zoom zoom zoom

God bless you eBay shops and cheap Hong Kong electronic goods. My latest toy arrived yesterday, a Panasonic Lumix TZ5. Not yet available in Aus, I could not wait until it was in he country so decided to get one from Honkers. It is mainly for underwater use, once I get the housing. I fired it up and took a few shots on my walk to work. Though I got it for the 28mm width, I find myself very impressed with the 10x optical zoom and stabilization (ok, so I used the yankie Zee) that resulted in a reasonable shot. Cool huh? The bloody thing shoots HD video too...played some on the TV. Schweet.

I popped in George's Camera store on George Street to try and buy a bag for the new toy, having failed to get a cool Crumpler, and the guy working there, grumpy old bastard, seemed to take some grumpy pleasure from telling me that I'd likely not have warranty cover cos I bought it from Honkers. Thanks for pointing that out mate; had you not I may have bought something from your store...I had company at lunch, JCJ having popped over for a cuppa and a chat. Nice change from running the streets.

An observation from my morning walk to work. There was a time when you could rely on oldies for a friendly hello and the time of day while the youngsters, surly already, were wired for sound and couldn't hear a thing you said. But times they are a changing, and now even the oldies are wired for sound. Typically I walk, run or ride sounds-free, preferring to listen to the sounds of nature or of an approaching bus that could be bearing down upon me.