Technology Abounding

Well, with my DC trip coming up in a few days, and with a little extra cashola burning a hole in my pocket, I made John venture to Costco with me to look at cameras. Man is it overwhelming to research them - there are more cameras to read about then laptops and TVs. Ugh. Anyway, I had settled on looking at two, which were also great deals at Costco: the Panasonic Lumix FH27 and the Sony Cybershot T99.

Both are good ol' point-and-shoots under $200. While I would love to take a photography class or play around with it in general, I have not the time or money to start that up right now. Plus, digital cameras are pretty great these days so I didn't need anything fancy. The one I currently have is unfortunately outdated and takes poor pictures, as is well-documented in this blog. Not horrible, but the megapixels it has are standard on most cameraphones, so... it was time for an upgrade. I will still keep it though. The Nikon Coolpix has done me well.

Panasonic Lumix FH27 (here).
Pros: 16 megapixels, 8x zoom, 720p HD video, blah blah blah. Also touchscreen, which gets mixed reviews but I like. At Costco it came with a little case and a 4Gb memory card. Nothing big, but not too shabby. $199. Rated well for shutter speed and overall point-and-shoot quality. Intelligent auto.
Cons: No sweeping panorama feature, which I think is fun. Thicker, older appearance. More expensive.

Sony Cybershot T99 (similar one here).
Pros: 14 megapixels, 4x zoom, touchscreen, sweeping panorama. Sleek styling. Came with small carrying case and 2GB memory card. $170. Intelligent Auto feature.
Cons: Less megapixels and zoom. Rated slightly lower for slower shutter speed.

We went with the cybershot. My sister got it for Christmas from her great boyfriend and loves it, although she hasn't used it too much. I was playing around with it tonight and I can already tell that my pictures are improved. I'm excited to find some time to take new house photos. It should be fun to take to DC and on our cruise this summer, too!

I also got a laptop backpack... a $20 version from Target. I was going to get a messenger bag, but my partner teacher was right when she said it's not as handy. I need to take my laptop with me for my graduate class, so this will work out well.

My mom is letting me borrow her Nook for the trip. I've been interested in one (possibly as my birthday present), so I'm trying it out. It's the original version, which I like, but I can see its limitations. I love the newspaper-print screen, though. Seems easier to read.

Anyway, that's my technology-filled Friday for you. Busy few days ahead of us - John needs to go to Yakima for work tomorrow so I'm tagging along for company. We're taking his work's Grand Caravan, and he parked it in the garage tonight. It was a little freaky to see a minivan in our garage... eep! But, I'm ashamed to say I'm a little excited to road trip it in the van because I can easier scoot into the back to do some homework. I'd like to get ahead on next week's homework so I'm not up late in DC doing it...

Alright, good night all!