My wife organised a clean up of our street today, as part of the Clean Up Australia Day event. We put up a little gazebo, passed out the supplied bags and gloves and got stuck in to cleaning the roadside verge. We had about 18 residents take part, which is a really good turnout considering there are only 14 houses on the street. As you can see from the pics, it's amazing what people dump in the long grass that borders our road.
The ZR1 proved a great little camera. It's genuinely pocket sized - I carried it around in my breast pocket until it got too sweaty - and it's quick to use. It's possible to whip it out, turn it on and shoot all with one hand and in less than 3 seconds.
The shots above were all taken on full auto with a bit of fill flash. They were imported into Lightroom and exported as websized images without any adjustment correction at all. I think you'll agree the exposure metering and the colour rendition is pretty good, even with auto white balance set, which I rarely use.
I like the idea of having a camera capable of publishable quality (truly) that can be carried around at all times and is so easy to use that you don't have to think. 12Mp is a good sensor size - any more and there would be serious noise issues. I have yet to try it in low light but will do so soon.
I'll be using this camera up on the Barrier Reef soon - I have a neat little underwater housing for it, good to 40m apparently. I'll be taking out onto the Phantasea pontoon at Hook Reef off the Whitsundays sometime in April and I'll post some images from that little expedition in due course.
