A New Camera!

I love photography and often ogle all the amazing cameras available these days, but with technology improving all the time, I'm never sure when/what to buy. Although the idea of a DSLR seems very exciting, the reality is that I've gotten very used to the lightness of a compact camera and don't think I want to haul around a big camera, for now anyway. It seemed like a good idea to get something between the compact and DSLR cameras. And since that price point isn't too bad, I just went out and bought a highly rated one yesterday!

I've had two other digital cameras, a Kodak from April, 2003, which was lovely for a long time, but is obsolete now! And the Sony compact camera from March, 2007, which I will continue to use on the bike as it takes pretty good pics and fits in my bike jersey pocket. Shown here:

And, this is my new camera, the Canon SX10 IS:

I got a great little Lowepro bag to store/carry it in. The bag is light and fairly small, but still has room to carry the compact camera and extra memory cards and batteries. It has a built in microfiber cloth and even it's own little raincoat that untucks from the bottom pocket and can be stretched over the bag!

We've only had dark, gray rainy weather since getting the camera, so it has been hard to try it out much, but I am impressed with what it can do considering the conditions. I'll try not to overwhelm this post with pics, but here goes. I got the camera set up quickly in the parking lot outside the store and on the way home we stopped along the water. I tried out the zoom.

A drizzly, gray shot of the empty beach.

There were two surfers despite the completely flat water.

A close up of a beach pea plant.

A portrait of Jeff.

A motion shot of the dogs! It was really late and dim and drizzling, so I'm really amazed it came out like this!

And another of Jeff and Saffy being silly together...a little game of 'follow the leader'.

There are a number of different settings for me to figure out about, but it's all pretty intuitive. I will get the instruction book out soon and go over it though so I don't miss anything! I think it's going to be a fun camera!