New Toys

(imported from my former photo blog)
I've been researching point and shoot cameras this month.  I wanted to upgrade my pocket camera, the Nikon Coolpix L18, to something a little more advanced without a large monetary investment.  I already own a DSLR so something in between would be nice.

When I go out for a drive I don't always have time to stop and get the perfect shot with the DSLR, so I admit it, I sometimes just want to "point and shoot"!

So after looking at Nikon, Canon, and Olympus, I decided on the Olympus SZ 12, which I think just came out.

I was impressed by two things initially, its 14mp and 24x zoom.

It was retailing for about $199 and the comparable Nikons and Canons were more.

I always shop around online and was delighted to find a sale at B & H Photo with an instant rebate of $50!  With only one week of the sale left, I jumped on it for $149 plus $9.05 shipping.

It arrived a week ago and I've only had a couple of days free to play with it.  I was impressed immediately by that 24x zoom and stabilization!  I can photograph the birds at my feeder now from the comfort of my deck chair about 30 feet away.

The first day I used it I caught this Western tanager through the fence.  I've never gotten a photo of this timid bird before.

The functions of the Olympus SZ 12 are very user friendly and it's easy to catch on to how to scroll through the functions.

There are some fun and entertaining functions called Magic Art Filters, that include a pop art look, pinhole, fish-eye and nine more.  Of course it's also got modes for portrait, night, landscape, scenic, etc.

I took a walk around the yard and got some images with the macro and other functions which are also on my other blog at www.newpioneerdiary.com , so the credits are from there.

soft focus added in Picasa.

While I was sitting at my computer I was delighted to see the illusive MacGulivray's warbler nearby, so I grabbed the new camera and got these shots of him - from my desk chair, through the glass!

So if you're in the market for a point and shoot or even shopping for your first camera, do check out the Olympus SZ 12.  Google it for more details as I have only scratched the surface here.

This would be a great introduction to digital photography for anyone, not to mention a terrific pocket camera for all occasions!