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I love my little Olympus Stylus Epic, with it’s fast prime lens and almost total lack of options (yes that’s a good thing), but after my recent trip I think I finally got to the point where it just doesn’t make sense to shoot 35mm for random snapshots anymore. After spending almost $60 getting less than a dozen rolls processed, and spending almost a whole day scanning shots of varying quality, not to mention the hassle of finding decent quality film on the go (why can’t grocery stores carry Portra next to the Max 800?), I think it’s time to get a digital point and shooter.

But what to get? I thought I had pretty well decided on the as-yet-unreleased Canon Powershot TX-1. It’s actually more video camera than still cam, with 720p HD video, which I was going dig, as video is something I’ve been meaning to dabble more in (I’m gunning for you Wes Anderson), but still with a decent 7 megapixel still camera in it (usually the combo video/still cams are really good in one or the other). But then Sigma has to go and drop their new DP1, with it’s prime lens, RAW file capabilities, and the much-touted Foveon 3-layer sensor (not to mention it just looks hot). It doesn’t help that Leica/Panasonic keep making their D-Lux cameras pretty interesting as well.

So which direction to go in; the more capable but a little overwrought video-cam-plus-halfway-decent-still-cam, or a fully capable compact still camera that doesn’t look like a robot crapped it out? I guess it’s nice to have options.

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Things I did on my vacation:

• Spent a week on a nearly uninhabited island in the Caribbean
• Finished 3.5 crossword puzzles
• Nearly wrecked a supped-up dune buggy golf cart
• Explored abandoned military bunkers and hurricane-emptied hotels
• Shot 21 rolls of film; 16× 120, 7× 35mm (one not in the photo above)
• Read The Stranger
• Drank copious amounts of rum and mango-flavored beer
• Befriended the locals
• Saw almost every cousin and uncle and aunt I have

Things I didn’t do:

• Check email
• Shoot a single digital photo
• Get burned (thank god)

Lots and lots of pictures to come from this (if I wasn’t too wasted to operate the camera correctly).

I decided to put up a bunch of the photos that have been sitting in my “to post” folder for a long time. I’ve gotten into such a rhythm of constantly posting square film shots, punctuated by black & white shots from the Epic, that anything that hasn’t fit into that rythm has been ignored. None of them are my favorite (except this one), some of them are old, but they seemed cool enough for whatever reason to hang on to, and they might as well fill in the next couple weeks while I’m on vacay, bouncing around betweeen Chicago, Michigan and Georgia.

Michelle and I spent last week in New York City. We connected with a bunch of old and new friends, saw some art, ate a lot.

Went to Chelsea and spent time in some galleries. Jill Greenberg’s Monkey Portraits at ClampArt and Tierney Gearon’s The Mother Project at Yossi Milo Gallery were the favs. Did the requisite sprint through the permanent collection at the MoMA. Ran into an installation piece being made on the riverfront in Brooklyn by Jared Lindsay Clark, who it turns out grew up in Ann Arbor, not far from my hometown.

Also managed to fit in enough business to call it a work trip. Met up and stayed with my partners Nick & Jessica (thanks a shitload) and got to match some faces with names at Flavorpill. Hung out with Justin a bit too, and reintroduced him to his real estate broker.

Not as much photo taking as I would have liked though, as partying has a way of making you burn the daylight, but still totally worth the trip. Next step is figuring out a way to split our time across the coasts.

Above; the covers of the European, Asian, Latin American, and US editions of this week’s Newsweek magazine. Yes, in that order.

Update: This week’s versions below. Global warming, or sexual scandal? They report, they decide.

Keeping in the spirit of ridiculously cool camera gear, the new Seitz 6×17cm digital panoramic camera is the balls. It’s got a 160 megapixel, 48-bit back (that’s 21,250 × 7,500 pixels), and can use any large format camera lens (Schneiders or Rodenstocks or Linhofs, oh my). I mean come on, it’s got a Mac Mini for flash memory!

It uses a “scanning” back, to pan across the frame and capture the panorama (just like the large format panoramic cameras of yore), but what’s I think is potentially the coolest thing about it is that it’ll be able (in the future) to be used on other large and medium format cameras. Which, as far as I know, would be the first full-frame 6×6 digital back.

Start saving though, it’s $33,000.

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I killed two external hard drives today, and learned a lesson. Make sure you always use the right AC adaptor with the right device. Little puffs of smoke are generally not good (when they come from electronics).

I also got an eye exam, which has evolved into an elaborate series of really really bright lights, shined right into your freshly-dilated pupils, burning your eyes from inside.