Pentax Camera

This past week I took a Science class. The class was sponsored mostly by the INL...encouraging teachers to incorporate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math into their daily instruction. I chose the class I was going to take (which was nothing like the class description). Each class was led by a different instructor and we each received supplies to use in our classroom, which the instructor chose. It was kind of crazy because the class was titled Enhanced Project Based Learning. Well, when we got to the class, the instructor starts talking about taking pictures, going into depth about aperture. I was sitting there thinking..."Did I come to the wrong class?" I pretty much knew everything he told us, but he had some cool older cameras, including a pinhole camera. So, then he says...well, you're going to need a camera to do your work this week, so I will pass out your cameras now. ....What? Did you say we each get a camera? To keep? I think we were all in shock. But, yep, we each got a camera. This is it.

I just looked it up on Amazon $198.00

Funny thing...then he goes on to tell us that we need to read the manual. That is the first thing he does when he gets a camera is read the entire manual. See below....yeah whatever, it's almost and inch thick.

So, I really don't need another camera, but we didn't do much else in the class, so I played with it quite a bit and I'm impressed. It has some cool features. It is pretty rugged...says it is shockproof. However, I didn't drop it to test that. But, it is waterproof..and I did test that. There was a small pond on campus, so I put completely in the water and took a pictures (I had to talk myself into that because...well, I just didn't feel comfortable plunging a camera into the water.) It took a perfectly fine picture, dried off, and still worked.
Now...I think this is the coolest thing about the camera, it has a magnifying setting..and this weird little lense thing on the front. Well, you sit it on something, then zoom in and it magnifies the object. See my examples below. I think this is totally awesome.

This is the webbling on my flip flo.

Bark on a tree.

Grass. I love this one.

Inside of a rose.

The shirt I was wearing.

Now...I can't say the class was on my list of top professional development...but the freebies were AWESOME. I will share my animation, and music making abilities another day.