Monday, April 20, 2009

Old Lady Camera

A week ago, My loyal HP Photosmart M627 (7mp) Digital Camera died. My lens stuck, it would not retract. It was stuck..lens error. I looked up the error on the Internet..and did everything I was advised.. low and behold Far Side the Camera Repair Woman was successful. For a whole five days.. about 200 photos later..until it died again..and no matter how many times I did the suggested sequence..it is still dead. I was sad. I was comfortable with my tried and true camera, however I did yearn for a better camera. HP stopped making cameras.. I complained to my brother.. apparently it was a division that was expendable. He didn't care as long as it wasn't his division. He is camera savvy..or used to be..guess not so much anymore. I complained directly to HP..they are truly sorry but they have no plans to resurrect their Camera division anytime soon.

Far Guy offered to give me his camera..which in reality is my old HP Photosmart (2.1mp.) He is so generous. But it still works..and it does take good photos.

I did some research.. and had my choices written down..now for the shopping part..gosh I hate to shop. I walked around, looking at all the choices. Nikon or Canon?? A camera with lots of dials and settings..I barely understand shutter speeds ..I am camera stupid. I was discouraged. Then I found my old HP Camera, it must have been stuck in some warehouse someplace..I almost grabbed it and ran to the checkout counter. I stopped myself..and said self "You need a better camera..Perhaps not a Canon Mark III..but a better camera."

I compromised and got another old lady camera. One with automatic settings, but with the capability to choose my own settings..for when I am comfortable enough with ISO and all that technical jargon. When I have time to read the entire manual and feel like experimenting. I have thirty days to decide if this is the camera for me or not..and I will probably go back and get that HP Photosmart M627 and see if I can get a service package for ten years..because I really liked that camera..I can send my old one in for repair..but that will cost as much as a new camera.
One of the reasons I wanted a new camera was to take bird photos.. In my old camera they would have looked like this...honest..there is a bird in that photo.

TA DA! A BLUEBIRD!
The new camera...

A cropped photo.. with practice... I should get better..maybe.

The camera I ended up purchasing was a Canon (9 mp) Powershot SX 110 IS ..thirty days will tell the story:)



14 comments:

Michelle said...

Sorry about your camera. I have a Canon (not as nice as yours)...it seems to be pretty user friendly, but then the only thing I do manually is turn off the flash and use the delay timer. I've never read the user manual and have no idea how to do anything else!

Anonymous said...

I have an old lady camera too.. but you know what? I think you should go with this new camera - that bluebird photo is great!

Anonymous said...

Ihave no skills with a camera but I love the photo of the bluebird above. I hope you will have lots of time to experiment with the new camera and I hope to get to enjoy lots of new bird photos from you!
P.S. I have OLD LADY everything!!!

DayPhoto said...

Wow! I like your bluebird photos! The tela, whatever lens things works really good, the bird is clear, not fuzzy and looks like a real bird. Sometimes I get so much fuzz the bird looks like a blurr.

Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com/

hayseed said...

Ah, well, as long as you keep taking pictures-One of these days I'll read my camera manual too!

Emma Rose said...

Great bluebird picture! Congrats on the new camera too. The Duchess talked the Duke into getting her the Nikon she wanted and now every time I turn around she has it pointed in my face! It's like having my own Paparazzi!

Kisses for Chance!
Emma Rose

Debbie said...

Awe that sucks when you just get used to using something and it breaks. Kudos to you for googling and finding the cure for a short time though! We do that all the time. We purchased our first digital camera a few years ago. It was over 300.00 which at the time was a lot! It's a Sony Cybershot 4.1 with a Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens....whatever the hell that means. It's ok but I have the same problem you described. Partly user and parlty camera....probably more user. I got the manual out the other day after all these years and still it came real slow to me. My husband is the mechanically minded one....he builds computers! My hats off to you for getting out there and shopping for one...and I too love the bluebird photo...nice shot! And kisses to Chance from me too! Love that dog.:)Is it possible for him to start his own blog...oh that's right...I forgot he has blog entries once in a while!

The Retired One said...

I got a new camera at Xmas and I am just getting comfortable with it now. I played with it for a while and THEN I went back and re-read the manual and learned a bunch of new things. I really love it now.
Your bluebird photo turned out wonderful...this camera of yours may be a keeper!!

The Retirement Chronicles

Jeanne Estridge said...

I want a new camera, too. Something with enough megapixels that I can blow up the photos without them getting all grainy/fuzzy.

I'll be watching with interest to see what you decide!

The W.O.W. factor! said...

I wouldn't know how to use a fancy new camera! I barely know how to use the one I've got! Half the time, the pix I WANT...end up being of what I don't want! I'm the worst photo taker in the world! I hope you enjoy your new one and we are blessed with visual pleasures from your lens!

linda m said...

I have a Canon Elph that I really like. It has an excellent zoom on it that we use all the time. It is also an Old Lady camera as most things on it are done automatically. (I'm not camera savy). But I do know how to turn the flash on and off and view the picture I just took.

EG CameraGirl said...

It's hard to learn a new camera...but it's worth it!

Your bluebird photos are lovely.

Pamela said...

I FOUND IT IN THE FIRST FOTO!
I'm a bird watcher -- of course.

Girl Tornado said...

Yay for you, love the bluebird, he is quite the colorful one!

Since getting my new Nikon D60 in December, I have learned much more about camera settings... I now use Aperture, set my own ISO, and I've even used the shutter settings! Always more to learn, but I do love the better photos that it takes. :)