A New Camera

Before the adventure begins, it is important to have a way to capture the memories. Now I had a camera, a Nikon Coolpix L3. This camera was released in 2006 for budget minded people who simply wanted to take pictures without any fuss. It is a 5.1 megapixel with 3x zoom. It's main advantage is it size. It is very compact and travels easily. But is has some significant drawbacks. First I do not have incredibly steady hands, so any zoomed image was always blurry. Second the megapixel, while adequate, is fairly low. Third the camera options are limited and it can't take good pictures in dark areas. Fourth, and most importantly, it takes almost 15 seconds for the camera to get be ready for another shot. This is an intolerable amount of time. My kids move around constantly and when the moment strikes, I want to be able to take a couple of pictures before they run off. With moving kids, 15 seconds is an eternity.

So, I wanted a new camera. I wanted one that could take good pictures, had a decent zoom, had image stabilization, and a fast delay time between pictures. I found what I wanted in the Nikon Coolpix L110. It is a 12.1 megapixel, 15x Optical zoom with image stabilization and face-priority auto-focus. It can take 720p video and it has about a 2 second delay between pictures. But the coolest feature, which is probably standard on all cameras of this class, is when you press the button half-way it tells you the aperture and shutter speed that the camera is about to use. This model does not let you manually adjust these settings, but it does automatically pick the best settings for you. But since it tells you the shutter speed before you take the picture, you automatically know if you have to hold the camera very still or if it will take a good picture of a fast-moving object.

This is a better camera than I have ever used before, and I am pretty excited about using as we travel around.