New Camera
I just ordered a new digital camera, a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5. I got a great deal on Amazon.com – they had a very competitive price, plus they’re running a special where you get $23 off a memory card with the camera purchase, plus at checkout they gave me a free trial membership to Amazon Prime so I got next business day shipping for cheap. The link is to the right if you want to buy one of your own.
After a couple years of taking fairly low-quaility snapshots with my old Casio Exlim EX-S2, and then a year of extremely low quality snapshots with my mobile phone I’m stepping up to a “real” camera. I did a lot of research on cameras, but what finally pushed me over the edge to the DMC-FZ5 was a Google search for “DMC-FZ5 site:flickr.com“, which let me see a sampling of all the pictures DMC-FZ5 users have posted to Flickr. The sample photos show that this camera either naturally takes great pictures or it attracts a lot of good photographers, and one way or the other I feel good about choosing it.
Unlike previous cameras I’ve owned this one isn’t pocketable, so I won’t have it with me all the time, but at least when I do choose to bring it I’ll be able to take the pictures I want. Or, more accurately, it will be my own lack of skill holding me back rather than the camera.
Look for some action in my Flickr stream starting Monday.
Back in August I sold my Pentax Optio S4i, with the plan being to get the Casio EX-S500 to replace it. It’s uber thin, so it would have really worked with my “carry it everywhere in my pocket” mode of operation. However, after looking at some reviews, I decided that even for my modest requirements, the EX-S500 took amazingly crappy pictures.
I had had an EX-S1 and EX-S2 in the past and was moderately happy with them, but really wanted optical zoom capabilities. I got the Casio competitor to the Optio S series, I want to say it was the EX-D400Z. However, after I got it I realized that it didn’t have a movie mode, because I ran across a couple of things that a still picture wouldn’t have captured at all. I don’t do many movies, but since the Optio had the movie mode, I sold the Casio on e-bay after just a few weeks and got the Optio.
One thing I really like about the Optio is that it has an IR remote control. It’s one of the few cameras that does. It’s great for taking group pictures, but it’s also fantastic for having someone else take a picture of you. No longer do you have to train them how to push the shutter button, just give it to them, tell them to point it at you, and you do the rest. Loved that feature.
I looked around quite a bit and really liked the results of the Fuji mumble-F10, but the form-factor was a bit too big and it used xD media. I later found that it also doesn’t have a manual focus mode, which I end up needing infrequently (in low-light or through a window being the biggest reasons).
I finally decided on the Panasonic DMC-FX9, which has a high res display and optical image stabilizer. Sadly, it has been in very short supply. It was supposed to be launched on September 25, so I ended up waiting a month for that date. The 25th came and went and no sign of it in the US. It had been available for almost a month in Japan.
Another couple of weeks later and I found it available online and I placed an order. Then I realized the auto-buy had used the wrong credit card (my company card), and I canceled the transaction. That involved waiting for the transaction to get “posted”, and then canceling and confirming it. By this time I was super busy at work and didn’t have a chance to place the order again. The next day, it was no longer available from any of the sources. That’s been over a month ago, and just now are they finally getting some stock back in… Because of some investments growing my company, we don’t have the cash right now to buy a camera, so I’m just carrying efm’s camera.
Plus, the price just keeps going down on it… At this point I’m thinking it’ll probably be a christmas present, with a vacation coming up in January, it should work out quite well.
Sean
Comment by Sean Reifschneider — November 15, 2005 @ 11:45 am
Sean – I hear you about camera shopping. There’s still no perfect camera and it seems like just when you find the one you’ve been looking for it has some deficiency that turns you off.
I got my FZ5 yesterday and I’m loving it so far. The only glitch was that f-spot couldn’t directly import the photos until I set the USB mode to “PictBridge”. Now it works great and I have a nice Camera->f-spot->Flickr workflow going with minimal effort.
Comment by Abe — November 15, 2005 @ 3:05 pm
Abe, the FZ5 is a fine camera and your first shots like really nice! Are you happy with F-Spots stability right now? I’ve been sticking to GThumb because my first experiments with F-Spot (a while back) were very flaky and I didn’t feel like loosing fotos every now and then.
btw, regarding pocketability: For a while I used to additionally carry an older Casio Z30 (much smaller) but recently, I find that the FZ5 is an OK fit into any larger pocket (such as a coat’s) and the power switch is good enough so that it won’t switch on accidentally. Try it. I always have it one me by now.
Comment by ingo — November 20, 2005 @ 11:11 am