The XZ-2 arrived yesterday. It's in excellent shape, other than the chipped and cracked cover glass at the right edge of the LCD. It even has the original thumb rest, which had fallen off mine. I'd replaced it with a little silicone sticky nub that you use for feet or bumpers.

Unfortunately, a disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico has it cloudy and wet here for the next several days. Good for moody images, but maybe not so inspiring for comparison shots.

It came with a 3rd party battery and charger. It uses the same battery as the TG-6, so I went to getolympus.com and ordered a couple of OEM batteries, as they tend to perform more reliably over a long time. They were clearing out the LH-50 battery, which is what goes in the XZ-1 for $5 a piece, so I bought two of those.

Out of curiosity, I wanted to see if there were any good deals for an XZ-2 on the auction site. Nope, about $200 or more, so I feel pretty good about this purchase at half of that.

I'd forgotten that the screen is a touch-screen, so that's a difference with the MX-1. And the screens are not identical in size, either.

You can feel the weight difference, but it's not as pronounced as I'd expected. The XZ-2 feels like a solid camera, not "plasticky" at all.

Anyway, while I was on the auction site, I looked at what the Stylus 1s was going for these days. Well north of $200 for most of them, though there was one I spotted for just a bit over $200 with shipping. But it was in very rough shape cosmetically. I mean, ugly.

I spotted one "for parts" with a stuck lens for $85/OBO, so I googled "stuck lens" and figured I'd give it a shot. Offered $75, sell came back at $78 and I snagged it.

There are a couple of relatively easy fixes I can try, and a couple more that are a bit more "iffy," but I think I can get this one working.

Some of you may recall, I'd dropped my Stylus 1s back in 2020, and it appeared to be broken. Turned it on, lens would extend and then immediately retract. The lens wasn't stuck, the sensor was. I "fixed" it by banging it on the desk in various orientations until whatever was holding the sensor gave way and it started working again.

A stuck lens, oddly enough, may be as simple as a weak battery. I have some very new batteries here, and I'll try that first. Then there are a couple of other relatively easy things to try. If worse comes to worst, I'll have some spare parts.

But I'm fairly optimistic I can get it working again. I tend to eschew optimism to avoid disappointment, but it's only $83 shipped. I'll keep you posted.