New camera
So, on holiday this year (back in early August), I dropped my trusty old Nikon Coolpix 990 on a big rock … that rock being Mt. Snowdon. Ever since then it makes a funny grinding noise whenever it should be focussing. I liked the Coolpix, but it suffered from (a) being large and heavy, and (b) eating batteries like bingo. So, rather than pay for a repair, I decided to invest in a new camera. Choice: an HP R817. I’ve only had it a few days, but first impressions are really nice. It’s tiny compared to the Nikon, takes very nice pictures and in particular handles variable light much better than my old camera. The R817 has some interesting looking modes to play with, but I’ve not really tried them out much yet. With a USB cable and the sharing mode set to ‘Disk Drive’ (on the setup menu) it appeared instantly, with no messing around, on my Linux system. Ergonomically it’s much easier than the Coolpix too, though I dare say Nikon have improved their product since the 990 came out.
Cool new gadget bliss.