Well, I’m finally back. I’ve decided to embrace the goodness that is Wordpress and managed to get it working with a bit of effort. Here’s my past week or so in Haiku form:

New toys to play with
A shiny new camera
And Wacom Bamboo

When pay day hits, it’s a glorious day. I can slowly work my way through my Amazon wish list one item a month, but this time I treated myself to two! I’ve been meaning to buy a new camera ever since I lost my old one a few years ago in New York. It took a good few weeks of researching, going back and forth over whether I should splash out to get a DSLR, or whether a compact will suffice. But then I also wanted to be able to shoot decent video. Have you seen the price of consumer HD camcorders? I really didn’t fancy spending a fortune getting two devices, one to shoot stills and the other to shoot video.

I eventually decided that my best option was to get a DSLR that was also more than capable of shooting HD video. After much deliberating I was erring towards the Canon 7D, or the Panasonic GH1. Both fine cameras that are capable of good looking HD video.

But then I started looking at prices.

As much as I wanted either of the cameras, I just couldn’t justify myself shelling out over £1000 on a piece of  equipment that would satisfy my hobby. Perhaps in a year if I’m really getting into photography then I could consider such a purchase, but not now. So back to the drawing board. DSLR out of the question really. Too expensive for what I need. What do I need? A good camera with full manual controls that shoots HD video.

And in steps this beauty. The Panasonic FZ38, a superzoom bridge camera which ticked all the boxes! I’ve only had a few days, and already I’m very impressed. Easy to use, all the manual controls I want, HD video (albeit in the horrible AVCHD codec), and at a very reasonable price tag of £245.

So I’ll be planning on posting random pictures as the weeks go on, and also some video stuff I have planned. Below are a selection of images I’ve done, and you can check out the rest on my Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mnellis/