The first camera I managed to kill was a Canon Powershot SD 1000 7.1 megapixel point and shoot.
This was a great little camera that I bought after reading a bunch of reviews. It was on sale for right around $200.00, was supposed to take really good photos and was compact enough to fit in my pocket but still provide a pretty decent zoom. It survived about 8 months…. Granted it may still be alive and well as I lost it on the California Coast Classic ride so it could still be plugging along taking very nice photos for someone....
As I mourned it's passing and began to think about it's replacement, I fondly remembered the adventures we had experienced and the shots it had taken….
This time it was the Panasonic Lumix DMC FS15 a 12 megapixel beauty in black and silver. Like it’s predecessor this was another really well reviewed camera with a nice zoom and an a Leica lense. Not quite sure what that means, but evidently the reviewers all agree that Leica is a good lense and that this camera offered a lot of value for the price. Plus, it was on sale for right around $200.00
This camera was supplemented with a 4/3rds format digital SLR so it mainly fell to job photos and my outdoor adventures where I couldn’t (wouldn’t) go with the DSLR.
I had originally been looking at the “outdoor” cameras that claimed to be waterproof and crash-proof but although they fit the majority of my needs, they were still too far out of my budget being at or above the 300-350.00 mark.
The Panasonic was a great camera. It was small, took really good pictures, didn’t have any of the delay or lag that you sometimes get with these cameras and although the screen is scratched and the housing has some dings, it just kept taking great photos….up until the New Year’s Day ride this year in which it was either raining or so foggy/misty it might as well have been raining.
It was here, almost a full twelve months after I purchased it, that it started to act up. At first it wouldn’t open when I turned it on. Then after shutting her off and on a couple of times she seemed to work ok. Later though, I noticed some of the shots were blurry, almost like they were out of focus or that the lense hadn't been fully extended.
It seemed to rebound after that ride though and continued to work without any issues until last week when it just refused to open all the way and then wouldn’t close. Cycling the power on and off did nothing to help, the lense just stuck out there, neither open nor closed in a half mast, useless and inoperable way.
This time, I had decided I was going to get one of the supposedly waterproof, shockproof, dustproof, nuclear explosion resistant cameras. No matter the cost, I wasn’t burying another good soldier for lack of armor…..
Lo and behold, after much reading of reviews and perusing of photography websites, I found just the item, the Olympus Stylus Tough 6020 camera. This baby has it all. Armor – Check, Waterproof – Check, Dustproof – Check, Shockproof – Check, It’s even Freezeproof down to 14degrees….not that I’ll ever be riding my bike at that temp, but it will be going skiing with me so I guess that’s good.
The best part about this camera, it’s on sale for $80.00 off and is now $199.00 – right dead center in my pricepoint crosshairs…..
Reviews to follow…..
1 comment:
Love that first picture! You should enter it at the fair this year.
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