New Camera, Panasonic DCM-FZ8

My first camera was a “110” (took “110 film”, almost undoubtedly a Kodak, maybe like the Kodak Ektra 100 – although I think I had a couple different ones over the years). After the 110s I had a few simple 35mm cameras, nothing to earth shaking.

In December 2000 I got my first digital camera, a Kodak DC280 Zoom – you can see my very first digital pictures here. The DC280 was a solid camera which served me nicely (and my brother-in-law after me). Toward the end of 2003 I was in the market for a new camera, something with better picture quality, more megapixels, etc. I had just seen the Panasonic DMC-FZ10 and loved it (and have been watching the Panasonic DMC-FZ cameras ever since), but wanted something that I could use with scuba diving, so I ended up getting the Canon A80. I’ve loved the A80 and never regretted the decision to get it- I have taken literally thousands of pictures with it, even a lot of great underwater pictures.

Since we moved east I have been taking more pictures than ever before and the A80 has started to feel just a little “dated”. I still feel that four megapixels is certainly enough for almost every situation – we rarely print our pictures and generally just view them on Flickr and usually the biggest is in the Flickr “Slideshow mode” — mostly I desired a camera that [a] started up faster [b] focused a lot faster (time from pressing the button to the time I can actually take the picture) [c] much faster from shot-to-shot  [d] had a much stronger optical zoom and [e] had image stabalization. Primarily because of the optical zoom, I decided to not put the same limits on physical size when I was making my selection – I plan to keep the A80 for underwater photography and use this one above the water. I was initially considering the Canon S5 IS but found a much better deal on the Panasonic DMC-FZ8 so decided on it.

The Panasonic DMC-FZ8 arrived on Saturday, I charged the battery, and on Sunday we took a trip with some friends to Tarrytown, NY to just walk around and check out the town. I took a bunch of pictures and and came to the following conclusions: I prefer the size of the A80, I prefer that the A80 takes AA batteries, and I prefer that the A80 has a “swivel out screen”, otherwise, the FZ8 is absolutely superior in every respect. The 12x optical zoom is amazing. The image stabilization seems to work great.  The FZ8 is slightly larger (mostly because of the lens) but it is relatively light and comfortable in the hand. The “view finder” is LCD based so you see pretty much everything on it that you would see on the normal (large) LCD, which is really neat, especially in bright situations. The FZ8 user interface is verbose and very easy to use. The camera doesn’t suffer from “button overload” but has enough to get the job done. The Canon S5 would have addressed a couple of my complaints (AA batteries, “swivel out” LCD, but I am really pleased with the FZ8 and for a third less money it seems almost a no brainer – plus I’m not wasting a bunch of AA batteries. I’ll use the FZ8 for the next few weeks (road trip) and build a more complete impression, but so far I feel it was a great choice.

I am the hero of Cyrodiil!

I’m fully back into the swing of things with Oblivion on the 360. I’ve completed the “Main Quest” now I am working on all of the side quests and guild quests (I have 610 points out of 1000). Still having a lot of fun, we’ll see if I get all 1000 (or 1250 with the expansion game) or if something comes out that distracts me again (I have a month before Guitar Hero 3 launches, although I’ll be gone for about half of that time). Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass comes out for the Nintendo DS on October 1st, I’ll undoubtedly spend many commuting hours playing that. I’ve played some of Jeanne a’Arc on the PSP but haven’t gotten “hooked” yet.

The Halo3 launch party is today at the Manhattan Best Buy that is near Grand Central Station. I stopped by and saw them setting up, there were only like 3 people in line. I stopped in and said hi to MajorNelson whose podcast I listen to every week. I’ve played Halo and Halo2 but I’m not planning on running out and getting Halo3 – I’m interested in reading some reviews and will undoubtedly play it eventually, I’ll just let the “rabid” folks get it first – especially since I will be “road tripping” soon and wouldn’t really be able to enjoy it.

The Digital Life show is at the end of this week. I’m really looking forward to seeing what crazy new tech and gaming stuff is at the show. We’ll be there most of the day on Thursday.

