Monday, September 11, 2006

cameras

This is so important to me: how should I be capturing the world on film/flickr?

Breaking my camera earlier last week in New Haven made me think of this again: how much would I improve were I to upgrade the old (okay, less than a year, but old by industry standards) equipment?

Tons. The new camera behaves beautifully. The shots compensate for light, for speed, for my inadequacies.

IT’S A KEEPER!
Well no, not exactly.

There’s the price. Astronomical by my standards. But I have come to terms with credit card debt for the most important things in life like daughters, travel and cameras. So no, it’s not the cost.

Call me obsessive about matters of weight, but that really is it – the new camera is too heavy.

I am retreating to the world of the Sonys without wonderful interchangeable lenses. I just cannot see myself being at peace with an elephant. You, with the huge trunk. Careful now, I need to change your lens. Let me load the replacement back into the suitcase they call the carrying tote.

Tomorrow I will be packing up the new baby and sending in a bid for a smaller replacement. I feel cheap. I feel horribly unkind to my little dependables. But I have to do it. Goodby Sony alfa SLR – you are too much. I look forward to the new kid on the block, to be tried out as soon as the weather changes from ridiculously wet to pleasantly and safely dry.

One parting shot and I’ll be on my way. With the telephoto lens, of the flowers on my sill, many dozens of feet away:


september 06