Ever wish you could carry your camera around with you everywhere you go so you never miss a shot? Well lots of us have cell phones with video and still picture capability that's alright in a pinch. Being a photographer, the cell phone camera is always a last resort. I decided to look around to see if I could get lucky with a super inexpensive point and shoot that would be good for backpacking and would fit in my pocket and be practically unnoticeable. I went for the $149 ($99 after rebate) Olympus Stylus 1040 10MP.
This camera is almost too tiny for me but I can push all the flush buttons with relative ease. I particularly like a nice wide angle lens, something about 28-30mm in film terms. This is one area that the Olympus lost out, it has closer to a 38mm. BUT, it does do panoramic shots so I thought I'd compromise. To my surprise, it does great 3 shot panos and the camera even automatically stitches them together for you. The 14.3"x3.6" @300dpi image shown is directly out of the camera. Additionally, I'll get 200 images shot at max resolution on the provided 1GB XD card. The micro and super micro features are also reliable. The video with sound is as good as I'd expect from a budget camera, which is acceptable since I do very little of it.
Basically, this little sucker does all that I wanted and didn't break the bank. Lastly, I purchased mine through Radio Shack on-line. If you buy from them, don't forget to download the rebate form from the site.
