GE X5 is my first ever digital camera after years of using a Canon Ixus that still runs on Advantix Film. I do not know if I should thank my errant neighbor for springing the need for evidence collection which consequently led to the purchase of this camera. It is a bargain since it has 14 MP with 15x optical zoom for only P8,000/6mos. w/o accessories. It is considered a bridge camera as it has the automatic face detection, red eye reduction, etc... of point and shoots, as well as manual modes with aperture(and other photo terminologies I have never heard of before) for an introduction to a DSLR camera.
I took some shots of my immediate vicinity and after a few blurry tries they were successful. I should have really read the manual before trying because the controls of this camera is not something you can intuitively operate unlike that of a Nokia mobile phone which you can operate even if you have never held one in your hand before. See how messed up this one is considering that I was sitting in front of it. Well technically, the manual did not help much.
However, after more fiddling (and seriously considering driving back to Rockwell to return it) I found more menu clickables and there was an automatic option called the Leaf View - for those nature shots etc, which seemed to work fine fore everything else so I stuck to it.
The thing that amazed me most about this camera is the range of the optical zoom. I was currently seated at the second floor this building and the subjects were at least 50 meters away from me -
I can even see the child's face from the zoom!
The image stabilizer is working so well, I haven't even taken the tripod from the box yet.
