Bookfair

Twice a year, in autumn and spring, we get the Lifeline Bookfair. Second biggest used booksale in Australia. Hundreds of thousands of books. I usually pick up a few boxes and bags, especially on the last day, when they are $10 a bag.

I missed the autumn fair, being in London/Fort Worth, so I made sure I was in line early on today. Half an hour earlier than normal and I still wound up in the same spot. Hmmmm. The line stretched out several hundred metres by the time the doors opened, and then the feeding frenzy was on! I raced to the travel section and snarfed up all the Bill Brysons. Filled up a box.

Not a lot of bargains to be had. Prices go up each year. But it's fun.

I saw Peggysmum there, buying up items for the Heritage Library. She was being paid for it, too. What a job, eh?

Waiting in the sun outside and everyone (including me0 was busy unwrapping themselves. When I got home I immediately changed into shorts. I won't say that summer's here and we've seen the last of the cold weather, buit it's definitely into the pleasant time of the year in between the chill and the heat. Days are getting longer too - changing quite fast.

Kid with a new toy

I've been thinking about a better camera for a while. My Canon A60 is a nice little machine, quite a jump up from the plastic Aldi thing I had previously, but it was starting to show its limitations. Specifically I wanted more zoom and more sharpness, but still in a modest enough package to take on a plane. Preferably a Canon, so it would have the same controls, and keep the same software.

A Bookcrosser in Picton had a huge professional-looking camera with her and I quizzed her about cameras. She put me on to this site which does some pretty impressive reviews about digital cameras. I looked at the reviews for cameras in the 5megapixel 10zoom range, starting with those on special in one of the junk mail leaflets going the rounds.

The Kodak Z740 was the cheapest, and on paper looked like great value. Great value. Small and light too. But the review made it quite clear that the sharpness of the image wasn't quite the thing, and the thing was slow between shots and downright glacial at writing them to the memory card. I want supersharpness and I want to be able to keep up with the action, so those were killer strikes. No image stabilisation either, which its immediate competitors all had.

Panasonic Z5. Next cheapest. Great set of features, probably the pick of the four.

Canon S2 IS. This one got my vote for two reasons. First of all, it's a Canon, so that means a certain commonality of controls and software with the previous model. I hate having to learn different ways of doing the same thing, and going to a different manufacturer means the controls are different and there's a whole new software suite I have to install and get used to. Second, and this was perhaps the thing that really swung the deal, the computer has a flip out screen that tilts and rotates. Sometimes the screen on the back of my A60 is impossible to see if the sun's on it or the angle is wrong or something. I remember in Arlington, I was trying to take low shots of the eternal flame over JFK's grave and it was just impossible to see the screen. I had to guess, and it was pure luck that I got a good one.

I can even flip the screen around so it's facing forward and shoot myself, perfectly framed!

Also, the camera got a good write up for taking pictures in burst mode, and one of the things I want to use this for is photographing aircraft, where the action can move along fairly quickly and I don't want to have to wait a couple of seconds between each shot.

So this afternoon, I compared my estimated tax refund against the price of the thing, gulped a bit and set off to compare prices. I quickly found out that Canberra was running out of these things - some shops didn't have any, some had just one - their display model. None had piles of them stacked up in the back room. JB HiFi next to the Civic library had the cheapest, and they had just one left - the display model. "How much for this shop-soiled camera?" I asked, looking at the sparkling purity of the thing, and he knocked off 5% then and there. Deal I said, and he did the same for a 1 gig memory card about the same size as my thumbnail.

So I burned off a few more credits from my card and walked out with a new camera.

First impressions. It's about twice the size and weight of my other camera, the one Kerri has with her in Beijing. Too big to slip into a pocket or the seatback in an airline seat, but a lot smaller than an SLR. Fine to carry in a backpack or my tote bag.

The 12x zoom is amazing. I'm gunna lurk on the edges of airports and take shots of airliners with this. Or get early morning artsy shots of Black Mountain Tower with the setting moon full behind it. Or be able to get a decent shot of a fairy wren.

Might see if I can post a shot or two of a parrot tomorrow.

First Pic

I've installed the new versions of the software and plugged in the camera. It uses the same cable I've already got, which is a blessing.

( And here's the first pic - Rosie asleep on my old computer chair beside me. )

My China Doll

Today after the conference I went to the Great Wall. I am now a MAN (or so the tour guide assured us everyone who climbed the wall would be) I also sat on a bactrian camel (2 humps) while dressed as a Chinese Princess and had my photo taken. The other photo was of me pretending to sit astride the Chinese Throne. It was of course only a wooden seat but you'll get the effect when you see the picture. Very Imperial I hope.

I'm off to the Forbidden City tomorrow morning and shall try and contact you from Copenhagen in about 32 hours time.

That's my girl!

If it was me, I'd say the same thing in two thousand words.