{"id":28560,"date":"2013-12-26T10:09:52","date_gmt":"2013-12-26T15:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?p=28560"},"modified":"2016-09-30T15:59:17","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T19:59:17","slug":"looking-for-a-new-camera-let-me-tell-you-about-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/12\/looking-for-a-new-camera-let-me-tell-you-about-mine\/","title":{"rendered":"Snap: Looking for a new camera? Let me tell you about mine."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Inspired by my blog neighbor Rebecca Hamilton<\/a>,<\/strong> I thought I\u2019d write about my own recent investment in a new camera.<\/p>\n

A lot of us of a certain age remember the camera shown here: a nifty Kodak Instamatic<\/a><\/strong> that used up plastic flashbulbs like ice cubes. \u00a0My dad took hundreds, if not thousands, of pictures with one of those. We have shoeboxes full of curled and faded photographs, many off-center or off-kilter, from Christmases and Easters and graduations and weekend trips to places I can\u2019t even remember. They are, in their own way, unique works of art\u2014capturing the art of living in the 1960s. Purists may scoff. \u00a0Let \u2019em. I love those pictures.<\/p>\n

I guess that\u2019s how I got bitten by the shutter bug. I started taking pictures myself some years back, working with a decent compact Olympus 35 mm film camera for a while before moving on to digital cameras. My first was a Canon PowerShot A610<\/a>.<\/strong> About eight years ago, I bought myself a big fat Pentax SLR<\/a><\/strong> that weighed a ton and took gorgeous photographs with massive lenses. Well, lugging that thing around became a hassle. I\u2019m pretty much a casual vacation snapshooter and wanted something more portable and compact. \u00a0The week before Christmas, I took the plunge.<\/p>\n

I did my homework, scouted online reviews<\/a> <\/strong>and comparisons<\/a><\/strong>, and traded in the SLR and a couple of its lenses at B&H in Manhattan<\/a><\/strong> for this: a Panasonic Lumix LX-7.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Wow. I\u2019m a happy camper. \u00a0Let me tell you why.<\/p>\n

First, some specifics:\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The LX7 is Panasonic\u2019s latest \u2018enthusiast\u2019 compact, and its 24-90mm equivalent, F1.4-2.3 lens is the fastest yet seen on this type of camera. This is combined with 1\/1.7\u2033 type 10.1 MP MOS sensor that offers an ISO range of 80-12800. Full resolution burst shooting with continuous AF is available at up to 5.5 frames per second, and up to 11 frames per second with focus locked. The LX7 can also record Full HD 60p\/50p video, and has built-in stereo microphones.<\/p>\n

The LX7 offers a full set of manual exposure modes, with an aperture ring around the lens to offer quick control over that shooting parameter. There are numerous ways to adjust white balance to your liking in-camera, and three different bracketing modes are provided. Creative Control mode adds sixteen different special effects into the mix, rounding out a very strong portfolio of in-camera shooting and processing options.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lots of bells and whistles there. But the proof, as they say, is in the pudding. (Okay: Forgive me. It\u2019s Christmas and I\u2019ve been eating a lot\u2026) In one sentence: this little sucker just takes gorgeous pictures.<\/strong> It\u2019s roughly the size of my HTC EVO smartphone \u2014 though thicker and heavier \u2014 but takes snapshots that rival my old Pentax. While the lens is on the short side \u2014 less than 4x magnification \u2014 it excels at close ups and macro and achieves that much-sought after \u201cbokeh\u201d or shallow depth-of-field (i.e., background blur). \u00a0Take a look. The shots below were all taken at very close range, a couple inches at most.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The LX-7 also takes some stunning shots at wider angles, too:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It also has some nifty novelty effects, like color select, which allows you to emphasize just one color, while fading the rest to black-and-white:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You can read more about the Lumix LX-7 at the Panasonic website.\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>There are hundreds of reviews (mostly favorable) over at Amazon.com.<\/p>\n

You can find swankier and more impressive compact cameras with bigger sensors and more enthusiastic reviews \u2014 but you won\u2019t find one with all this at such a good price. The one I picked up at B&H was on sale for $279; with my trade-ins, it cost me less than $100\u2014a veritable steal.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m looking forward to putting this baby through its paces over the holidays. I\u2019ll try and post more pics when I can.<\/p>\n

