My Digital Camera History

After many failed attempts at becoming a proud touter of the digital camera--I'm proud to say I'm finally joining the movement.

I was one of the first to get a digital camera was a birthday present in high school or maybe it was freshman year of college (late '90s), but I held fast to the throw-away camera and barely took my shiny Fuji, thin even for present day standards, digital camera out of its case, let alone out of my place.

A few years went by and the digital camera revolution gripped the world and my generation and I reached for my dusty, not trusty almost rusty, camera only to discover that the battery life was about 7-10 photos. Apparently turning on the LCD monitor drank up too much power. What's the point of having a digital camera if you can't use the monitor? I put it back on the shelf.

During my time at Pfizer, I signed up for a freebie digi-cam in one of the bonus point-reward systems. When it arrived it was a complete piece of crap. It had no zoom. There was no visible LCD screen. Apparently the only thing that made this camera digital was the port which allowed it to be connected to a computer--that's how you could VIEW your photos. No flash. What good does that do you on vacation--heck, what good does it do you outside your apartment?

My last attempt was thrust upon me by my mom's fiancee--who in an attempt to win me over--bought me a digital camera for my last birthday. While this was a HUGE improvement over the Pfizer flop, it was by no means an expensive camera. Don't get me wrong, it's not about the dollars invested but this camera could not have passed for an expensive camera...it was downright ghetto. While it has a lithium batter which never expires--yay. The picture quality is fairly horrific and being seen with it in hand is downright embarrassing. It did have a flash but it was finicky. You couldn't view your photo unless you switched to view mode. Most cameras will show you a quick flash post-photo before preparing for the next shot: saving both time and trouble. It is light weight but the pixels have little to do with my hand shaking and everything to do with the camera's limited featured abilities. No zoom.

I just bought a silver, 6x zoom, 4.0MP HP camera from Best Buy. It's not as slim as others on the market but by no means is it clunky. I'm delighted to finally be the proud owner of a decent digital camera. I can't wait to carry it about and photograph at will all the cool NYC sights. Perhaps they will find their way onto this blog. A camera phone just doesn't cut it but that is a rant for another day. I'm hoping my camera arrives in time for mom's wedding next weekend!

Check it out: Sweet Camera