New camera

For Mother's Day, I told Thom I wanted to finally get a better video camera. I've been filming video with our 4 MP Canon PowerShot for the last 2 years. It's OK, but you can't zoom in and out while filming and the video is fairly small. So Thom researched various options, looking at a couple of dedicated video cameras that were compact and high def, but after watching sample videos from them on YouTube, I wasn't impressed with the image stabalization (i.e. the picture was very shaky, especially if the videographer was moving at all). Then Thom found a point-and-shoot camera that takes HD video (during which you can zoom in and out) and takes 14 MP photos.

It is the Kodak Easyshare Z1485 IS. It has optical image stabalization which is supposed to be better than digital IS and is lightweight, easy to use and has a few options for batteries, including using 2 lithium AAs. It came with a non-rechargable battery pack, so we also ordered rechargables for it and an 8 GB memory card. I like that it takes still photos, too, so we don't have to lug around 2 cameras. And best of all, it was well under $200 on Amazon.com.

The photo above is my first test shot, taken during Aaron's lunch yesterday. None of the photos here have been cropped or reduced in size. Usually I do both before posting photos here, but I wanted to show the camera's capabilities. (You need to click on the photos to see them in full size, as blogger does reduce in this posting.)

Here are a couple of photos of Aaron's playdate yesterday with some neighbor girls, one in the sandbox, and one inside playing doctor.

Here are a few shots I took just to test out the camera.

I did play around with the video capabilities, but none of my test videos were worth posting here. I'll post some in the future. I was pleased with the quality of the video so far.

I also want to test out indoor shots at night. My main complaint with the Canon was that my indoor night shots were coming out blurry and full of red eye. Depending on how the Kodak Easyshare does, I may still want to get an SLR camera, one with those big lenses that take great pictures. But since I'm not a great photographer anyway, I didn't want to spend big bucks on a camera that I still may not get good results with. If I go that route, we'll try to find a used one to save some money.