I bought a new Panasonic DMC-TS2 point & shoot camera to replace my old Canon SD200. I’ve wanted a waterproof camera for a long time and this one looks to be a pretty good one. Last year I looked at the Canon D10 which seemed to be the best camera out there, but it did have a couple things that I didn’t like. First, the video recording wasn’t any kind of HD and secondly the camera was physically bulky. At the time, Panasonic had their DMC-TS1 which seemed good but the disadvantage was that it was only waterproof to 10 feet. With the new DMC-T2, Panasonic increased the depth to 30 feet. Combine that with a small form-factor and 720p video and it became the camera to get. So far I am pretty happy with it. I’m already comfortable with the controls and the image quality seems pretty good. I am really happy to have a camera that can take some abuse and I don’t have to worry about it getting damaged around the pool. I can’t wait to take some underwater photos and video!

A few weeks ago, Mariko got a nice new Olympus E-PL1 camera. I’ve had some time to play with it, and it’s a sweet little rig! It is part of Olympus’ micro-four-thirds system, which uses interchangeable lenses in a mirrorless body. It’s a lot smaller than a traditional SLR, but the quality of the photos is impressive. This model comes with a 14-42mm kit lens (with plastic mount as opposed to the other 14-42mm kit’s metal mount. The optics are the same, however, and it’s a very convenient lens. You multiply to focal length by a factor of two to calculate the 35mm SLR equivalent, so it’s pretty much a standard 28-80ish mm lens. Like an SLR, you have all the different modes like shutter priority, aperture priority, program mode, and manual if you so desire. On the other end of the spectrum, there are plenty of automatic scene modes, such as sports, portrait and macro. Also included are more obscure ones, like fireworks and beach, and lastly there are the effects such as soft-focus, pop-art, toy, and even tilt-shift. There’s so much to play around with! On the video side, the camera is equipped to record 720p HD at 30fps, as well as standard def mode. I haven’t played with the video too much, other that to check that the AF works even while you are taking video. Very nice, although a little slow and hunts a bit. It’s probably better to practice manually focusing for this.

Unlike an SLR, there is no optical viewfinder. There’s an optional electronic viewfinder attachment, but we don’t have that. Fortunately, the LCD screen is beautiful and sharp. It’s really easy to make sure you are focusing on the right spot because focus indicators will overlay onto the image. AF action is quick, although not as fast as an SLR. Still, it’s perfectly adequate for most things.

My main gripe with the camera is that it would be much better with an articulating LCD. If the LCD swiveled so that it was facing up, it would be much easier to take shots from the hip for more interesting photos of the kids. Even at an angle, however, the LCD is good enough that you can frame the shot, but it would have been awesome if you could tilt that screen up just like on our old Olympus E-10.

Ever since we got the new camera, I’ve only taken a few shots with my own dSLR. It feels so heavy and probably overkill for much of what we photograph. The Olympus is such a nice combination of small size, lightness, versatility, and expandability that it makes a really capable SLR replacement. If all my SLR gear suddenly went poof, I would probably go for a micro-four-thirds set up.

I posted several photos from a short trip we took recently. Have a look at the flickr set, why don’t you?

Those who know me know that I love cameras and taking photos. I’ve been thinking about new cameras, mainly the Olympus E-P1 and the Canon D10. But now a new camera has entered the picture (pun intended). It’s an instant-film Fuji Instax Mini camera which a couple of my friends have, but this one is the Hello Kitty version. There is even Hello Kitty film! In case you think I am a big fan of Hello Kitty, I’m not. This is my wife’s idea. We actually have a couple instant-film polaroids (a Joycam and an i-Zone pocket camera) and they are a lot of fun. We’ll see if Mariko actually orders this, but I’d say there’s a pretty good chance!

My friend Jeremy just sent me a link to this video. If you are at all into dSLR photography, you’ll love this. As Jeremy said, “It’s like a dpreview thread played out.”

I bought a used Olympus XA 35mm film camera from Craigslist the other day. I love this camera! I missed my other one when it broke.

My Konica-Minolta 7D is back at Precision Camera Repair for service. For the third time. While on vacation, the shutter would lock up constantly. The last time I sent the camera in, they sent it back saying they couldn’t find anything wrong with it. But I noticed there was a screw missing, there is some fabric coming out of the remote shutter release socket, and it looks like the sticker with the serial # on it is loose. I am not really sure if this is my original camera. But one thing is for sure, it’s broken. This time I sent in a cd-rom with the camera with many examples of messed up photos. Hopefully they will get it right this time. I am not too impressed with Precision Camera Repair.

I’ve been pretty busy lately, these past two days I have been at the Hyatt downtown taking photos for a User Group for work. On Sunday, however, we went out to Fredericksburg and visited Wild Seed Farms. they have a nice butterfly house, and lots and lots of flowers to take photos of. It’s a great place to try out a new lens! (Unfortunately, I was just using my old lenses) Anyways, here’s a pic, and you can see a few more on my Flickr photostream.

The new Sony dSLR lineup looks pretty nice, with live-view and tiltable lcd. I still love my 7D and won’t upgrade from it just yet, but I like the direction Sony is going! The Alpha 700 is pretty sweet, though. I checked it out at Yodobashi and also at Precision Camera here in Austin.