Sunshine & Flowers

We have been enjoying several days of blazing June, and I have been wondering why on earth I chose an office based career, and not one whch would allow me to be out in the sunshine. (Of course, I can't think, off hand, of a career which would allow me to spend nice days out in the sunshine while ensuring that I would be snug inside when it is wet or cold - and if I could, I would probably not be qualified for it, but a girl can dream...)

Tybalt and I spent much of Saturday out in the back garden, in the sunshine .

As well as enjoying the sunshine, I was also playing with my new camera, bought in preparation for my upcoming holiday, and on the basis that my exisiting camera was becoming increasingly temperamental. If I am honest, I would probably have to admit that my having dropped it on more than one occasion may have been a contributing factor to that.

I have been planning to get a new camera for some time, and have been going through the process of reading reviews, and looking at different models in shops, and getting very confused because there is so much damn choice.

I also have a sneaking suspicion that if you are talking about a comapct digital camera there probably isn't a great deal to choose between them for the average user (i.e. Me) as everything has heaps of megapixels, and such like.

Which is why I ended up going to the local small-but-knowledgable camera shop, which has the double advantage on being (a) small - so the choice becomes more limted, and thus less overwhelming and (b) knowlegable - so that they can actually give advice when you say 'this is what I have at the moment, and these are the things I like about it and these are the things I'd like it to do better', which of these cameras can do that best?

Of course, what I really want is a camera which will take photographs as if it were a digital SLR, while being as small, light and cheap as an ultra compact camera and with exactly the same controls as my old camera which I am used to, but I don't think they have started making that one yet!

So the one I have actually ended up with is a Panasonic Lumix FS6. So far, it scores on being small and light (with my dodgy shoulder, I have learned the hard way that even quite light things rapidly become uncomfortable to carry, so weight is a real issue for me)

The pictures seem at least as good in terms of sharpness etc. as I was getting previously, and it can get better close-ups, and has a little more in the way of Zoom, which is good.

On the downside, the menus etc. are a little more complex and therefore slower, and also, it is rather blue & shiny. After I had finally decided which camera I was going to buy, it turned out that they only had pink and blue ones in stock, not silver; they could have ordered a non-blue one for me, but my availability and their opening hours would have meant I didn't get the camera until a few days before I go away, which doesn't seem ideal. I suppose I could have gone and bought one elsewhere but that seems a bit unfair, after the small-but-knowledgable had spent the best part of an hour going through the options with me...

Mostly I do not regard my camera as an accessory, so I'm sure I shall get over the blue-ness.

In other news, I am still finding I am very achy and stiff following my RTA - spending 10 mins lying flat on my back on the floor every few hours seems to help, but although I can do this when I am in the office, (although it does attrach some slightly odd looks) it isn't really practical when I am in court, as I was today. *sigh*