We gather here on this august occasion (but it's still June!) to mourn the passing of Canon Powershot A95. A95 lived a good long life as far as cheap digital cameras go, taking tens of thousands of pictures, yet succumbed to congestive CCD failure in the end, just like its elder brother, A70. Bought used at the beginning of 2008, A95 served faithfully up until the very end, when it started consistently producing images like this one:
My cute stripedy little girls...
A95 was preceded in death by A70 and a nameless $20 camera from Radio Shack. It is survived, oddly enough, by just about every film camera I've ever owned.
* * *
So I'm camera shopping again.
During the outage, I reached, once again, for my 25-year-old Pentax SLR. I keep forgetting how much I really like this camera — I'd gotten so used to the almost infinite depth of field provided by ultra-short focal length digitals, and have been pleasantly surprised to discover selective blurring and soft focus once again. There's even something to be said for the stumpy little 50mm lens — if you want to zoom out, start running. If you want to get closer, get closer. It's hard to argue with the quality of the photos it takes:
...and yet, in just three days, I spent a quarter of the cost of a new camera on processing alone. That's not including the film! It's just not a sustainable habit for me. I take too many pictures.
Deborah has been agitating for me to get a new camera sooner than later, so I finally caved and got her what she wanted: a Nikon L22, very similar to the L20 I gave Paul for Christmas. (She wanted hers in lime green, though. 'Twasn't an option.) And, I made an interesting distinction: This was to be her camera. I'll use it in the meantime, too (even though the lack of manual overrides drives me crazy) but it's a stopgap until I get something that suits me and my abilities.
1 comment:
we have a d70 that needs to be repaired. i think it's a 100 fix. let me know if you want it. and lens
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