The Falls Creek Lunch Box - Or How To Go In The Snow

The daughter has just been to visit Falls Creek in Victoria and was lucky enough to hit the best snowfall day of the year - 30cm of powder. The pictures she brought back of the holiday taken with my old Fujifilm X-10 set to automatic are wonderful - she put the SD card into the slot on the television last night to give us a slide show and I am torn between pride and jealousy - they are that good.

Note: The dear old X-10 was superseded by the X-20 and latterly has been replaced by the X-30. This Fujifilm compact zoom line just gets better and better. Travellers take note...

But back to the snow. She missed out on a few of the activities they did because she was afraid to take the camera out into the falling snow - I have since told her she was silly as the devices do pretty well, but she was careful with it. In retrospect I think I should have grabbed one of the small Pelican cases and let her dump the thing into that - then she could have ventured out into the cold dauntless.

This is the one I'd have picked - the Pelican 1050. It's only $ 35 and has the famous water-tight edge seal that Pelican is famous for. Plus a pressure relief valve that means it does not get stuck closed if you go up and down the mountains.

The interior is a padded solid rubber well - not a foam block. This means that you don't have foam crumbles flailing around and getting into the camera. There is plenty of room in there for the Fujifilm X-30  - as a matter of fact it is big enough to take the Fujifilm X-100T  or either the Fujiflm X-E2 with a 27mm lens or the new Fujifilm X-T10 with a similar optic. Now THAT'S going to be good tourist photos!

Note the carabinier strap and side slots for other strapping.

A Green Light For Your Holidays

So you're going on holiday? You're going to travel? And you want a camera that will take good clear pictures? And you want it to be compact with a real optical viewfinder that you can see through even if it is in the full glare of the sun?

And you want to pay under $ 500?

Have we got the answer for you - if you are quick. We've just got a snip of Fuji X-10 cameras bundled as a package with their fitted leather case for $ 499. This camera is the closest thing to the 35mm compact camera that digital has yet produced - and it has the added fillip of a zoom lens and and a whole fridge of fresh film built in...

The Fuji X-10 has a wonderful section in the menu for film simulation - you can take pictures as if you had Fuji Velvia, Provia, or Astia film. as well as the black and white Acros film. You can switch between films with a button push and you can make the pictures bigger or smaller at will. If you remember the old days when you carried a packet of filters for contrast control in the sky - well you have them built-in.

Does it take a good picture? The heading image is taken with an X-10, as is this one. No special processing - jpeg straight out of the box. It will do RAW files too, but the jpegs are gorgeous just as they are.

Limited number in the shop right now - pop in as fast as you can and pick up the bargain of the season.

PS: If you want a silver one, you'll have to get the new X-20. Bit more money, wonderful camera.