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H.I.T.S.

4 min read

My new digital camera arrived last week via UPS, and it was really interesting to see all the innovations since I bought my last one a couple of years ago.

The camera that I ended up buying was an Olympus SP800uz, mainly because I like Olympus cameras and we’ve had good luck with them, so far.

I think that one of the coolest aspects of online shopping is how you can check out a lot about the item you’re thinking of buying if you have a little patience. About two weeks ago, I got an e-mail, advertising a special sale at Buy.com and one of the items was this camera. As it looked like a high-quality 35mm-style camera with a fancy lens, I clicked on the item.

I was surprised to see a price of about $240 because most of these cameras usually sell for about $350 or more. I then checked out the specs on the Olympus website at http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1499

and decided to buy one, as it looked like a great deal.

Hopefully, we can offer you some advice if you’re thinking about making the move into a digital camera at some point in the future. Both Doren and I have learned the hard way since buying our first digital cameras. It’s sometimes difficult with all these technical terms like “megapixels” and “digital zoom,” so here are some quick tips:

n First, almost all modern digital cameras take excellent photos regardless of make – as long as you stick to the popular brands like Canon, Olympus, Pentax, etc., you can’t really go wrong.

n Look for something with an “optical” zoom lens. It’s been my experience that the phrase “digital zoom” usually means grainy, fuzzy pics. The 30X optical lens on my Olympus was another good selling point for me.

n Another thing to look for is battery life. This aspect can be incredibly annoying because, along with all these extras like zooms, effects and usually HD video, comes shortened battery life. It really can be exasperating how many batteries these devices can gobble up. This time, I chose a camera that comes with a rechargeable battery that, according to the box, provides 200 shots from each charge. We’ll see about that claim.

n I also shopped around for a 16-gig memory card, which I found online for about $23, including shipping.

With any new device you buy comes the “learning curve”, whether it’s a new cell phone or video camera or even a computer. Thanks to sites like Youtube.com, you can now see what seems to be an endless stream of video lessons on how to work your latest acquisition.

It’s fascinating to see how our society has taken to helping others online in this way, even if a lot of the “help” is sometimes incorrect or difficult to follow.

For one example, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B303jr_WiIM

shows you how to bake a cake. Want to learn how to restring a weed whacker?

Always a fun job to do at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2bggRaZSkQ&feature=related

You can see my camera demonstrated at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kaf97zKZxHs

and according to this guy, it’s a great buy.

Upon receiving the camera, I also decided that I need some kind of case for it, as I don’t want to get it scratched up. A brief search locally didn’t turn up any nice looking, form-fitting cases because due to its relatively large lens, the only things that seemed to fit it were camcorders cases, which were all pretty big. I returned home and ordered the correct case for this model for less than $20 online.

I thought it was weird how quickly things change.

About four years ago, I looked for a small, neatly fitting case for my smaller Olympus digital camera and all that seemed available were cases for 35mm regular- style cameras. All that last week’s search turned up were lots of tiny digital camera cases.

I guess its just evolution as usual

I’m off to take some cool shots of local sites, so have a great week.

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