New toy - Fuji S7000

The local Custom Car Show Wheels Day 2005 is on tomorrow. I usually take a ton of photos but have missed the show for a couple of years and I'm looking forward to being there again. Hopefully my buddies will have the Pontiac and the Camaro ready to show, but my hot rod aint ready :( Maybe next year huh?

Trouble is that I didn't get my old Fuji S602 fixed in time ("burn" mark on the CCD) I could have used it but all the pics would have been "tainted" - look at the blot in the sky on the Watership Down post. The 35mm SLR could have once again seen the light of day too, but the photos need to be published in a hurry so any "downtime" was not an option.

So in a state of emergency I dusted off the credit card *cough spit* and looked around for some new gear. Dropping any features or losing an functionality was not on the agenda so I settled for the Fuji S7000, the natural predecessor to the Fuji S602 Zoom.

The best deal was from the UK's Internet Cameras Direct who had two of these "Rare as rocking horse shit" devices; not bad considering many places were out of stock due to an alleged "worldwide shortage", and the only other place that carried stock (where I got the S602 some 3 years ago - once the cheapest place on the 'net) had put a £200 premium on their camera! (w*nkers)

Anyway ICD were really helpful, very polite, guaranteed a next day delivery and threw in some extras (512mb card and a case) at a nice price :D

It's pretty much the same camera as my old one with a few minor updates (6-12 meg CCD, xD card, remote cable fitting, 1 new focus setting, more tactile finish to the camera body...) and there's a pos and a neg to this.

+ It must be a good design for Fuji not to have changed it in 3 years
+ No need to learn any new settings
+ 512Mb of photos (not 128Mb)
+ double the resolution (not that I see any need for 4048x3040 pixels for web use and 15"x10" prints just yet)

- The Subaru needs tax, MOT and a full service next week
- It's not really a toy, it's a replacement for a piece of busted kit that actually earns me a crust
- I'm not really that excited by it
- Can't believe I just sat here and wrote all this crap

I love it really ;) Just could have done with spending the dosh on something else.