UPDATE:<\/strong> You can find some more Christmas-y pictures taken with the camera here.\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inspired by my blog neighbor Rebecca Hamilton, I thought I\u2019d write about my own recent investment in a new camera. A lot of us of a certain age remember the camera shown here: a nifty Kodak Instamatic that used up plastic flashbulbs like ice cubes. \u00a0My dad took hundreds, if not thousands, of pictures with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":28562,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-my-world-and-welcome-to-it"],"yoast_head":"\nSnap: Looking for a new camera? Let me tell you about mine.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Inspired by my blog neighbor Rebecca Hamilton, I thought I'd write about my own recent investment in a new camera. A lot of us of a certain age remember\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/12\/looking-for-a-new-camera-let-me-tell-you-about-mine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Snap: Looking for a new camera? Let me tell you about mine.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Inspired by my blog neighbor Rebecca Hamilton, I thought I'd write about my own recent investment in a new camera. A lot of us of a certain age remember\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/12\/looking-for-a-new-camera-let-me-tell-you-about-mine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-12-26T15:09:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-09-30T19:59:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/56\/2013\/12\/hqdefault.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"360\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Deacon Greg Kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Deacon Greg Kandra\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/12\/looking-for-a-new-camera-let-me-tell-you-about-mine\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/12\/looking-for-a-new-camera-let-me-tell-you-about-mine\/\",\"name\":\"Snap: Looking for a new camera? Let me tell you about mine.\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-12-26T15:09:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-09-30T19:59:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970\"},\"description\":\"Inspired by my blog neighbor Rebecca Hamilton, I thought I'd write about my own recent investment in a new camera. A lot of us of a certain age remember\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/12\/looking-for-a-new-camera-let-me-tell-you-about-mine\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/12\/looking-for-a-new-camera-let-me-tell-you-about-mine\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/12\/looking-for-a-new-camera-let-me-tell-you-about-mine\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Snap: Looking for a new camera? Let me tell you about mine.\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/\",\"name\":\"The Deacon's Bench\",\"description\":\"Where a Roman Catholic deacon ponders the world\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970\",\"name\":\"Deacon Greg Kandra\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Deacon Greg Kandra\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/author\/deacon-greg-kandra\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Snap: Looking for a new camera? Let me tell you about mine.","description":"Inspired by my blog neighbor Rebecca Hamilton, I thought I'd write about my own recent investment in a new camera. A lot of us of a certain age remember","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/12\/looking-for-a-new-camera-let-me-tell-you-about-mine\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Snap: Looking for a new camera? Let me tell you about mine.","og_description":"Inspired by my blog neighbor Rebecca Hamilton, I thought I'd write about my own recent investment in a new camera. A lot of us of a certain age remember","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/12\/looking-for-a-new-camera-let-me-tell-you-about-mine\/","og_site_name":"The Deacon's Bench","article_published_time":"2013-12-26T15:09:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-09-30T19:59:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"480","height":"360","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/56\/2013\/12\/hqdefault.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Deacon Greg Kandra","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Deacon Greg Kandra","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/12\/looking-for-a-new-camera-let-me-tell-you-about-mine\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/12\/looking-for-a-new-camera-let-me-tell-you-about-mine\/","name":"Snap: Looking for a new camera? Let me tell you about mine.","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-12-26T15:09:52+00:00","dateModified":"2016-09-30T19:59:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970"},"description":"Inspired by my blog neighbor Rebecca Hamilton, I thought I'd write about my own recent investment in a new camera. A lot of us of a certain age remember","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/12\/looking-for-a-new-camera-let-me-tell-you-about-mine\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/12\/looking-for-a-new-camera-let-me-tell-you-about-mine\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/12\/looking-for-a-new-camera-let-me-tell-you-about-mine\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Snap: Looking for a new camera? Let me tell you about mine."}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/","name":"The Deacon's Bench","description":"Where a Roman Catholic deacon ponders the world","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970","name":"Deacon Greg Kandra","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Deacon Greg Kandra"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/author\/deacon-greg-kandra\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}