I find I take far more photos, mainly because the LX3 is pocketable, and just love the panoramic format, and macro capabilities (focussing down to 1cm). Indeed, I’ve got so used to using a viewfinder-less camera, that when I switched back to my SLR a couple of months ago, I found myself holding it out in front of me and wondering why I couldn’t see an image on the screen!

Any negative points? Well, some of the controls are too easy to accidentally shift without realising (particularly the mode dial, and the format switch on the lens barrel), and there are so many features and fiddly buttons that it takes some time to check that everything’s set up as you want, especially when you’ve been fiddling with settings. But they’re minor niggles really.

Would I buy another one (or the LX5, the latest model) if I lost my LX3? Absolutely!

Cheers,

Rich

Good question re. cameras. Until I went on the course last year, I’d never owned a compact. Photography’s quite important to me, and I’d never found any good reason to ditch the quality, versatility and control afforded by an SLR (cf. a compact).

I decided to buy my first digital compact last year (and indeed, that’s what all these pics were taken with), mainly for the considerable reduction in bulk and weight. I still use both the compact and SLR regularly — just depends what sort of mood I’m in.

You’re probably best to go with what you’re used to, bearing in mind that Alpine mountaineering (even the relatively easy stuff) is quite hard work, and you’ll be wearing a harness with various bits dangling from it — not to mention being attached to a rope. I always keep my camera out of the rucksac(unless the weather’s absolutely appalling), so it’s immediately handy, so wanted something that wasn’t going to get in the way, or slow me down too much.

FWIW, I blogged about my foray into the world of compacts here. It’s obviously very much from the perspective of a committed SLR landscape photographer, but you may find it handy.

Cheers.
Paul.

Many thanks again,

Chris.

Thank you for your comment.

I’ve just taken a quick look at your blog (nice site by the way), and I think you’ll be fine. *Any* outdoor experience (time on your feet walking up and down hills) will stand you in good stead. You’ll be taught all the technical stuff (some of it in-situ., i.e. on the glacier; some of it inside or making use of artificial structures, e.g. prusicking), and it’s really quite straightforward.

I’d say by far the most important thing is to be fit. The fitter you are, the more you’re going to enjoy it. No need to be super-fit, just the fitness that comes from getting into the hills regularly.

I’ve put some photos from the trip on Picasa, here. Feel free to link to these from your blog if you like.

Any other questions, just fire away

Cheers,
Paul.

As we’re limited to working with the code that Google Reader sends back, this has to be done using CSS. There’s a “target-new” property in CSS3 that’ll do what you want.

You need to create a new rule (for example, “{target-new: window}”, or “target-new: tab”), and apply it to the appropriate selector. You’ll need to add this rule to your theme’s style sheet (or, better, to the child theme’s stylesheet — then this change won’t get lost when you upgrade your theme).

I don’t have time just now to experiment and confirm the exact line of CSS you need to add, but I’ll take a look and comment with more detail when I can.

Using this now for my blogroll!