Photography is one of my favorite pastimes. I enjoy capturing the things around me. I look at the world in such a way that I am picturing how it would look in a photograph. So, I am delighted to tell you that I got an early Mother’s Day present that is perfect for me…a new camera! It is one of the Samsung Smart Cameras.

Not only did I get a new camera, but I also got a new tablet! I purchased the Samsung NX1100 Smart Camera and the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 Tablet as a Mother’s Day bundle from Sam’s Club. #pixbundle You can check out the details of my shopping trip here. This is such a great Mother’s Day gift idea because all mom’s want to record everything that goes on in their children’s and grandchildren’s lives!

I picked the camera and tablet up on Tuesday and went out Wednesday morning to take some pictures. I ended up enjoying myself even more than I thought I would. Life gets so busy and I take pictures almost every day but I can’t remember the last time I picked up a camera just because it relaxes me. Being near the water is calming. I could hear a loon calling and birds chirping while the water gently lapped at the shore.

The kit also came with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, a 20mm-50mm lens, an external flash, a battery and charger and an 8GB microSD with SD Adapter. The camera has 20.3 mexapixles and can share photos via wifi! So, I can take pictures on my camera and send them to my tablet without having to dig out a cord. I can also email photos or upload them online directly from the camera! That is a fantastic new feature that will save me an extra step.

The Samsung NX1100 camera body can is small and lightweight. I can purchase additional lenses in the future which is something I really want to do. I love that it comes with an external flash. I try to use flash as little as possible so I haven’t really tested this flash out yet but I am happy that it is there for when I might need it.

I walked along the lake shore and took pictures of various things. I tried using some of the different settings on the camera but found myself returning to manual mode each time. I love having complete control of the shutter speed and the aperture.

I also noticed that I kept aperture at the lowest available which was f5.6. I like having one part of the image in focus while the rest of it soft like the feather photo.

I feel like the images are sharp and small details show up. I was squatting down taking a picture of some words I wrote in the sand when I noticed the reeds along the shore. I decided to quickly take a couple of pictures of them before moving on to the next thing. When I got home and was looking through my photos, they are so clear I realized that there is a bug crawling up the green reed!

The camera was very easy for me to use. I always shoot in manual mode with my DSLR so that is what I did with this camera. But there are so many different shooting modes that a person can choose from. There is everything from portraits to macro to sunset and so much more. You can even chose Smart Mode and the camera will automatically choose the appropriate camera settings based on the scene it detects.

I love how you can see the spider webs in this photo. We finally have spring here in Minnesota and the buds are just coming out on the trees. I was so nice to be out there observing spring through my lens!

I love my Mother’s Day gift and am so excited to have a lightweight camera that I can carry around so much more easily than I can my DSLR. My photography loving daughters are already asking to use it! I told them they have to let me try it out first. Then, I can show them how it works and give them a turn.

This was my first time using one of these Wi-Fi cameras so after many attempts, I figured out how to connect the camera to the tablet using . It would’ve been much quicker if I had noticed the Wi-Fi option on the mode dial! So now I have some of the photos I took on the tablet! I also tried emailing a picture to myself and that worked perfectly.

What mom in your life would love a new camera and tablet for Mother’s Day?