Cameras

In order of buying:

My first digital camera, Casio Exilim EX-Z55; still the smallest, neatest, easiest to figure out (without the book of words).  Really good photos (especially considering how few pixels it has!).

So why is it sitting in a drawer?

I think it's probably getting a bit long in the tooth.  It's certainly become increasingly forgetful!  I got to the point where re-setting the time and date every time I used it was becoming more bother than the thought of buying a replacement...  Now I have a replacement for the Samsung, it hasn't lost track of the time nearly so frequently; did it need a holiday, maybe?

Samsung, L100 - don't like it very much, and it populates the "description field" in Flickr with "VLUU L100, M100  / Samsung L100, M100" - I don't need that information, I don't want that information, and I can't find out how to stop that information uploading [either from Samsung or Flickr] - not too bad on a few shots, but when you have to select the field individually on several hundred uploads it's enough to make a person buy a new camera!

I only bought it [and, to be fair, it was pretty cheap] because we got the the Shuttle terminal and I realised the Casio was sitting at home - in the middle of the building works, and I really didn't want to miss out on the opportunity to record progress at the house in France at the time of immense change.

It's now my "spare" spare.

Beloved Fuji FinePix F650, RIP - sadly, they don't bounce...

Bigger, clunkier, massively better than the Samsung (and it's replacement, the Sony), and I still miss it!  I don't know why David didn't want it...  [Except he's really not a camera-type person, of course.]

Had I not dropped it, I wouldn't have bought the Sony and I don't think I would have bought the newer Casio.

Replacement Sony Cybershot DSC-S950 - I haven't found it at all intuitive [even with the booklet], and with a Sony-specific card costing £32.99 [£2.99 more than the camera!] from Maplins, I'm not likely to buy another card [have plenty of spares that fit all the other cameras - so I never get caught out without enough memory].  It's gone into a drawer as a spare.

Shiny new Casio Exilim EX-ZR400 - thankfully it's sufficiently intuitive to counteract the completely-in-Japanese paperwork.  OK, that was entirely my choice!  I was banking on it being as easy to use as the old one, and saved quite a lot of money by importing an older (but new) model from Japan - still the most modern of the collection.

I keep meaning to download an instruction manual, but I haven't really needed to consult one yet, so that's on my "To-Do" list.

One thing I have noticed - more pixels = massively more greedy for memory space!  I'm sure the bigger files are better, but I will get around to seeing if I can put it in 'spacesaver' mode until I want to take flower macros.

I'm back to being happy with my camera - thanks, Casio, with an honourable mention to Fuji, as it wasn't their fault I'm incapable of carrying their product safely!

I may still upgrade to a mobile phone with a camera, but this puts off the evil day till I have to evaluate all the non-Microsoft options out there, so it's all good.