Got myself a new camera

Today was a big money spending day. End of the month is my birthday so I told hubby I wanted a new Canon Powershot SX20IS. We bought it today and let me tell you, it is an absolute beauty and truly powerful. My previous camera was a Canon Powershot G5, but this one is like a Mercedes next to a Volkswagen. It was quite expensive as around here the prices are at least twice as much as in the US, but finally I have it in my hands. And I had to try it out right away, of course. Still loads of settings I have to explore, but the macro feature - which is the most important feature in a camera for jewelry photography - is amazing. Did I mention I'm in love with this camera?

The first guinea pig for this camera was a pendant I made the other day - which is for the scrap pile as there are loads of mistakes in it - but was perfect to see how well the macro works (and how visible the mistakes are....).
I added a second tiny pic at the top to see just how small the pendant really is and how well I could zoom it with the Canon. The whole piece with the bail is around 1.2" (~3cm) so it's really tiny in my hands. And now off to the scrap pile it goes...


Also got myself a Magnilamp from Amazon and as luck would have it, it arrived today. I'll work on a second pendant under this magnifier, which also has a small lamp, just perfect to get a good focused light under my work. I know there are many other more expensive ones out there, but for now this will do. My eyes are no longer what they used to be when it comes to wire wrapping and I really need something to see what I'm doing.
Seriously, if you don't have one of these or some other magnifier which also has a lamp, you don't know how much you could improve your work by truly seeing every single detail of your wrapping. I'm working on a new version of the same pendant but now I clearly see the wire and where it goes over the base and I can see the difference.