally shooting at the moon and admiring how this camera is able to capture in exceptional clarity -- moon craters! The shots taken were almost immaculate, to say the least!

Thus, the next plans were set -- buy a lens adapter AND telephoto lens. Such joy!

Then, last night, I decided to bring my S2 out and take my dose of nightshots (hey, I HAD to shoot at something at least once a day), mounted the ultra-zoom beauty onto the Vivitar and aimed for the nighttime sky.

I was zooming in for Venus when I noticed on my viewfinder an adjacent reddish star on its left. Mercury? I looked up. Nothing but darkness was on Venus' left. I looked on my viewfinder again, Mercury was still there. I zoomed out to max wideangle. Still, Mercury was there on the viewfinder! Again, I looked up! Darkness, still.

Crap. I took about ten shots. Downloaded the buggers in my PC, and there it was. "Mercury" in all his glory. "Mercury" seems to be in a playful mood tonight coz no matter where I point my S2, there he was. Zoom in, he's there. Zoom out, still there. Put the lens cap on the extended barrel and shoot, yup, "Mercury" is still there.

"Mercury" wasn't there before in my moon-shots. As I've said earlier, those shots were short of being immaculate.

Of course, as you may now know, my S2 has a stuck pixel on the CCD. Although it's constantly there, it won't show in the prints.

So what am I ranting at??? It's pretty friggin' annoying! Shooting with this red pixel perennially on my VF!

I can't wait to try it on video... I think it would be like having a laser pointing to the right of my subjects!

I just hope "Mercury" goes away and rots in hell. Oh joy.