Lots of Lenses

Technology is great for the economy. The advances are so rapid that it is often necessary to buy another upgrade or new model. I'm not complaining mind you. This story starts a mere eight years ago. My first digital camera was a 4-megapixel Olympus D-40Z. I bought it in 2002 and was pretty impressed at the time. Although I'd borrowed digital cameras from work, it seemed somewhat amazing to be able to turn the energy stored in AA batteries directly into a jpg file. Its zoom was 2.8x. To be honest, I got some pretty good images out of that camera on SmartMedia cards. I was happy enough with the D-40Z camera so that when it was time to upgrade I stayed with the company.

At the end of 2005, I bought myself an SP350 for Christmas. It was an 8-megapixel device with additional bells and whistles. I had to buy an xD card to save the images but went from 128 megabyte to 1 gigabyte. Moving on up!

More recently, I upgraded to an SP-570 in the autumn of 2008. Staying with Olympus, this camera has proved to be what I had always wanted. It has a 20x optical zoom, 10 megapixel sensor, and a big, solid feel. I don't want the hassle of carrying around an SLR and I'm sure I'd never have the space nor inclination for taking extra lenses on a trip. This camera still uses the silly xD memory cards which max out at 2 GB. It still uses AA rechargables, but now four. I could stay with this for a while longer but I am not going to.

The new Olympus SP800uz is finally out! I haven't seen it advertised yet in Canada but will assuredly pick one up. It has a 30x optical zoom and shoots 14 megapixel images. Finally Olympus has gone with standard SD memory cards. Although I have to give up my AA batteries, the new camera will plug into a USB connector for changing. The most amazing thing for me is that at a list price of $350 it is cheaper than any of its predecessors. I will pick one up before the month of May and our vacation in Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara, Mexico.