Out with the old; in with the new

Most of my blips in 2010 were taken on my trusty 7-year old Olympus Mju 400.

But the poor thing has been struggling recently - its wheeze into life takes 10 seconds, battery is constantly running out at bad moments, storage of 128Mb is struggling to keep pace with my snapping, and its 4 megapixels just aren't enough.

So farewell then, faithful servant (although you might be brought out at nostalgic moments). We had some great times together...

... and hello to your replacement, a new Sony Cybershot W310. It's faster, sleeker, has 12 megapixels, and 200 times the storage. Some reviews have said the picture quality is poor, but this looks fine (and I have the Nikon SLR for when I want more than snaps). The clincher for me was the special price of £80: the IXUS may be better, but is it £50 better? Well, time will tell.

Interestingly my new Cybershot cost me one third what the mju did over 7 years ago. Food and heating may be getting dearer, but electronics continue to get cheaper.