So in completely non-system administrator news, I have decided to buy a new digital camera. It’s been a little too long since I’ve spent some time pursuing any semblance photography hobby. My current camera is a Nikon Coolpix 5700 that I’ve had for for almost 3 years now and that seems to be showing some age. It’s always had trouble focusing in low light — but I’m having trouble getting anything that’s not blurry out of it, except in perfect light. And it’s cumbersome to take along just about anywhere. All the size/weight disadvantages of a real digital SLR, with few of the benefits. It’s served me well, and it’s still a great macro camera, but I need to do something else to try to revive the hobby — and that means taking pictures, a lot more than I do now.
Eventually I’ll be buying a digital SLR, today that would be something like the Nikon D200, or the Canon EOS 20D. But I’m not quite ready to make that investment right now. So I’ve ordered a Panasonic FX9. I’m excited, and I think that I’m really going to be able to make good use of the image stabilizations, given that I drink way too much caffiene :-). It seems to be about the best price/performance very compact point-and-shoot out vis-a-vis the canon, casio, nikon, and sony crowd. The kind of camera I can keep with me just about all the time.
This will make the 4th digital camera I’ve owned. I’ve gone from my very first digital — the Epson PhotoPC 600 bought for a cross-country roadtrip to Yellowstone and back, to the Canon Powershot G2 that really kicked off my desire and fun at taking photographs, and then the aforementioned Nikon 5700. I’ll probably do the Digital SLR thing sometime next year, but I’m hoping that a good point and shoot will keep me going until then.