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!

Picasa Play

(imported from my former photo blog)
I love Picasa!  Hard to believe anything is free anymore, but Picasa photo editing is, and they have a new version out!  (Available from Google).  More photo effects for the crazed digital artist that I am - oh wait, or is that convergent media, more appropriately.

They now have figured out how to bypass the need to buy a Lomo or Holga camera, (sorry manufacturers!) with their effects button for either one.  I played with the functions which allow you some room to play.

Here is the "Holga-ish" function.  (That cracks me up by the way).  I used it with this black and white semi wide angle I shot on the beach.  It really brought out the detail.

Here is the "lomo-ish" version.  Talk about wildly vivid color!  What fun.

And for those of us who cannot draw a stick figure - I give you the "pencil sketch" function.  Isn't that fun??  I almost feel like an artist.

The intriguing thing is that you can adjust all these settings.  It's not like a click of a button, you actually get to play with the tones, and brush effects, or shadows and contrast.  Of course if you're like me you will then move on to other functions and tweak it some more.

I encourage you to try out Picasa if you haven't already, or check out the new functions.