| | Last week I decided it was high time I invested in a new digital camera. The enormous silver box bearing the prestigious initials "HP" that has been my photographic companion for the past five or six years is past its prime and ready to retire. It was time to find a younger sprier replacement. Little did I suspect what an incredible test this would be of my decision making skills. First of all, anyone who has ever shopped for a digital camera will tell you that there are a ridiculous amount of options available. I tried to do a little research before I set out on my quest, reading up on recent reviews. Unfortunately every review is relative to what you want out of a camera. After browsing a handful of websites trying to track down the perfect camera, I gave up the online portion of my investigation and decided to hit the stores. It took me a couple of failures before I realized my own stupidity and decided to head to the one place a person should obviously go to find the best selection of digital cameras: a camera shop. Namely, Wolf Cameras.
Now, in my journey to find the perfect camera I have learned many hidden secrets of the camera world. For example, did you know that mega pixels really make very little difference in a digital camera. It's true. Companies always advertise by spouting off an ever-increasing number of mega pixels their particular camera offers. Don't be deceived. In reality, a photograph taken with a 6MP camera looks much the same as a photograph taken with a 3MP camera. Unless you are going to blow up a picture to a gargantuan size (and I do mean gargantuan) then there is really no reason why anyone would need more than a 3 or 4 megapixel camera. Also, just because a name is famous in the camera industry does not mean everything they make is fabulous. For example, Nikon makes fabulous high end cameras. It's their specialty. However their low end, amateur, easy-to-use cameras are not that great.
So I asked the friendly camera-informed guy behind the counter which make or model he would recommend, giving him a list of some of the things I was looking for and what I would like to spend. He turned around, pulled a small unassuming camera off the shelf, and handed it to me. This should do the trick, he told me. It's a simple camera, has all of the options you could possibly want, and takes great pictures. Oh, and it's less that half the price of what you said you were thinking of paying, he happened to add. The reason for the low cost? Well, it's not one of the sleek, micro-thin cameras people are willing to pay big money for. Plus, it only has 4.1 mega pixels (see above debunk of the mega pixel myth). Oh, and it has a small view screen, which is apparently unpopular. What did I care? I was tired of looking and this was a great deal. I bought it with full assurances that I could return it in thirty days if I wasn't happy with it, waved goodbye to the girl who was looking for a telephoto lens in order to stalk people (different story), and took my new friend home to play. And so, the story has a happy ending. I am enjoying my new friend and I'm pretty sure I'm going to keep him. I haven't named it yet, but I am already falling in love. To show off some of his work, I'm attaching a random picture I took this evening.
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| | Posted 3/7/2007 11:12 PM - 55 Views - 8 eProps - 7 comments
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