The value of (older) electronics

 

Back in my freshman year of college (1988) somebody turned me on to RPN calculators, specifically those made by HP. I tried several models, notably the HP-22S, the HP-28C, and the HP-32S and weighing cost vs. performance vs. usability I ended up with the HP-32S. Getting any of the HP RPN calculators was an investment (especially for a poor college student). I think my HP-32S cost $70 or $80 (quite a sum for a calculator, especially when one looked at the Casios that “appeared” to be equivalent), but those of us who “knew the difference” knew it was worth getting the HP. I was never disappointed with my investment, it is a fantastic calculator. I used it all through college and for a while after that. Even now, while I don’t use the HP-32S anymore (but I do know which box it is in), the calculator software I use on my Treo 650 is RPN by Nth Lab – a great program that I have been using for years. The old adage is true: once you go RPN you can never go back.

So… you might ask, what got my thinking about my old RPN calculator again? I was walking to work yesterday and found a TI BAII+ calculator sitting on the ground. I picked it up and it seems to work fine (although nobody would confuse with a brand new one). I cleaned it up a bit and did a search to read about it. Brand new it seems to sell for about $40ish and on ebay they seem to go for $20ish, which is about what I expected. Just for a grin, I decided to search ebay for the HP-32S, which has been discontinued for many years. It seems that the HP-32S sells used for for between $125 and $180 (and i have heard of people buying them for upwards of $300). Absolutely astonishing, especially considering the HP-33S is now available and only costs about $40 – I guess people haven’t gotten the word about the HP-33S because – probably because HP didn’t make any decent RPN calculators for several years.

The Weekend and a touch more

For the weekend (when I wasn’t playing Oblivion).  I had lunch with a friend at MOgridder’s in the Bronx – very tasty BBQ from an unlikely location. Afterward, we went to see Shoot ’em Up which is unapologetic “gun porn” but a lot of fun (and completely unrealistic). On Sunday we went to The Bronx Zoo – as expected I took a bunch of pictures so you can share in the experience. It’s a great zoo, absolutely huge (I had no idea it was so expansive). We had two complaints… The first was the almost complete lack of staff / volunteers / docents in the various areas – we saw a guy doing something, well, he really shouldn’t be (you can ask me in person if you want details) – we tried to get somebody to do something about it and while the staff (after we hunted them down) seemed shocked, they really didn’t seem to have any interest in doing anything about it – they did finally confront him but “he was nice so we didn’t feel we should kick him out” (not an exact quote). The second issue is that a great deal of the premium exhibits cost extra – you spend $14 to get into the zoo but to see several of the premium exhibits you buy them separately or get a “Pay one Price” ticket for $25. No, $25 isn’t outrageous it just seemed “odd” to us – it’s probably the norm now.

Now, for the “touch more” (just in case you care) I finished BioShock this last week. Not a “I played it on easy and finished it” – I finished it on hard and got 1000/1000 gamerscore. I came, I saw, I … What a fantastic game. Not a thing I would change about it. I hope it gets game of the year – I cannot imagine that the single player part of Halo3 will have anything on BioShock. For the first time in probably over a year I put the Oblivion disc back into the 360. I bought Oblivion the same day I bought the 360 and really enjoyed it but stopped playing it to play, umm… something else. It took a couple days to “get the hang of it” again, but now I am fully back into the swing of playing Oblivion. Fun game, sometimes frustrating (and a huge time sink) but lots of fun. Just to give you an idea of what I mean when I say “huge time sink” – estimates range from 100-200 hours to “complete” the game, the latter is likely closer.

An evening of HORROR!

The missus (not really a horror fan) was out for the afternoon so I decided to head over to the nearby megaplex to see Rob Zombie’s re-imagining of Halloween, on of my favorite horror flicks. I would say he did a solid job telling the story within the story of Halloween. It had its flaws, nowhere near perfect or the best horror film out there, but if you like Rob Zombie movies (and he makes some great ones) and you liked the original Halloween, you’ll probably enjoy this one too.

To round off the evening, the missus and I watched Return of the Living Dead, which is more comedy than horror (but I wasn’t able to convince one of my my high  school girlfriends of that fact) – I saw this movie first run in the theater (wow, 1985!?!? – I thought it was later than that) and still enjoy it every time I watch it. Funny story, very campy, incredibly bad script and worse acting, but a lot of fun.