Time for a confession, I guess.

As anyone following my project will know, my good point-and-shoot died a week before the holiday. An internal screw came loose (on the camera, not me!) and shorted out the main logic board. It is currently in for repair, and was not available for the holiday.

The left me with an old point-and-shoot, abandoned because it couldn’t focus properly, and the 350D SLR. Neither of which was ideal for a skiing holiday.

And we had previously promised ourselves a waterproof camera for our next holiday…

Well, at the airport I sprung for a point-and-shoot. The Sony TX5 – a delightful little camera, small as you like yet claiming to be waterproof to 3m. And no sharp edges to to me an injury in the event of a fall.

Given my history with point and shoot cameras, I took out the extended warranty too!

One of the features it has is Sony’s "iSweep" panorama mode. You just point it at a subject, and "sweep" the camera round in the direction of the arrow. And lo and behold, it works!

The mountain scenery around Flaine was simply stunning – there’s a lot more of it to come – take this example as just a starter.