Trip to NorCal

Yes indeed there was some of this in my recent trip to see family in the "Bay Area" of Northern California. My brother took me out in his Mercedes SLK one very nice morning. We even dropped the top. Up through the Portolla Valley, along the ridge of the Pacific range down to the lighthouse at San Gregorio. It was absolutely gorgeous. It's not too difficult to understand why this area has recently surpassed the Hamptons as the place with America's most expensive homes!

Then it was on down the famed Highway 1 to Pescadero and the Ano Nuevo Park to visit the elephant seals. That's of course, not my picture since we weren't allowed to get that close to them, but I'd have gotten similar photos had I have taken my "big" camera (Nikon D300 with lenses). However, I didn't do that. I'm going to blame this on my brother who tends not to be great with information. I thought that it'd be a simple family gathering to celebrate mom's 90th birthday, so I chose to take my ancient 3 megapixel Nikon Coolpix 995! I did get some pretty good pictures with it, but nothing to write home about though.

The trip was not for digital naught though! My brother gave me an extra SSD which has how allowed me to finish my son's replacement T61 laptop. He also sent me home with his old A/V receiver that was gathering dust out on his porch. It's old (Dolby Pro-Logic), but it should be a good pairing with the old Altec Lansing speakers I picked up at a garage sale to make a first system for my son's room. 

All of that is fine and good, but it's the other thing that made the trip awesome! Yup, that's it: the coveted Panasonic DMC GF-1! Before I get into discussing the camera itself, let me explain what happened. My rather generous sister who lives in Taiwan and I rarely see, had (as always) bought a number of gifts for my wife and daughter. And she wisely decided to NOT purchase anything for me or my son since she had no idea what we'd want. So she gave us money to do that for ourselves. My son will happily run out and buy himself an elaborate Lego set I'm sure, but I was having trouble decided what to do. 

Of course, if you'll scroll back to the top you'll probably note a bit of frustration at having had the wrong camera on hand because I didn't want to carry my rather large and heavy D300. As you can see in the above comparison between that model and an Olympus Pen E-PL! (which is pretty similar in size to the Panny GF-1), it becomes obvious what was on my mind. However, you always have to keep in mind my frugal proclivities. As it turned out, I of course started where I always do, just to see what the market was doing for large sensor'd compact cameras with interchangeable lenses. Quite probably due to the introduction of many models of that type in the last year, the price of GF-1s had gone down considerably since I last looked at them (about 6-8 months ago). They apparently are in the $200's now; generally without lenses. As I was contemplating getting a body and what it would cost "all in" to get started, I came across an listing for a complete one with the "kit" 14-42mm lens that was missing the charger but complete otherwise starting bid at about $180. It was a bit high for me and I was busy, but when I went back to look at it, I was a little surprised that it didn't sell AND the seller had lowered the price and relisted it at a $160 Buy It Now. I continued to watch it, but nobody was bidding. I bid $115, but it didn't meet the "reserve" and as luck would have it, the camera didn't sell for a second time (One Day Listing), so I contacted the seller and offered to come to a compromise. To shorten a long story, we settled on $150, he pays shipping, and now the "carry camera" of my dreams is on it's way from Maryland due to arrive tomorrow!

$150 is a GREAT price. I had to shell out $10 for a charger, but I can live with that. The thing I'll have to watch out for is that the camera is part of an extensive system (part of which you can see above) so I'll have to be careful  that my $150 deal doesn't turn into a money-pit. I do know that I'll have to save up enough to buy the 20mm/f1.7 that makes this it a great street shooter, but that'll be another challenge for another day. For now, I'm just basking in the excitement of wait for the box to arrive!