Grandma's Camera

It is no sin to get older and to have grandchildren. Nor is it wrong to want to have thousands of pictures of them plastered over the house and the internet. It is, however, a dreadful and terrible thing to make those pictures look bad. Nowadays there is no excuse for the out-of-focus image with heads lopped off and the colour gone to mud. Modern cameras can do better than that...

But we older folk sometimes are not entirely up to the minute with the latest technology in cameras. We remember film and the simple camera that coped with outdoor pictures - the family gathered on the front lawn or at the dinner table. We pointed, shot, and let the chemist deal with the rest of the problems. The resultant prints went into albums and on the refrigerator and we were happy.

Well, take the chemist out of the equation - Heaven knows that we'll be seeing enough of them with our swollen, itchy, or leaky bits...we don't need them to be the arbiters of our images as well.

The camera that does it automatically, easily, and with clarity is the thing we need. If there are only one or two buttons to press, all the better - but we must have clean files on our computers or to give to the mall printer so that the grandies look like we think they look. Olympus has one of these that is perfect for us.

The Stylus SH 50 is small enough to be convenient but big enough to be easily grasped. It is precise and fast - press the button and it does the business right then. There is a long zoom lens in case the grandies are at the beach and a wide-angle lens in case we are on holiday  and get to the big scenic lookout. There is a flash that lets us take indoor images perfectly.

It does do video - just point and shoot. The video has good clear sound - in stereo. And it has a priceless asset - there is a shake-reduction device  it that operates no mater how we hold it - if we have a bit of a tremor it does not matter - the camera will smooth it out.

Best of all - it is on special now until Christmas at Camera Electronic for $ 314 complete. Just add a memory card and start shooting.

I'm a Laydee - I'm a Laydee...

Sorry, its one of those television buzz-phrases that just lodge in the mind. But this certainly IS a camera for a Laydee.

Nikon Coolpix S01. Internal memory - 7.3 GB - no card needed. Internal battery - charges off the USB port of your laptop or other digital device. 10.1 Megapixels, 3x zoom lens, touch screen control, even does HD 720p videos.

And the size - that's a real 50 cent piece in the images - and a real hand.

Comes in gloss black or shiny silver. Peerfect for pocket or purse - even an evening handbag.

In-store right now.

Yay - Back In the Saddle With Pentax

Yippee - Tie-Yoh Pentax have got their mojo back.

After years of stylistic bouncing about, Pentax have wisely looked into their past and come out with a design that remembers how good things were.

I mean the new Pentax MX-1 camera. If you remember the Pentax MX cameras in the 35 mm film days, the features that stick in the mind were the solid build, compact size, and great feel of the top and bottom metal body panels. Pentax were wise and chamfered them to allow your hands to feel comfortable. Someone in their design department in the 70's knew their ergonomics - or more to the point, knew ours...

The new MX-1 has continued this tradition - so much so that the top and bottom plates are not just chamfered, but are actual brass pressings with proper chrome. As a result, the camera body has a solidity that is missing in some other brands.

The usual access controls have a solid feel to them as well - three dial wheels as well as the multi-selector. The screen is the horizontal tilt type so macro and low-level shots are easy. There is a 4 x zoom range and a macro facility that is bitingly sharp. There is a built-in flash for dark and an HDR program for lots of other conditions. 12 megapixels.

In all, a really well-thought-out travelling camera - this is the the one for the European vacation.