New Camera at last!

The camera arrived yesterday.
Its an Olympus Camedia C-370 which seemed to be the right balance between quality of photo, versatility , price and size.

I wanted something small and light enough to carry everywhere with me but i didn't want a cigarette packet shape as somehow they don't feel right in my hand.
Also i was used to the shape of my old dead Nikon and i found it comfortable - the olympus is a bit smaller but has a similar shaped body.

It has a macro and super macro setting - the macro works as with wide angle at 20-50cm and telephoto at 50 to 90cm and the supermacro will work as close as 2 cm [0.8"]
So this was really the clincher for me as i have been taking more and more tiny subjects- insects, flowers etc.

Its easy to set up - fairly intuitive even if you don't read the manual or quick start leaflet.
Of course the first few pictures were not brilliant -shaky hand, not being used to the shutter button etc, however after a bit of practise i seem to be improving.

Here are some of the first day's trial shots.

They are all taken using macro settings. The first two using the ordinary macro and the last two super macro.

I was intrigued by the dead leaves and shriveled grapes next to the healthy almost ripe bunckh of grapes. I thought the texture of the leaves came out well and so did the bloom on the grapes.
I'm not sure why the vine died off but it seems to happen every year that some end up dying off after they have produced grapes. I'm not sure if its vigorous action by birds or something else as the vines haven't been tended by anyone or particularly interfered with.

This is a shot of some phosphatidyl serine supplements that seem to help me sleep a bit better. I liked the shapes of the capsules within their slightly squashed cases - seemed kind of sci fi, like alien eggs.
This is a super macro shot of the same packet but focusing on the indentations in the packaging - the texture really came out well.
Another supermacro shot - this time of an old rusty bolt on one of our window shutters. I liked the peeling paint and rust detail here.
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