Anticipation, Its making me wait.

Have you ever had to wait for something you really wanted? Like that song says, the anticipation can drive you crazy! My birthday is coming up and I’ve been researching for another camera. There’s nothing wrong with the camera I have, but wanted/needed a back-up camera (or a better camera and make the Nikon the backup).

When I started seriously thinking about this, I was looking at the higher-end point and shoots; namely the Panasonic FZ28, the Nikon P80 and the Canon SX10IS. They all had 18 zoom capazity (actually the Canon as 20 zoom), programmed and manual modes and lots of dSLR features. However, only the Canon had a hotshoe available, but it was pricer than I wanted to go. A little more research led me to the Olympus 570 UZ, which actually had a hotshoe. I was familiar with the Olympus ultrazooms (as they were updates the the older Olympus we had that disappeared). I was quite familiar with Nikon’s setup (as it was a step down from my D40), so there would not be a learning curve because all of the menus were the same; but it didn’t have a hotshoe. I was intrigued by the Panasonic because it was the rave all over the web, it was a newer generation of the Lumix FZ20 that I had used for a couple of years and still use from time to time at home (I guess it was too big go grow legs and walk away from home *LOL*). The Z28 didn’t have a hotshoe, but some of the pictures I’d seen taken with this camera made that not as important (or so it would seem).

Canon’s price for the SX, plus the higher prices for some of its speedlites put it out of serious contention. Nikon was right up there until the end, but it didn’t seem to be as highly received as the Z28. I finally got first hand info on the Panasonic because the wife got one for Christmas and she not only loved the camera, but was taking some good pictures. It looked as if the Panasonic was going to win the day, but during the holidays I stopped at a Circuit City that was closing and got my hands on one of the Olympus UZ’s. Although it was quite small, I liked the feel in my hands and that visit to Circuit brought the Olympus back onto the playing field. I didn’t buy the camera, but it left quite an impression.

As I continued to look into this, I realized that in time (maybe a short time) I would not happy with a high-end point and shoot because of my booming interest in photography and better understanding of the advantages of a dSLR over a point and shoot. What a quandry! Even more research uncovered that Olympus made the smallest dSLR available, the Evolt 410. It was so small that with a “pancake” fixed lens, it could actually fit in one’s pocket. Whoa; that really started to make me think of the possibilities. A dSLR the size of a point and shoot…hmm.. Thus began my next phase of research down Olympus avenue.

Travelling down the Olympus Avenue, I ended up parking between two houses, the 410 and the 510. As I studied the buildings, I soon discovered that the structures were the more or less the same, with the most serious difference was the 510’s in body stabilization. Having in body stabilization is a great feature because over time you’d save much money on lenses (because you wouldn’t have to pay the extra for the in lens stabilization which makes lenses quite pricey). However the in body stabilization gives the 510 a much larger body, so you can forget about the advantages of the 410’s diminuitive size.

Finally, I ended up parking in the 510’s driveway and the wait began! Anticipation, its TRULY making me wait! *ROTFL*