I survived (yet) another Comic-Com

Carmen Mirandarth (P1000120)
Originally uploaded by orayzio

My Comic-Con 2007 photoset can be perused here or viewed as a slideshow.

For the first time in Comic-Con history, all tickets for all 4 days were completely sold-out... and you could tell this by trying to navigate the exhibit hall. Preview Night is supposed to be the slow night, but I swear it was at least as crowded as Saturday last year. And actually, Saturday this year seemed to be the least crowded day of all the days that I attended. I was there on Wednesday night through Saturday night, but I skipped out on Sunday.

The highlights for me were:

• 
  Kevin Smith in front of 6,000 fans in Hall H. This was the 2nd year that I've seen Kevin Smith in this hall and although he recycles a lot of his "stand-up" material, he was still a lot of fun to watch.
• 
  The Sarah Silverman Program panel. OMFG, these guys and gals were absolutely hilarious.
  
• 
  Watching Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. unveil the Iron Man suit at the Marvel booth on the exhibit floor, working my way through the huge crowd around them to get close for a picture and being rewarded for my efforts when, out of nowhere, Rosario Dawson pops in to say hello to Jon and Robert!
  
• Seeing early footage of Iron Man (you can probably find it on YouTube)

Oh, and all of the pictures were taken with my new camera. It took me awhile to figure out the best setting for pictures at the various sessions (I settled on the "High Sensitivity" scene mode with the higher level of jitter reduction) and when you add in the 10x optical zoom, I'm pretty happy with those photos. But, I didn't like the fuzziness and out-of-focus shots on some of the more up-close photos. But, I would recommend the camera as a very handy and capable, slip-it-in-your-pocket-and-go camera.

New Camera Time

I purchased my first digital camera, a Canon PowerShot G3 in early 2003 and I've taken around 13,000 pictures with it. It's always been a great camera with a lot of great features, most of which I've never used. My favorite features are the high-quality images, the 4x optical zoom and the swiveling LCD screen that allows me to see myself while I take self-portraits.

About two weeks ago, I noticed a line a single pixel wide that traveled from near the center of the picture to the bottom edge of the picture in every shot I took that day. The bad line was showing up in the LCD while I composed the pictures as well as in the image file itself. "Uh oh," I thought, "my sensor is going bad!"

Well, I dropped my G3 off at my local camera store, George's Camera, a few days ago to send it to Canon for a repair estimate. I won't know if they'll be able to fix it or how much it will cost me to fix it for another two weeks. Since Comic-Con is next week and since Kara has expressed interest in owning a compact camera of her own, I figured now was the time to get her one that I could use during Comic-Con and then turn over to her when I get my G3 back.

After a few days or research, I decided to go with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3 and I bought it at my local Costco last night. I could probably have gotten a better deal online, but I wanted time to play with it this weekend before Comic-Con starts on Wednesday. I chose this camera for the following reasons:

• It's small enough to fit in my pocket or Kara's purse.
• It has an awesome 10x optical zoom, much better than my G3.
• While I would normally stick with Canon or Nikon, the Panasonic Lumix cameras are actually Leica cameras with Leica lenses. I've never owned an SLR, digital or otherwise, but I recognize the Leica brand as having quality lenses.
• Digital Photography Review gave it a "Recommended" review. I relied on their review when I got my G3 and I trust their reviews now.
• It has an image stabilizer
  
• It has 20 different fully automatic scene modes, including a mode for fireworks

I told Kara that I'll know after Comic-Con if I'll be keeping this camera for myself.