Been planning to upgrade my digital compact for a while. Mosh bought me the little Pentax Optio SV about four years ago and it's been brilliant but technology has moved on and, most importantly, so have shutter speeds.
My only real gripes about the SV were the terrible shutter lag which made taking shots of moving objects very tricky if nigh on impossible and the small viewing screen which made it difficult to see the picture, particularly in bright weather.
Anyway Mosh hinted that he might get me a new one for my birthday which would be just in time for our holiday. As I'm familiar with the Pentax and have all the batteries and memory cards that go with it, it made sense to get another, so now I have a shiny new Optio A40.
Haven't really had a chance to play with it much yet as it's only a few days old but I am already impressed with the improvement in the shutter speed and have discovered one or two new little functions that the old model didn't have for example the soft flash:
With full-on flash (left) and soft flash (right) which I think gives the subject a more natural look.
The A40 also has a staggering 12 mega pixel capacity which is way more than I need but nice to have for those one off detailed shots. I remember when Mosh got me the older model which is 5 MP and he said then that was way more than I needed. Technology doesn't half move fast.
So we are off to Greece at the crack of sparrow tomorrow. All the guide books say how photogenic Greece is so I'm hoping to put my new toy through it's paces and you never know I may actually have learnt how to use one or two more functions on it by the end of the fortnight (or Mosh will have worked them out for me, hopefully)