Just back from Lanza (again)

[ILUVLANZ]

A week of very mixed weather with more rain than Iv'e experienced in all my previous Lanza trips, but Lanzarote is just as beautiful come rain or shine with breathtaking skies a few of which I've attempted to capture.

[peggy]

Lovely atmospheric photos, shame about the weather.

[Jackie H.]

OMG-great piccies but doesn't look like the Lanza.we know and love does it?

[Bruce]

Just like Iluvlanz I'm just back from a fortnight in PDC and must agree that I've never seen so much rain at this time of year. First week was wall to wall sunshine but lot of wind and rain for the second week but still long spells of sunshine. Got a bit nippy at night though, but who cares it's a damn sight better than here and at least it doesn't get dark until 6'ish

Bruce

[Hotpot]

Beautiful pix. :cool


What camera were you using, iluvlanz?

[ILUVLANZ]

Originally Posted by Hotpot

Beautiful pix. :cool


What camera were you using, iluvlanz?

some were taken with a Canon A640 and the others with a Panasonic DMC FX55, if you right click on the photo and select "exif" all the data is shown.

[Hotpot]

Thanks for that iluvlanz -- much appreciated.

Reason for asking was that I wondered if you'd been using a dSLR or something less fussy.

I've just purchased a Panasonic Lumix DMC TZ3 for my wife as her Christmas present -- so seeing the results you've posted, I'm both relieved (and impressed!)


:xs6

[ILUVLANZ]

Originally Posted by Hotpot

Thanks for that iluvlanz -- much appreciated.

Reason for asking was that I wondered if you'd been using a dSLR or something less fussy.

I've just purchased a Panasonic Lumix DMC TZ3 for my wife as her Christmas present -- so seeing the results you've posted, I'm both relieved (and impressed!)


:xs6

Great choice, you should both be very impressed with the Panny. I do usually use a DSLR (Canon 20d) but as mentioned in one of my earlier posts the weight and bulk of carrying a DSLR with accompanying lenses is becoming to much of a hassle with stringent weight regulations on flights so I bought the compact Canon A640, a truly brilliant piece of kit but although compact still not small enough to slip in a pocket whilst wandering around on holiday, the Panasonic slips in the pocket easily and for such a small camera has an amazing array of functions but still providing high quality PQ. The old cliche is "what is the best camera"? the answer, "the one you have with you"....no excuses now with the Panny!

[Hotpot]

Thanks for the encouraging words, iluvlanz! Your situation mirrors mine -- almost! I used to be very proud of my (film) Nikon outfit and lenses and shiny aluminium case. Then I got rid of all the blasted lenses, and the case, and switched to a Tamron lens. Then finally, finally. . . goodbye film, hello digital, and more money on a Canon.

Then goodbye Canon (dust) and hello Minolta A1 (convenience / size) and no premium for IS lenses. And finally, the Konica Minolta A200, six months old and half price from a private seller on eBay ironically wanting to go up to Canon dSLR. The A200 works perfickly (with Photoshop, afterwards).

But even that's becoming a hassle for all the reasons you mentioned re the airborne cattle trucks that purport to be aircraft nowadays. So as my wife, for the first time in her life, has shown an interest in taking pictures (I bought her a Sony Etricsson phone with a 2MP camera in it last Christmas) I thought she'd like a little Panasonic this Christmas.

As, er, indeed so would I for our flights to / travels in Lanza. (And after your reassurance, well: what a thoughtful husband I am!)

:)

[oleoleole]

What I know about photography could easily be written in font size 14 bold on the back of a postage stamp with a well used felt tip, but that’s all about to change.
If I’m a really good boy (and I have been so far this year – honest) then Santa is going to bring me a Fuji Finepix S5700. It’s a respected brand 7.1 MP and 10X OPTICAL zoom for around £120, which I think is bargaintastic value (and more importantly has good reviews which is crucial since I haven’t a clue myself !).
So should be an expert by Feb !
BTW IluvLanza, those pics are exactly the sort of thing that has inspired me to getting the camera, they’re great.

Cheers Ole

[ILUVLANZ]

Originally Posted by oleoleole

BTW IluvLanza, those pics are exactly the sort of thing that has inspired me to getting the camera, they’re great.

Cheers Ole

Glad to hear you're inspired to take some pics Ole. The one accessory I would advise taking even with a tiny compact is a tripod, I take a very cheap plastic one that folds up quite compact and is very light, so can be put in the suitcase, if it's a bit breezy weigh the central supporting struts down with a sock full of sand or stones for stability and use the self timer on the camera to avoid movement, did this with the shot below on a night of the full moon.

