New Point and Shoot...

Friday 11th, November 2011

For months now, I have realised that the time to replace my late lamented Nikon P4 had arrived...  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore my Nikon DSLR D3000 and the amazing selection of lenses, filters books and other camera related paraphernalia that have taken up residence here, since its arrival, last Autumn...  

Without it I couldn't possibly have won a prize in the Zoo Photographic Competition...

1st Prize in the 'best funny caption' category 

98, 99, 100, Ready or Not here I come!!!

Highly Commended in the 'best picture taken by a visitor' category...

But there is a lot of weight involved with taking a DSLR out for a walk...  and I really wanted a great point and shoot camera that I could put in my coat pocket or my handbag and literally carry with me everywhere that I go.  I used to take the P4 with me everywhere.  Which meant I always had a camera when I saw something exciting or the light seemed to change just as I turned the corner or I met an animal in a strange place, there would be my trusty little camera ready and waiting...  

The other problem I have with the DSLR is that I don't feel particularly comfortable wandering the lanes and byways with an expensive camera and assorted lenses hanging on my shoulder...  So I tend to wait until Neil can go for a walk too and at this time of the year... well... apart from weekends... it is always dark by the time we can go out together which isn't ideal for photos...

The crunch came when I bought my ticket for going over to spend 3 weeks with family in Kent...  I really didn't want to take so much valuable camera equipment in my luggage but nor did I want to miss taking photographs of my family over the festive season...  Neil will be with his family and also wanted to be able to take photos over Christmas...  so he will use the DSLR system and I have bought a new Point and Shoot...

Then I started trying to choose...  I knew that the camera had to be good at taking photos in low light conditions as most of the photos over Christmas will be taken inside the cottage which has very small windows and not a lot of light even in Summer...  My favourite types of photography are animals, close-up (can't call it macro because I have never actually had a macro lens but I do love to see the details in the hedgerow), and landscape...  I have also begun reading about taking my photographs in RAW format and wanted the camera to have this option as well...  Okay, I have become used to the DSLR and I wanted a point and shoot that could come as close to giving me DSLR functions as possible but with the light weight/pocket size of a compact camera.  

After literally days of reading online reviews, browsing photography magazines, reading blogs, reading amazon reviews and gazing at image after image on Flickr...  I finally narrowed it down to a choice of 4...  okay, so only 3 were ever really in the race but a woman can dream...

• Canon Powershot S95 - this was a major contender for me, even though I am not really a Canon fan...  My last film camera was a Canon Powershot which replaced my beloved Nikon Coolpix (stolen from luggage between Russia and Northern Ireland) but since then I have moved through several Fuji Finepix (2 were stolen), Nikon P3 (stolen), replaced by Nikon P4, then the arrival of the Nikon DSLR and I was not completely convinced that I wanted to go back to Canon...  Then I read that they are updating it to the Canon Powershot S100 in January 2012 and I decided no... not going there...  as this happened to me when I bought my MacBook Pro, less than a month later, Apple brought out the new improved version at a lower price to my new purchase, and months later I am still irritated by this...
• Nikon P7100 - this was very high on my contender list and I was so very very keen on this camera...  I so love using Nikon...  everything about Nikon...  but on looking at the Flickr photos I was not completely convinced that this camera was the one for me even though on paper it seemed perfect... I just thought it was a little too big and chunky for what I want.
• Leica D-LUX 5 - oh this came high on my dream list...  I looked at it... I read about it...  I drooled...  but - the price - there was just no getting around the price - way too expensive for what I want or need...
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 - came into the picture...  Made in the same factory as the Leica D-LUX 5 and uses the same lens.  But at half the price of the Leica.  I looked at the photographs on Flickr... now granted I had to scroll through many amazing professional photographs before I started finding images taken by "ordinary folks" but when I did... I was so impressed... beautiful closeups of everything from leaves and peeling bark to cats claws...  stunning colour...  great indoor shots...  I just knew this was the camera for me...

So the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 has been ordered on Amazon, along with a spare battery (yup - I take more than 400 photos on a walk), a 32gb Sandisk (noticed that taking photos in RAW take more memory and I have had my 16gb card flash up as full), a converter that will allow me to use some of my filters on the camera (pleasant surprise for a compact), and a book on getting the most out of this camera.  I had noted that other buyers although loving the camera... were less than enamoured that the manual is on a CD...  not so useful if you want to refer to it while standing knee high in wet grass...  

I have never owned a Panasonic, nor has Neil, so this will be interesting.  It is good, now and again, to stretch myself to look at the possibilities of using a different brand to my favourite, and as I said to Neil, I already have my Nikon DSLR system that can do everything plus a lot more than my little P4 could achieve, so it will be nice to see what a different camera can do.

Should arrive on Tuesday...  so exciting...