Say "Cheese"

I want a new camera. We can't afford a new camera. Well, at least not the one I'd like to own...

Ever since my Dad showed up with a new Nikon D80, I've been feeling some serious camera-envy. While I aspire to be a great photographer (one day) and will therefore require super fancy, enviable equipment (one day), I resigned myself to the fact that the pocket sized digital we already own would simply have to do.

That is, until this week when it BROKE ...

NO, I did not break it on purpose. In fact, it's breakage was completely unprovoked. There was neither dropage nor dunking in water. The battery was fully charged and the memory card was functioning well enough for me to transfer photos onto the laptop.

Clueless, I took it to my local Best Buy where I was told that I was better off replacing rather than repairing this particular camera. In the end, the expense would be the same. (Yippee! Validation)

Fortunately, the hubby concurred, which only left me with "oh, but which one to pick!".

I would LOVE to have a sleek, new professional camera like my Dad, but not too fond of the idea of having yet ONE MORE thing to carry around. If you haven't noticed, really, really nice professional cameras aren't exactly compact...and they require ALOT of accessories. Another drawback was having to worry about my expensive camera getting stolen or broken. I can guard my kid or the camera with my dear life, but not both... and, um sorry, the kid wins. He's cuter.

I would ideally like something that I could just toss in the diaper bag and not worry too much about, although I suspect that probably how my current camera met it's fate. Also, size takes away from quality and speed, which is necessary in capturing the antics of... say, a TODDLER with lighting fast speed but a lack of interest in "doing that again" for the slow ass camera.

I talked it over with the hubby and we finally settled on this one. It's a little bulkier, but has some nice advanced features.... and, the best part, I found it on sale.

photo by pgirolami