My new camera, it's kickass...

Look at my new toy :)

It's a Kodak Z1012 camera. I got it because I was not happy with my other camera and I wanted something with more optical zoom. This one has 12X optical zoom, and its 10Mp! I took it out for a little shooting session this afternoon, and it's great! I love not having to get super close to get the shot I want. I cannot afford a dSLR right now, nor do I want to haul one along with me and several lenses when I start my adventures, so this is an excellent choice. It was only $250 Aus and came with a $25 bonus for accessories so a case for it, and a 2G SD card was $279. I bought this from Ted's, a camera specality store chain in Sydney.

So, you must be wondering, what does 12X zoom look like? Here I'll show ya.

The shot from my balcony.

Then zoomed in you can see the bird on the fountain.

This.

Becomes this.

A tree in the park, looking un-suspicious.

Reveals a little buddy hiding within it.

Takes great shots of flowers.

And as I was writing this post, some fireworks went off so I rushed to go and test out the fireworks mode. After a bit of tinkering I figured out how to use it and got these shots all the way from my balcony.

So yeah, I am quite looking forward to using this camera for my travelling pictures. And you can look forward to some awesome shots :)

Andrew *click Meades