As an experiment, I embarked on a Photowalk with my three digital cameras to discover which would be the most useful, and in which circumstances.

The cameras are, from left to right:

1. Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ8 — a DSLR
2. Advent MP8 — a compact.
3. Panasonic SDR S7 — an SD camcorder.

So, two still cams and a movie camera.

The walk was around the centre of Exeter, including the Quay, the High Street and the river bank, plus a number of tourist sites around the city.

Conclusion
As expected, I used the movie camera the most. There was just too much movement and activity for static shots.

However, when confronted with a fine view, the DSLR came out and a staged shot was taken. Even so, these were all hand-held. Pulling out my tripod would have involved too much effort and made me too conspicuous.

Where a fairly static scene was involved, but with something interesting going on, I reached automatically for the compact.

So, predictably the ratio was 3:2:1 for video, DSLR, compact.

Does that tell me anything about my usage and preferences? Probably not, except that I’ll make sure I carry the videocam everywhere from now on.

Well, here’s mine. It’s a Panasonic Lumix DFC FZ8 DSLR with a Leica 12X zoom lens.

I’ve been road testing this little beauty — it’s surprisingly small — around our town and will report back when the weather improves and I’ve had a chance to test it in full sunlight.

Until then I can say it’s by far the best digital camera I’ve bought and performs wonderfully well. Even the hundreds of functions are easy to access and control — not always the case with digital cameras in general.

Well recommended.

I wish all our readers a very happy New Year.

Do you remember yourself doing the tradeoffs: keep the next camera light and small or choose a bit bigger one with a nice superzoom? You can have both with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ1
With a greater tele-range, the lens will be longer, that’s a law of physics. But Panasonic found a clever way to prevent the lens from protruding inches in front of the body: they fold it inside the camera!

That’s not only clever thinking, it’s also very well done. And maybe even more remarkable is that the other specifications of this technical wonder are not compromised at all. The camera has a 5 MP sensor and a wonderful noise reduction. Add an optical stabilizer to that and you can take about any picture under any circumstances.

And yet, the cam fits nicely in your pocket!

Read more on this lovely cam at Letsgodigital

Digitalcamerareview published a list of most popular digital cameras, based on the number of times info-pages were requested.

In the list, we’ll find Sony and Panasonic twice and Canon no less than six times!
Maybe even more amazing is the absense of Nikon. It makes me wonder how much this list parallels selling figures, thinking of the huge popularity of the D50, D70, D100 and their successors. There are only 2 SLR’s in the list anyway…