Tech Blog

[#1]

If you've been following my recent flickr image posts , you'll know that I'm not freezing and enduring the spring snow that's hit the Alberta prairies. Rather, I'm basking and baking in the sunny tropical paradise that is Maui, Hawaii.

Yes, I can hear the groans of 'poor me' etc now, but be assured that it's not all fun, games, warm water, sunburn, surf, sand, whales, spinner dolphins, uber fresh sushi, etc.

Nay, gentle reader, I'm here on research, and over the next few posts I'll be discussing what could be my favourite point-and-shoot camera for just this type of vacation -- the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS2 .

Video
Ok, the TS2 is a point-and-shoot camera, but as most still cameras do these days, it also does video. And that's what I'm focusing on today.

In bright sunlight it did pretty good attempting to balance the bright whites of the spray and sea foam, and the dark brown / blacks of the lava rock beach, though to get the detail of the lava it seems the whites are a bit blown out.

Of course, that bright sunlight did make the viewscreen a bit hard to see, but I could see enough detail to frame my shots. Of course, an optical viewfinder would have been preferred in direct bright sunlight.

And since it's meant to be used under almost any conditions, using the Intelligent Automatic mode make more than acceptable camera setting decisions under varying conditions.

Since the TS2 is also waterproof (not water resistant) up to 10 metres (!) I had no fear taking it into the wind and harsh salt spray on this occasion. A simple 10 minute soak in a fresh water bath is all that's needed to flush the salt out of the system.

For a small, portable point-and-shoot, the TS2 currently exceeds my expectations. Now let's see how it does under the sea -- in an upcoming post.