Woohoo! I sometimes get part of my Christmas presents early, since I have to point them out (ie, make sure the right thing gets bought). Once that’s the case, I figure I might as well just get it…a couple weeks early, but hey, who’s complaining? *grin*

This year, I finally talked myself into asking for a decent camera. I get some sort of imaging device almost every year, as I love a camera…but oftentimes, I lowball it. I end up with something that’s ok, and often interesting in some way, but with some, uh, quirks. Yeah, let’s call them quirks. This year, I found some good reviews, and managed to identify a camera in the $150-200 price range (a little higher than I normally go) that I thought I’d be happy with…the Panasonic DMC-LZ3. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s a couple more megapixels than I had before (5MP), and has a nice 6x optical zoom and image stabilization. It’s not designed for people who want a lot of manual control…but that just means I’m in luck!

It’s quite striking what a climbing up a notch or two in the camera leagues will get you nowadays…I’m really impressed. I don’t have anything worth uploading yet, since I have just been playing around with it, but I’m going to definitely get some sharable shots soon. It’s fun to have a nice camera!