[ILUVLANZ]

Some interesting things can happen without a tripod though!

[oleoleole]

Iluvlanza,
Great advice I'm sure, but that's running before I can walk - or crawl even, I really Am a total novice. Advice like that comes in more useful after I've mastered the on/off switch and which way to point it.

Ole

[ILUVLANZ]

Originally Posted by oleoleole

Iluvlanza,
Great advice I'm sure, but that's running before I can walk - or crawl even, I really Am a total novice. Advice like that comes in more useful after I've mastered the on/off switch and which way to point it.

Ole

The beauty of most new cameras is the fact that they take amazing images in full auto mode as most of mine were, it really is a case of turning the camera on, pointing it and shooting it, the the most important factors that will make your pics look professional are to avoid camera shake (tripod), take the same pic at different times of day and you will notice a marked difference as the light changes, early morning and early evening with the sun low in the sky produces best results and most importantly of all use your eyes! I quite often spend a day without the camera just looking at scenes that I think will make for a good image. BTW your Christmas pressie can be got even cheaper, hope it's not already purchased!

http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/5444...mctag=uk_16067

[Jackie H.]

And M&S have got the ideal little tripod in for £5-so put that on your wish list as a stocking filler.:kzx

[oleoleole]

I was walking along the PDC front a couple of weeks ago and decided to walk on the beach side, the sun was about to set over the volcanoes (towards PB) and it was the most spectacular sunset I’ve seen, people were crossing the road just to see it and loads of people were taking photos on their cameras – that was the moment I decided I wanted a camera – so IluvLanza, I know exactly what you mean about looking for scenes which would make a good photo. I actually thi k I’ll be ok at that side of it, just need to get to grips with the complexity of the thing and how different lighting works with different settings etc

Ole

[ILUVLANZ]

Originally Posted by oleoleole

I was walking along the PDC front a couple of weeks ago and decided to walk on the beach side, the sun was about to set over the volcanoes (towards PB) and it was the most spectacular sunset I’ve seen, people were crossing the road just to see it and loads of people were taking photos on their cameras – that was the moment I decided I wanted a camera – so IluvLanza, I know exactly what you mean about looking for scenes which would make a good photo. I actually thi k I’ll be ok at that side of it, just need to get to grips with the complexity of the thing and how different lighting works with different settings etc

Ole

and remember, the great thing about digital is you can snap away to your hearts content, just make sure you have a decent size memory card (1gb or more), delete the pics that havent worked and work out what you did right with the good ones!

[Hotpot]

Originally Posted by oleoleole

Santa is going to bring me a Fuji Finepix S5700. It’s a respected brand 7.1 MP and 10X OPTICAL zoom for around £120, which I think is bargaintastic value
Cheers Ole

Ole: tell Santa to get his act together today rather than waiting any longer.

The S5700 is currently available on Amazon for £103.50p and there's a hell of a bargain also on one of the best SD cards you can buy for this model: the Sandisk SD 2GB Ultra II for £11.99.

(If you want to check against retail price from a High Street store like Jessops, for instance, you'll find the S5700 is £130 and the 2 Gig SanDisk memory card is £45 (eek!).

I've had photographic equipment direct from Amazon co uk before (note: NOT from Amazon Marketplace) and it's been absolutely fine. And only this week, I've taken delivery of a SanDisk Ultra II card -- again, from Amazon co uk direct: not Amazon Marketplace.)

I'd certainly recommend Amazon for speed of delivery and FREE post & packing.

Where the French firm Pixmania is concerned, however, I'd be wary: if you have a look on the 'Net you'll find a number of horror stories about it (in large measure due to delivery delays AND the costs / time involved in sending anything back to it for replacement under warranty -- I think Pixmania asks for stuff to be sent back to France. Great, not.)

I was going to order from Pixmania earlier this year and then read customer reviews on, I think, Pricerunner.

Anyway. Good luck with your new acquisition. . . just make sure it's an acquisition made now though, before Amazon runs out of stock or delivery schedules become so overloaded by the Christmas rush that you don't get anything from Santa at all. . .

The camera's a superb piece of equipment and as for the SanDisk card (by the way, it's the genuine article, not the kind of fake found on Amazon Marketplace or eBay UK) the price being asked is downright silly!

