My old camera, a Panasonic Lumix TZ-4, travelled with me everywhere I went. Over the past year I took thousands of images with that camera. It was a relatively basic point-and-shoot camera with a 28mm lens. Panasonic has been using Leica lenses in their cameras and the image quality is pretty darn good.

I let the camera hang off of a shoulder sling with the lens open (camera in the “ON” position) a bit too often and after about a year now the lens has a lot of scratches. The image quality was affected by these scratches, especially when shooting in bright daylight conditions.

My new camera, a Lumix ZS-5, arrived from B&H last week and I could barely contain my excitement. I could care less about the even bigger zoom than my old model. What I’m psyched about is the 25mm super wide lens (good for getting more into the image), the added megapixels for larger blow ups should I decide to print, and the “M” option. This “manual” option allows the user to adjust the aperture and speed for better images.

We’ll see over the coming weeks, as the leaves turn. I shot these few images at Sandy Hook, down near my folks place.