Saturday, September 17, 2011

Interlude...

Saturday, September 17th - - After leaving Yellowstone National Park I traveled toward the small town in southwest Montana where I stayed for most of July last year. It looks much different here now than it did then – the “hills” are mostly brown providing quite a contrast between the lush, green areas that are irrigated or those along the rivers, which are lined with trees. The weather has been rather nice with lots of sunshine but the skies have mostly been the “hazy-white” variety, which isn't conducive to obtaining “pretty” pictures of the scenery.


I've been here almost two weeks and have been taking advantage of the time to “catch up” on blog reading and writing, a little research (very little), and going through the pictures I've taken this year. Much of my time has been consumed/absorbed with work on the netbook. So much so that I feel like I've been sucked into the vortex of the computer, which is a never-ending cycle!

As mentioned in a previous post, I've been looking for a new camera and hadn't had much luck with finding one in stock. The stores had the ones I was interested in on display but didn't have them available to purchase. I finally gave up going to a “brick and mortar” store and bought one online! I went with the Nikon P500. The other camera that I was looking at was the Canon SX30. They both have similar features but the Nikon just “felt good” in my hands. It arrived a little over a week ago and I've been having some fun playing with it and learning some of its features. It will take some practice to get used to what it can do; it's amazing to me what all they've packed into this thing!

After the camera arrived and it took five hours to charge the battery in the camera, I realized I would need another battery and an external charger. Those were ordered and arrived here on Tuesday. It still takes about 2 ½ hours to charge a battery but that is better than 5 in the camera!

One of the things that I really wish came with the camera is a printed manual, but nowadays that is not likely to happen. The pdf manual comes on a CD and it's easy to find what you are looking for, but it's just a little difficult to look things up when you are “out in the field” using the camera!

So far, I'm quite happy with the camera.

2 comments:

Jasia said...

Happy new camera, Becky! Judging by the photo you posted I'm thinking maybe you should have gone with the Canon though. ;-)

I sure understand your frustration with the manual on CD. I hate that too. I often wish I had my manual with me when I'm out taking pics. It would be worth paying a little extra if they gave you the option of ordering a printed copy when you order the camera.

I look forward to seeing your pics with the new camera!

Brett Payne said...

I hope your camera proves a lot better than the last one, and that you find some more scintillating subjects to capture. I'm afraid I have to agree with the whole CD-manual thing. I looked at mine for the first week after I bought the camera, a few years ago, and never again. I know I'm missing heaps of features that I could be using to good effect, but the CD ... well, who knows where that is now. In retrospect I should have just copied it to my HD.

Thank you for interrupting your little interlude to run my "little" errand - much appreciated.