I recently picked up a Fujifilm S2000HD as an upgrade from my eons old Sony S40 for taking snapshots (still using the latter to shoot video). I'm not really aspiring to be a photographer per se, but for the same price that I paid for my S40 years ago, I got the S2000HD packed with a 15x optical zoom (!), 10 megapixel resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio shooting, and HD video recording feature. The selling points for me really were the immense optical zoom and the 16:9 aspect ratio, only because depth of field totally rocks and I think life is better viewed in widescreen.
I've been using the camera a lot lately, just to get used to it and see what possibilities I can come up with, and so far, it's been well worth the money. Today I took it to one of my usual solo riding routes (up Highway 9, Four Corners, north on Skyline/Highway 35, Alices, then down Highway 84 to the Pacific Coast) that I haven't done since I had the Aprilia. I thought with the winter sun being out today, it was too nice of a day to be cooked up in the house.
Good call on that one, as if today was going to be the last nicely weathered weekend for the year, it was not a bad season-ending ride. Got to even hang out with the infamous Gary J(aehne) up in the Four Corners parking lot to talk a little bit of moto-shop. Gary J is a man that any respectable motorcyclist has heard of; he's the only man up in the California hills on a 250cc motorcycle that you should not be ashamed of to get passed by. A true rider-over-machine practitioner. Then, at the last stop before heading home, I got to meet a gentleman who's spent a considerable amount of time, and probably money, restoring a '64 Thunderbird back to a pretty respectable state.
Like I said, a good time spent on just $5.69.
