Adventures in Photography: New York City

I lugged around the Pentax K10D while sightseeing in New York City--and it was a reminder of the tradeoffs that you make on cameras. There were many times during the day that I wished that I was carrying my HP Photosmart E427, because it slips into your pocket. The Pentax I carried in an old video camera bag, partly because it protected it from getting banged up, and partly because a criminal might have assumed that all I had inside was an analog video camera--which is probably not worth stealing, at this point.

The upside of the Pentax is that I was able to take pictures that the Photosmart simply could not have, because it doesn't have a zoom, and because it doesn't have the ability to change ASA settings. (At least, I haven't figured out how.) In low light settings, such as in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Chrysler Building lobby, this is a huge advantage--especially in those places where photography is allowed, but flash is not.

I do wish that there was a selector on the outside of the Pentax for changing the ASA setting; it is a bit clumsy to go through the menu to change the ASA setting. (There probably is a way to do this, but I haven't sat down with the several hundred page manual to figure it out.)

I did see another tourist carrying the Panasonic Lumix FZ50, which is a long zoom digital camera that I considered, until I found that the lens isn't removable (which I need for astrophotography). Unfortunately, while quite a bit more compact than the Pentax, it is not quite pocket sized, but still a very reasonable alternative to the Pentax.