My Newest Toy

Panasonic DMC-TZ5
July 6, 2009

About 11 years ago I encounter my first digital camera. By today's standards it was very amateur not even having a flash or ability to a memory card. If I recall correctly the internal memory stored up to 8 low mega pixel pictures. It didn't matter to me. I was hooked! About a year later I upgraded to a FujiFilm FinePix that if I recall correctly was a 2 mega pixel camera with very low zoom. It was a lovely point and shoot camera that gave relatively good results without a high learning curve. After that I was on to a Canon PowerShot A530 that met an early demise a couple of months after buying it because apparently digital cameras are not supposed to be slightly bumped. I replaced that with a Canon PowerShot A540 which is a 6.0 megal pixels 4X optical zoom digital. Learning from my previous experience I got into the habit of hooking the strap securely to my wrist when ever I was carrying the camera EXCEPT once a few months ago. It dropped breaking one of the catches on the battery door. So I used painters' tape to hold the battery door shut. This solution worked relatively well while getting a few funny looks but the real problem was the failure to latch properly caused my rechargeable batteries to last for all of about 20 pictures at best. The solution wasn't because I was being cheap either, it was because I essentially didn't feel like doing the research for a new digital camera! Compounding that problem is my husband thought a nice digital SLR camera would be great so we just kept putting it off.

Last night we stopped at Sam's Club and checked out the camera section. You know how you pick up a camera and it just feels good in your hand, something like the right fit for a knife handle in the kitchen? Well I picked up the Panasonic DMC-TZ5 and it was love at first sight. Unlike the Canon with mostly plastic casing the Panasonic has a painted metal casing. To me not only did it fit my hand nicely giving me the point and shoot capabilities it added a lot of other features including higher pixels and zoom capabilities all in a much sturdier feeling camera. We bought it! This is a 9 mega pixel 10X optical zoom digital camera in navy blue and gosh despite the steeper learning curve I'm already taking a few great pictures. What a difference!

We are going to repair the battery door on the Canon. It will make a great back-up camera. My main camera will be the Panasonic so now we need to go shopping for my husband's camera. He's still wanting an SLR digital but that might change. The worst thing about buying digital cameras is the performance does change from year to year. One year Canon will be the top performer then the next year Panasonic will be the top performer. I actually paid less than half for the Panasonic and got a better camera than I paid for my FujiFilm! At the same time digital camera have basically become toss aways! A fairly descent digital can be found for around the $100 mark! If it breaks you can likely go out and buy one even better for less than what you paid. Oh the miracles of technology!

Garden Gnome
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