New Camera :)

I got a new camera today and I absolutely love it. In my lifetime, I have had 3 cameras and all of them have been different versions of the Nikon Coolpix. Lately I have started to realize that it takes a really long for the pictures to take and once they do take, it takes awhile for the camera to be ready to take another picture. I mean, it's not drastic, but it's enough of a delay for AnnaClaire to have completely moved before the picture actually takes. Not only that, but my picture quality really has not been great. My flash rarely goes off, so most often the pictures are blurry/fuzzy and just not good quality in general. I also started getting these random lens errors. For awhile my camera was completely broken and I kept getting the "lens error" message. It now goes back and forth, but for most of the time, it WILL NOT take a picture and goes on and off, on and off saying that there is some kind of lens error. I have never dropped this camera or anything, so I'm really not sure why this happened. Now- I am not saying Nikon cameras are bad... we have loved all our Nikons! I am simply saying that it was broken and I was ready for a change after 3 Coolpix'. I really had no idea what I wanted. I had researched a few cameras and not really found anything I loved. So I decided I just wanted to talk to the guy at Wolf Camera and see what he recommended and stuff. He told me that He recommend Fuji or Sony. (He told me that Nikons really are a lot slower at taking and processing pictures.) At first, he showed me the new FinePix Z20. I liked it and it took good pictures, but I am just not into the really bright colored electronics. (I promise I didn't choose my camera on the color, though!) He then got out the F45, which I ended up getting. I love it! It is less megapixels (the Z20 was 10, this is 8.3) but he assured me that you would only be able to notice that difference if you blew up the picture into poster sized- which I will never do. I love the layout of the F45 and it has way more scenes to choose from. Overall I absolutely love what I got. (Plus it was much cheaper than I expected- $160- so I still have money left!) I cannot believe how much faster it is compared to my last camera (Nikon Coolpix S200) I can almost take 2 pictures in the time that the S200 takes 1! That is definitely a bonus with my always-moving model! Plus, the quality is better. Anyway. Long story short, I am very pleased and definitely recommend the FinePix F45 for a small camera. While we were there, we looked at SLR cameras. We looked at the Canon Rebel XTi and XSi. We did really like both and they took good pictures (although the man that helped us took much better pictures on it- he does work in a camera store!) The one downer about it was that you can only look in the eye thing (sorry I don't know all the names of the parts) to take pictures. I know this is common on most every SLR, but the camera that he really recommended (Sony a350) you could look at the screen or through the eye thing to take a picture. We tried it out and it took amazing pictures, even with us less/non-experienced photographers. We did not try any Nikons, which we probably should before we decide. The Rebel is definitely on our list of maybes, but right now I think we are leaning towards the Sony a350. Has anyone else heard anything about this camera? I read good reviews online but would love to hear from someone who uses this camera.

Okay- enough about cameras! Enjoy the pictures of my sweet princess. I absolutely love the first one. The first 5 are (obviously) from her bath tonight. The second 5 are from dinner at McAlisters. I was just trying out a bunch of new/random options with my new camera. (my personal favorite is "portrait with soft overall tone and beautiful skin tones" ;) haha)

...off to the shore. I'll probably post from there with pictures of 3 *adorable* China sisters!