Welcome to the new camera family member

Out with the old ... in with the new.

My Pentax Optio 430RS has done sterling service. it's been in active use since 2002, although this isn't the original that was presented to me as a leaving present when I left a previous job. That was a 330RS, as I recall, which suffered the ignominy of being left on the roof of my car outside my son's flat in Putney - never to be seen again. Did it survive the inevitable fall from the car, I'll never know. So this one is the replacement and it's been all over the world. At the time, it was reasonably state of the art - a 4megapixel camera with a good lens and good battery life (it's had two replacements). It suffered from a displacement of the viewfinder optic - which could never seem to be rectified - and has been very reliable ... until recently. It's had real difficulties switching-off. This appears to be connected to the USB connection to my Macbook Pro which has been amplified recently by my use of blipfoto. So, although it was consistently taking better pictures than both my Sony-Ericsson Cybershot C902 and my Blackberry Bold 9000 camera companions, it was unreliable and I couldn't depend on it working when I wanted it to. I'm afraid that's a cardinal sin for a camera, so retirement was in order.

So, after a couple of days of research using Which? as a start but after reading many reviews and consulting friends, I plumped for the Panasonic Lumix DMC TZ10. The decision I had to make was whether to go for the complete travel replacement for my DSLR kit - namely a Canon G11 - or whether to go for the Canon Isus 210-IS or the Lumix. After deciding that the G11 was both too heavy and bulky to go with me everywhere, the decision came down to the Lumix or the Isus. All the reviews I read, plus my friend Paul's recommendation, pointed at the Lumix so a quick Amazon order resulted in the delivery (less than 24hours later) of the new toy!

The weather today is just appalling again - constant drizzle - so the tests and trials of the new system will have to wait, but it will now be the system of choice for the regular daily entries to this journal. Indeed with it's GPS built-in it may become a regular companion on my walking trips; as part of the justification for the camera was that I was going to have to fork-out nearly £100 for a better ruck sack that would provide good protection for the Sony Alpha body and lens.

So I'm looking forward to using the new camera, testing it out, seeing what it can do. Also seeing whether the movie mode matches up to the Flip Ultra I've bought recently. This marks a real change in direction for me as I try and focus on capturing a good photo everyday, wherever I am - something I just can't do with the heavy and bulky Alpha. That I'll reserve for serious photography when the whole purpose of the shoot is the picture. Hopefully the Lumix will become my companion, going everywhere with me in the same way as my phone does. We'll see!

PS Of course the Pentax worked perfectly this morning as I wrote this piece - it would, wouldn't it :-)