[oleoleole]

I believe Santa's elves ARE already on the case, not sure if with Amazon or pixmania - depends on reliable delivery to Lapland I expect.
I've also mentioned the SD cards and a case as stocking fillers.

I seem to remember that on Mrs Ole's camera it was quite laborious to scroll through the pictures stored on the card, I remember thinking that it's probably better to have a few smaller capacity cards than a single big one ? Does that sound right ?

Ole

[ILUVLANZ]

Originally Posted by oleoleole

I believe Santa's elves ARE already on the case, not sure if with Amazon or pixmania - depends on reliable delivery to Lapland I expect.
I've also mentioned the SD cards and a case as stocking fillers.

I seem to remember that on Mrs Ole's camera it was quite laborious to scroll through the pictures stored on the card, I remember thinking that it's probably better to have a few smaller capacity cards than a single big one ? Does that sound right ?

Ole

I have only used Pixmania's pickup store in Fulham West London so cannot vouch for their reliabilty delivery wise, as said above you can't go wrong with Amazon.

As for the memory cards I personally have no problem "scrolling through my images which I always download to my pc and onto a cdrom too and then deleting all from the card for further use. It is a good idea however if you are planning a photo event such as a wedding, holiday, birthday event etc to use more than one single card, even the best cards (and I agree Sandisk are the best) can on a rare occasion become "corrupted", hence if everything is stored on one card you could lose an entire event.

[Hotpot]

Originally Posted by oleoleole

I seem to remember that on Mrs Ole's camera it was quite laborious to scroll through the pictures stored on the card, I remember thinking that it's probably better to have a few smaller capacity cards than a single big one ? Does that sound right ?Ole

Iluvlanz'z advice is spot on. Yup, one basket carrying all eggs is Not A Good Idea. Then again, one place for storing all eggs isn't that wise, either.

I've forgotten the LCD screen size of your new Fuji but seem to recollect it's ample big enough to see the shots you've taken and then delete those you don't like on a daily basis: no point in cluttering up the card's memory with stuff you'll throw out when you get home.

For holidays, I take 1 x 2Gig card and 2 X 1Gig card. Reason is, I don't have a camcorder, nor see much need for one, so "shoot" what video I think will be nice to watch back home on the 2Gig card. (Which, of course, also takes the still pix.)

The 2Gig is great for video because of its extra capacity -- when you're shooting at 30 frames per second, you can use up memory pretty quickly. Then again though, with a camera like yours, the LCD screen will be perfect for checking playback quality (sorry, I'm assuming there is a video recording facility on the S5700.)

But I do swap cards around during a holiday for the reason iluvlanz identifies: even something as good as a SanDisk product can go wrong (rare, I know, but the possibility exists) so having only one card is taking a bit of a risk.

Everyone will have different preferences but I find SanDisk's Ultra II range ideal. There are faster cards from SanDisk and other manufacturers but to be honest, the "happy holiday snapper" like wot I am neither needs that speed nor that type of card's ability to function at minus 20C. Well, not unless Lanza's weather takes a turn for the worse. . . And the cost is exponentially higher for super-fast cards anyway.

I'd recommend a pair of 1Gig Ultra IIs to go with the 2Gig. Amazon's prices are incredibly good value. And, of course, when you start to do the maths by comparing today with yesteryear, then the cost benefits of digital become even more obvious:

4Gigsworth of Sandisk cards will yield 1,000 highest quality pix and TV quality video for around £25.

Not so long ago, £25 bought six rolls of 35mm ASA64 Kodak Gold color film and just about covered the cost of developing and printing at postcard size. (And then it turned out, half the pix were no good anyway!)

With your 3 SanDisk Ultra IIs, every pic will count and nothing will be wasted -- just make sure not to let the total pile up in memory!

* iluvlanz: sorry, I re-read my earlier post, hope you didn't think I was criticising you for mentioning Pixmania -- definitely not my intention! :doh

Being able to buy at a discounted price from a physical "shop" beats the Internet any time: none of the hassle of emails and phone calls and boxing stuff up for return etc etc if the worst happens.

'S one of the reasons why I joined Argos's "update" service because its returns policy is excellent and also because there are times when its sale prices are incredibly low -- trouble is, Argos restricts the availability of heavily discounted items so by the time most people realise there are "massive bargains" to be had, the bargains have already all gone to those subscribing to email updates.

