Camera

We decided an additional camera was required.   The requirements were that it had to be able to be easily operated in "point-&-shoot" mode, capable of fitting comfortably into a handbag and the photos had to be of acceptable quality.

The colour should make it easy to find!

Although I looked into upgrading my own camera a few months back (nothing has yet come of this because I still can't decide just what I want), I hadn't looked at the entry level offerings for a long while.    So I was quite surprised at the range available at Mr Smith's shop for less than $100, and the sophistication of the features that they had.

Our initial impressions of the purchase we made are favourable:  it certainly is "compact" (although that comes with a slight trade-off in terms of the amount of "zoom" available);   once set to "intelligent auto", it has a number of features that appear to assist in automatically obtaining the best photo in the available conditions (although our testing of this is only at a preliminary stage); and the controls are pretty intuitive.

I admit, however, that we're still working on the "smile detector" feature.  When activated, this delays taking a photo until the subject smiles!   Even in auto mode, the camera is predisposed to use this, which gives rise to bafflement when there's a delay in taking the photo even though the shutter button is pressed.   As yet, I haven't worked out how to turn this feature off without also turning the "focus on face" feature off.

This particular camera uses an external recharger, so the battery needs to be removed for recharging.  I wondered about this, but in the end decided that the ability to have a spare battery (which we may or may not acquire) charging while the camera is in use was just about sufficient to offset the potential disadvantage of carrying the charger in our baggage while travelling.

I wasn't expecting the camera to come with a large memory card, but apparently these days all cameras come with no memory card at all (but they do have a small internal memory).

Just for the record, yes, I looked at reviews on the internet for a number of cameras in this category, but I found they varied in helpfulness.  I suspect that camera reviewers are kept fully occupied with more up-market products!