Hewie's Views and Reviews
By Hewie Poplock

Welcome to this issue of Hewie's Views & Reviews. Be sure to visit Hewie's Favorites at http://www.hewie.net/ .

++++ Choosing a new camera
++++ New additions to Hewie's Favorites


++++ Choosing a new camera

This past month I decided to put all of my personal problems aside and buy myself a new digital camera. I have been using a 2 megapixel Canon for the past 5 years. I paid dearly to have a state-of-the-art camera back then. For my uses, I did not need a higher resolution camera, so it has been more than adequate.

A 2 megapixel camera takes pictures of up to 1600x 1200 which are about 1.5 megabytes each. To use on a website, pictures should be 25 or 30 kilobytes and 300 or 400 pixels across. Since most of the pictures that I take are bigger than needed, I have to edit them with PhotoShop or Paint Shop Pro. For this reason my 2 MP camera has been more than I needed.

I like to take pictures at conferences and recently I have been snapping water and scenery pictures. Both require some zooming in on a subject and having the focused object at quite a distance. I began to look at several cameras with good zooming, in the 8x or greater range. Kodak, Fujitsu, Panasonic and Olympus, among others had models that I wanted to compare.

I began my search off line. I hit the streets and checked out many of the stores that stock and display cameras. I looked at the many models and took notes of the ones that had features that fit my purpose. I made sure that I talked to a salesperson in each store. It's amazing the knowledge that some possess and the lack of it that others do. But I digress.

Once I scoped out my wishes and some model numbers, I began my web searching for information and comparisons. One of the best sites for reviews and digital camera information, as well as links to other sites is http://www.steves-digicams.com which also has good close-up pictures of all of the reviewed models.

I searched several of the online camera stores and many of the sites have ways of comparing models and brands that you chose. This helped me narrow my search. I decided on the Panasonic Lumix FZ20 for its zooming ability and a built in feature of jitter reduction, especially in low light or using the telephoto zoom. I really liked the ability to focus and adjust lighting on the zoomed object.

The chosen model is reviewed at http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_reviews/fz20.html with a lot of pictures of the camera. The camera has a 12x optical zoom. When looking at this feature, the key word is optical not digital. Digital zooming usually is not as clear and pixelates (lots of little squares are visible).

With such a good camera, I was surprised that it is packaged with a paltry 16MB SD memory card. I searched and found a 1GB SD card with rebate and free shipping to be less than $70. I also checked for additional proprietary batteries for the unit and found one brand for $16 and another for $44. I ordered one of each, in case the cheap brand had less of a useful life than the more expensive one. All of the batteries are rated for 200 plus pictures when fully charged.

So far I have been amazed at the quality of the pictures, even with zoomed objects. I took a picture of a sign at about 2 miles away in the Banana River from my dining room and through a screened patio and still was able to read the lettering. I am getting some fantastic pictures. However, cropping and editing is definitely needed to be able to share them. Be prepared to be bored with lots of pictures from me.

++++ New additions to Hewie's Favorites

Cameratown
http://www.cameratown.com/
Digital Photography Portal with Camera reviews, rebate info, instruction manuals, free software, and photography classes

Podcast Bunker
http://www.podcastbunker.com/
Podcast Directory of High Quality Podcast,30 second previews,Podcast Tips & Tools

User Groups
http://www.06usergroups.com/
Source for information and resources related to user groups

911VoIP
http://www.911voip.org/
Information needed about emergency services if you are deciding to use VoIP for your telephone service

Freebie Source
http://www.thefreebiesource.com/
Extensive database of freebies (free stuff)

SalesCircular
http://www.salescircular.com/
Shows what's on sale at local retail stores every week by collecting data from Sunday newspapers and other ads

Wikipes
http://wikipes.com/
Community-contributed recipe database. Anyone can contribute recipes

Hybrid Car Information and Resources
http://www.hybrid-car.org/
Hybrid Car Organization provides information and resources to consumers interested in hybrid cars and electric vehicles

Print Free Graph Paper
http://www.printfreegraphpaper.com/
Print Cartesian, engineering, polar, isometric and logarithmic graph paper

Sploid
http://www.sploid.com/
News site with a tabloid mentality

Orlando Eats
http://www.orlandoeats.com/
Where to eat in the Orlando Florida area

Incoming Links Development Guide and Directory
http://www.incominglinks.com/
Track down niche, topical directories that cover the subject matter of your interest. Great for web links for a site and for research

twingine
http://twingine.com/
Twin search engine! Compare search results from Yahoo! and Google search engines side by side

ZabaSearch
http://zabasearch.com/
Free People Search. Try it. It's scary

Zoominfo
http://www.zoominfo.com/
Free search engine which harvests the kind of information people might put on a resume, then presents it to anyone searching for it in a detailed summary

Elder Geek on Windows XP
http://www.theeldergeek.com/index.htm
Useful information about Windows XP including tweaks, guides, installation tips, registry edits, pagefile sizing, updates, and an XP Forum

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