But this camera has a ROUND lens, I want to take SQUARE pictures!

I've had my Nikon Coolpix 5000 for a couple of years and really enjoyed taking pictures with it, however I've noticed a lot of the shots I want are actions pictures. Even group pictures and parties or events can be hard if you're trying to capture a moment or some kind of fast movement (ok, hold it, wait, one sec as it focuses, ok, almost... now, opps, no flash, hold on, hold on, one second....). I had been planning on getting a new camera for a while and have been doing some research. This week I decided to finally look around and order the camera. Just by coincidence though, the day I was going to look for pricing and make an order I saw a post on Slickdeals for a deal on the Rebel XT at Dell. Besides being a decent price, the poster found a 20% off coupon, recommended purchasing an additional $35 off $400 coupon from eBay if you didn't already have one, and pointed out the $100 rebate from Canon. I got the coupon at an auction for a total of $2 and had it sent to me within a couple of minutes and then made the purchase.

The camera arrived Friday afternoon while I was at work, but was ready for me to check out when I got home. Excitedly set up a picnic with my friend Lara at the local park along Hillsborough River got a chance to play with it for a while and got some neat shots. While we were there I checked up on my geocache and dropped off an old travel bug that I held onto for too long. The ease of use and quality of photos is very impressive. Although it doesn't have a rotating monitor since SLR cameras have no preview mode, the other features more than make up for it! I've posted two of the pictures below. The one on the bottom was taken of a couple having a picnic when it was well past sundown. They had a bunch of bags with tea lights around the blanket area that could be seen in the distance. A combination of the timer (so I wouldn't jar the camera) and long exposure (20 seconds) made for a great picture such that the photo came out much better than I could see. I could barely see the outline of the closest tress in the dark whereas the camera was able to make out quite a bit of detail. I'm looking forward to learning more of what the camera has to offer and getting some great shots in the future.