Well not so new now. A few months ago I bought Panasonic FZ100 digital camera from Digital Camera Warehouse in Northcote (which, by the way, is so much trendier than when I lived there as a kid!) They were significantly cheaper than places like Teds, and only slightly more expensive than the grey market importers.
image from Panasonic
The camera is my attempt to force myself to take more photos of daily life. I take a lot of photos at Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class to experiment with the manual controls. Hopefully I’ll get confident enough that when it comes time to take spur-of-the-moment photos I don’t panic and default back to the automatic settings.
I went for a superzoom because I want this to be my holiday camera, and I remember when James and I were in Thailand I would constantly curse my little Ixus’ crappy zoom. The other thing I love about the camera is the articulated screen, which makes taking high shots and self-portraits much easier.
The FZ100 is a lot heavier than my old Canon Ixus, so instead of a wrist strap I bought a nice leather one to go around my neck.
I love the substantial feel of the leather and the neon stripes. The leather was actually too thick to go through my camera lugs, so James bought some tiny metal rings from the hardware store to attach the strap to the camera. The hardware store guy couldn’t be bothered ringing up a 10c sale so he just gave them to James for free. =)
I also bought a lens filter, an SD card, a neoprene camera case and a gorillapod, which pretty much sets me up for basic camera accessories. There are a lot of upcoming photo opportunities (Christmas, James’ month off, BJJ Pan Pacs, trips down to Shoreham, and a few weddings in January) and I will be ready for them with my newish camera and my newish camera accoutrements.
Diary of a Pampered Housewife 