I bought a new digital camera today (since I still haven’t gotten a replacement lens for my jacked up D70). It’s a Casio Exilim EX-Z600, and I love it! I’ve had my eye on this model for a long time and when I noticed an excellent offer at Best Buy (camera plus 1GB memory card for $250), I snapped it up without even thinking twice.

I’ve spent most of the day trying out my new Exilim in different situations. It’s very easy to use and has this great “Best Shot” feature that allows me to quickly and easily change the settings for whatever kind of photo I want to grab.
For example, there’s a “backlight” setting for those times when the sun is behind the subject instead of behind the camera. That happens to me so often that this was the first setting I wanted to try, and I have to say the results were pretty good!

I also like the fact that the Exilim EX-Z600 has such a big preview screen. I think it’s something like 2.7 inches, and it makes scrolling through my pictures very easy. In addition, I tried printing out a couple of the pictures that I took to see how the final product would look. At 6.0 megpixels, the EX-Z600 really comes through in that department as well! My printed photos looked spectacular and I don’t even have a special printer or anything.

I haven’t come across any negative aspects of this camera yet, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to buy a new digicam. At the price I got, I knew I couldn’t go wrong! If you see a deal like that, you’ve just got to take advantage of it.

Have you heard about Geocaching? I stumbled across this new sport while I was doing research for a writing assignment, and I have to say that it sounds pretty cool! I have been looking for a new outdoor hobby to get into now that my shoulder is screwed up and I can’t play softball anymore. Geocaching looks like it might be just the thing to spend my time on. Apparently, all I would really need in order to get started is a handheld GPS device. The prices on those are definitely within my budget, so this might be doable!

If you’ve never heard of Geocaching before and if you’re too lazy to click on the link up there, I’ll try to give a brief explanation now. Basically, Geocaching is an outdoor treasure hunting game. Someone goes out and buries a container containing small, cheap “prizes” and then notes the geographic coordinates where the treasure (or “cache”) is buried. (Photo credit: Wil Wheaton’s site!)

He or she then posts the location of the cache on the Internet at one of the many Geocaching sites out there. Then other people who are interested in Geocaching can try to locate the cache using the coordinates. Once you find someone else’s treasure, you’re supposed to take the prize and leave your own prize in return for the next person. There might also be a log book in the container where you can write your name and the date you found the cache or whatever.

Even actor-turned-blogger Wil Wheaton has been known to go on Geocaching hunts in the past, so who knows what kind of cache you’ll be able to find! The official Geocaching site lists cache locations by city, so you’ll always be able to find something relatively close to you. In addition, you can sign up for weekly email notifications alerting you to new caches buried in the location(s) you’ve subscribed to.

I’m going to try to get a handheld GPS device sometime soon, then pick a nice Sunday to go out on my first adventure.