New camera dilemmas - what to do...

Chris, I couldn't agree less.
Disposable batteries work out to be far more expensive than a good Lithium-Ion (or even Ni-Mh) battery specific to the camera. Manufacturers at the top (Canon / Nikon / Sony) go to great lengths to make sure the kit can perform for as long as you need it to.
If you don't want to buy the mfrs battery, shop around for a quality alternative.
For my Canon 5D I have the Canon original, and a Hahnel spare. They last the same amount of time, the Hahnel unit was a bit cheaper than buying another Canon one, but not by much.

 

I should have made clear that I of course use high power NiMH rechargeable AAs, ~2700mAh, which are still far cheaper than these bespoke batteries.

The disposable AA is merely a backup option which I can reach for fairly quickly as & when.

It also means I can grab them from the camera to put in a Maglite or any other item running AAs, which is pretty handy at times.

 

7 Day Shop is the way forward for cheap high capacity rechargeable AAs

I do appreciate the benefits of being able to run AAs, my D-SLR runs CR-V3 batteries, but equally can take AAs. I run the CR-V3s most of the time, but since the flash also uses AAs then it doesn't hurt to have a pack sat in the bag just in case.

 

So hows things going with this camera Chris. Any pics of the handywork.

 

So far, limited. I've still to sort a course out, which I must do.

There's some of the Autosport show here, which was the main thing that prompted me to get it bought, though the resolution drop to 640 has left them quite grainy (I think).

I'm pleased with the speed of it, and am now committed to the idea of this hybrid camera rather than an SLR (me personally). My previous hybrid Canon used to really annoy me with its speed, and I could never work out whether I'd made the right choice, so it was great to try other cameras before buying the latest one to help decide what I needed.

I took some video of the ex-works Quattro Sport with the real Stig at Autosport, so I must put that on youtube. The focus dropped out at one stage which was annoying, but it was dark in there, so I'm inclined to forgive it.

I'm sure it'll be seeing plenty of action this year

 

Im having the same probelm with resolution drop i think.

You see a lot of photos on the net which look so sharp and some 'Grainy' as you say. Is it photobucket that does this. Are there and other hosts which support better formats.

 

I could be the res-dropper. In my case I send them to myself as an email attachment in Outlook on reduced res, then pick the off that and cancel the mail.

It's probably quite crude & maybe photoshop would do a better job.

 

Can't say without seeing your photos, but that sounds a weird way of reducing your resolution.

Treat yourself to a copy of Photoshop Elements - version 8 (latest) is about 70, version 7 (which is excellent) is about 30 on Amazon. It has loads of auto-fixing (and lots of stuff you can tweek yourself) and also has a 'Save for the web' option, which reduces the size and resolution with hardly any noticeable loss.

Edit: it also handles RAW files too, so brilliant if your camera can take them in RAW