The S5700 is currently £130 at Argos so is poor value. Dixons has it for £103 -- but Dixons doesn't offer collect-from-store (if there are any Dixons stores left anyway!) and I'd tend to stick with Amazon over the Dixons / Currys group any day.

[oleoleole]

OK ta for the card advice, the prices are indeed amazing, I seem to remember Mrs Ole buying a 256 mb one for around £30 not too many years back. But then again I remember working in a Computer room where Exchangeable Discs (they were all the rave at the time) with that much storage sat in what looked like top-loading washing machines and there were about 100 of them in a huge room.
Anyway I digress, back to cameras, this S5700 can apparently take 35mins movie on a 2mb card “at almost indistinguishable quality from expensive digital camcorders.” And it’s got a Optical 10X zoom, digital 4.8X and 2.5 inch LCD display, 7.1 MP packed full of bells and whistles, for just over £100, sounds too good to be true, and so it probably will be but I’ll find that out soon.
Ole

[Jackie H.]

Like ILuvLanz said earlier.......most of today's cameras are very easy for the normal holiday shots of "aim and fire". My Canon takes great pics without getting involved with any teccie stuff.

Think back to rolls of film cameras when you snapped away on holiday, spent a fortune getting them all developed, then asked yourself why you bothered taking half of them. That's the beauty of the digi's, just delete all the rubbish ones as you go and you should end up with some decent pic's.

We will all look forward to seeing your xmas piccies in the New Year Ole! :wnk

Ole....and avoid Pixmania like the plague-you remember my Tom-Tom experience with them? Nightmare!

[islandgirl414]

wow...I thought i was confused by the Santa thread but now I'm really pickled....I am like one of the earlier posters that said i'm doin' well to point the camera and just click..but I LOVE my camera...i keep tellin' hubby he can just re-wrap it and put it back under the tree again each Christmas...(obviously easy pleased!)....but can i also just say there are some really awesome pics in all of these threads....don't want to reply to all of them cause that would look silly so thought i would choose this one!....
I did actually ask in another thread and will ask here too....is there much kiteboardin' done there??....maybe i will just make my own thread....:)
Great site you guys have here...has been thoroughly enjoyable readin' ...:)
Merry Christmas to you all...and keep up with the photos...they're brill!

[Hotpot]

Originally Posted by oleoleole

this S5700 can apparently take 35mins movie on a 2mb card “at almost indistinguishable quality from expensive digital camcorders.” And it’s got a Optical 10X zoom, digital 4.8X and 2.5 inch LCD display, 7.1 MP packed full of bells and whistles, for just over £100, sounds too good to be true, and so it probably will be but I’ll find that out soon.
Ole

Au contraire, as they say, er, somewhere. It's not too good to be true. It's a fortuitous outcome of time and circumstance where you're concerned, because I doubt hi-tech consumer prices will continue on as they are for much longer. The price you're paying (Santa is being paid, whoops, sorry) represents superior value, not inferior quality.

So that's it now. No excuse: these pages must next year be filled with lubbly jubbly piccies from ole's Chrissie present. :hot

[oleoleole]

OK, Standby for close-ups of my nose and strange photos of my feet and short movies of nothing in particular but with my voice in the background asking what does that red light mean - whilst i get to grips !

Ole

[Hotpot]

Originally Posted by oleoleole

OK, Standby for close-ups of my nose and strange photos of my feet and short movies of nothing in particular but with my voice in the background asking what does that red light mean - whilst i get to grips !

Ole

Perfickly acceptable.

It's when there's a combination of short movies and someone asking what does that red light district mean that I start to worry. . .

:xs6

[oleoleole]

Camera great but haven't got much of a clue how to use it yet, the manual is in ****ing French and I'm having to work from a downloaded PDF version.

:trtrm :tft :angry :agry :swear

Moral of the story - as said before, avoid PIXMANIA

Cheers - Ole

[Jackie H.]

You'll never learn will you? :lol Won't be told you kids!:fool

[Hotpot]

Nah.

I am NOT going to say anything.


:st


. . .. but 'onest, oleole. . . I mean, really. . . . oh Gawd. . . . aaargh. . . .


Sherioushly though: it's no big deal. Many of the camera manufacturers only provide a manual in PDF on CD. So you have to print the darn things out anyway.

By buying from Pixmania, you not only have the same PDF opportunity as many others.

You also have the added advantage of being able to speak fluent French at the end of it all.

Can't be bad (I leave it to you to translate that in due course. . .)


:llolol