By guest contributor Lisa Reece
As a mother with a young family I have learnt to always have a camera on hand to capture those memorable, unexpected moments. I have a Digital SLR0 but was looking for something small and light to carry in my handbag that was relatively inexpensive.

First Impressions

The Pentax M60 looks good and is really thin, only 21mm, has a 2.5″ large LCD screen, 10mp and a 5x optical zoom and is under $300.

Features

I was surprised that this little camera is packed with so many features. The extra zoom was very useful, I was able to take some good shots of my 2yr old son while he played in the backyard and did not have to be right in his face. This eliminated the fake smile that he pulls when I try and get him to smile for a picture.

Auto picture modes were great, the camera automatically selected the best mode for the situation, changing from portrait to macro in a fraction of a second. Face detection and smile capture is a must with a 2 year old.

Smile mode captures the instant a smile is detected

How many times have we taken a movie and got the perfect shot, wishing it could be turned into a photo. Well now you can using the movie edit mode. This camera also has a built in photo recovery for when little hands (or big ones) delete images by mistake. My creative side came to life when I discovered the Pentax M60 has a whole range of editing features, from the standard cropping and redeye removal to colour extraction, (My Favourite).
Colour extraction is where the  camera will add a Black and White filter to your image, but extract either red, blue or green, so you end up having a black and white image with some parts left in colour.  A lot of fun!

Auto Modes change between portrait - macro - landscape instantly

I had a play with the panorama mode and it was so easy, no more taking a series of pictures and having to stitch them together on your computer. This is fully automatic, you take your first image, the edge of the first frame will appear semi-transparent on the side of the screen. Move the camera so the semi-transparent image and the actual view line up and overlap. Continue this for the third frame and just like magic you have the perfect panoramic view!

Colour extraction mode retained the blue colour

I can’t wait to go on  holidays again to try it out on a magnificent view.

Overall

This is a great, easy to use camera. Perfect size to take anywhere, and is packed with mountains of features if you feel like being creative.  It is quick to focus and take the photo.  I was surprised how well it coped with movement compared to the compact cameral I had a few years ago, because anyone who has kids will know they never stay still.

How do I rate it?

The M60 is great family camera but also good for those wanting to get creative with their images as they learn more.  I would rate this camera 8/10, with a Pentax M60 now living in my handbag I will be able to capture every moment of my family’s life together.

Lisa is the manager of the Eastmon Inverell store and takes some beautiful photographs of her son as she documents his growth.

Auto macro mode

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Olympus MJU 9000

I hate going on holidays without the right camera equipment, that usually means packing my Nikon DSLR and a few lenses, this year though I also took a new camera, the Olympus Mju 9000. When I got home I realized that I had not taken one photo with my DSLR, the reason for that, the Olympus was so versatile and easy to use and had such great features that I just wanted to keep shooting my holiday shots with it.

First Impression

Let me go through the things I like about the Mju 9000, you might find that it’s the compact camera you’ve been looking for as well. Firstly I want to recommend the 10x Optical zoom lens. Most cameras this size have 3x or 5x zooms so having 10x zoom means it’s a heap more versatile so you can get in for nice tight portrait photos without being right on top of your subject but the long end of the zoom is not the bit I loved using the most it was the wide angle end that I really appreciate. The Mju 9000s zoom starts at 28mm (in 35mm film equivalent terms). 28mm wide angle is a nice size for doing scenery shots and just gives lots more versatility than most of the zoom lenses on compact cameras in the market today.

28mm Wide Angle

10x Magnification

Fill Flash

I’ve included some shots of Trial Bay Gaol near South West Rocks taken at either end of the zoom lenses range from the same position so you can get an idea of how versatile this lens is. There is also a portrait shot taken with the zoom almost fully extended with the Gaol in the background. I used fill in flash on this shot to ad some light under the brim of the hat. Fill in flash is a great feature that’s built into almost all compact cameras but is rarely used but that is another story.

Features

The Olympus Mju 9000 has a 12 megapixel sensor so heaps more than I really needed to take the shots I wanted, the 2.7″ LCD is one of the nicest I’ve seen and made reviewing my images a pleasure.

The thing that concerned me and many people about cameras with big zoom lenses is “will I get camera shake?”
Large zooms like the 10x zoom in this Olympus can mean your images could be a little blurred caused by a combination of the magnification of the lens and a shutter speed that is not high enough to freeze the action. The Olympus Mju 9000 offers dual image stabilising to give you every chance of taking sharp images, not only does it have a variable ISO that offers sensitivity up to 1600 ISO (to increase the shutter speed) but also CCD shift technology that moves the CCD to compensate for your camera movement. The combination of these two technologies gives you the best chance at getting a good shot even in tough conditions.

Shot of Australian $10.00 note using Super Macro

New Olympus cameras now come with an XD to Micro SD card adaptor so that you can buy memory cards larger than the 2GB (the current maximum size for XD picture cards). I used the adaptor and a 4gb Micro SD card, it was quite easy and a 4GB Micro SD card was cheaper than a 2GB XD and stored over 1,200 high res images taken at 12 megapixels. The only down side is that you can only use the cameras built in panorama mode when you use an Olympus XD card.

Conclusion

To wrap up, I really enjoyed using the Olympus Mju 9000, it was small and easy to carry around and had all the features that I needed to capture the scenes and portraits I wanted.
You may end up like I did leaving your SLR in it’s bag next time you travel.

About the Author

This article was contributed by Geoff Porter. Geoff is the Regional Manager of the Eastmon group of stores and shoots weddings professionally when time permits. He is a keen photographer and tests many of the cameras in the field and is an associate of the Tamworth store.

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