Please help review my first camera order!

[Athadeus]

Hey guys and gals!

I will be traveling to Costa Rica in a month and staying for a month, and I want to be able to easily capture some memories on a decent digital sensor. The only semi capable camera I have ever owned is my hand-me-down Kodak EasyShare DX6340, and that just isn't going to cut it on such a nice vacation.

I am planning to buy a p/s, all the accessories for a good experience, and a tv later that I would like to be able to easily review pictures and video on. I honestly spent 200 hours in the last 2 weeks reading specs, forums, and reviews, and came up with the following list.

http://amzn.com/w/3R2DOYFXNIBKV

$291 Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 (Blue)
$55 Panasonic DMW-BCG10PP battery for the camera
$11 Lowepro Rezo 30 (Black) camera case
$46 Transcend 16 GB SDHC Class 6 Flash Memory Card with Card Reader TS16GSDHC6-S5W
$37 Transcend 16 GB SDHC Class 6 Flash Memory Card TS16GSDHC6E [Amazon Frustration-Fre?e Packaging]

~$1200 Panasonic VIERA G10 Series TC-P50G10 50-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV

~$1625 Total

I would like to order everything except the television soon, which I would pick up after the vacation to get through the rest of the Minnesota winter. If you would be so kind as to offer any suggestions, or post any concerns about compatibility (I think I did my homework well), your thoughts are highly appreciated. It seems like ordering all this through amazon will be the easiest and very near the best deal. I'll be checking this regularly if you have any questions, but if you are even slightly intuitive, your assumptions are probably correct.

Thank you very much for your thoughts and information!

 

[corkyg]

It all looked good until I got to the 50-inch HDTV. That is a huge beast to ship, and what will it watch?

Tico

In Tico Land they have just barely left analog TV this year.That is a huge investment for a one month stay unless you have a pre-arranged satellite hookup.

 

[JDub02]

Originally posted by: corkyg
It all looked good until I got to the 50-inch HDTV. That is a huge beast to ship, and what will it watch?

Tico

In Tico Land they have just barely left analog TV this year.That is a huge investment for a one month stay unless you have a pre-arranged satellite hookup.

sounds like the TV will not be making the trip, but will be bought upon return.

 

[Athadeus]

Yeah, the tv will be ordered from and shipped to the US. I'm not sure whether I'll even purchase it online at this point.

From the information I dug up, it seems that the G10 plasmas and above support jpeg AND avchd video playback through the SD card slot, whereas the S1 and below series only allow playback of jpeg (and something like mpeg2 which is useles).

I want to be able to control playback, so either using the card slot with VieraViewer to control it, or an HDMI cable and VieraLink seemed like a good idea. I hadn't really thought of it until now (I envisioned having to sit next to the tv), but just getting a long component cable/component extension and holding the camera would probably work alright too.

Another piece of information that took me quite some time to find is that with the dmc-zs3, you have the option of shooting the video format as motion jpeg at all of its quality levels from 640x480 - 1280x720. I am still not 100% sure that I will prefer the avchd lite format, and I was glad to find that shooting the video in HD doesn't require that.

Not many responses yet for the view count! Have you got any unique ideas for subject/composition in CR corkyg? I'm really looking forward to trying to make a panorama from one of the volcanoes (I'll be exploring Izaru, Arenal, and Poas).

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: Athadeus ... Have you got any unique ideas for subject/composition in CR corkyg? I'm really looking forward to trying to make a panorama from one of the volcanoes (I'll be exploring Izaru, Arenal, and Poas).

I spent a lot of my advanced teen years in Costa Rica - but that was too long ago to do you much good. We used to be able to drive to the top of Irazu, and stand right next to the main crater looking down into the cinder cone and sulphurous steam. But, that was in the summer of 1949. <LOL>

Poas was a bit less accessible then. Getting a panorama of all from one is not easy. Cloud cover blocks that most of the year.

If you can, visit Puntarenas on the Pacific coast and Puerto Limon on the Caribbean side. They are totally different. If there are still any railroad tours running, take advantage of that.

Here is a glimpse from the past - from an old Kodachrome slide taken in 1949. I was using an old Kodak 35mm, and was still in high school. Should have had a fill flash, but I din't know that back then - and didn't have one anyway. But, you can see how close we got to the main crater.

Irazu

 

[ElFenix]

looks pretty good, especially the tv

 

[oogabooga]

Looks good to me