Consumer Fever
On the photography front, I’ve done an upgrade. I’ve been enamored for a while of the keen photographs on display by my fellow northwesterners over at New Dharma Bums, especially the breathtaking closeups of wildlife in their yard and on strolls around the area.
I’ve been using a Canon S300, a 2.1 megapixel with 3x zoom. It’s been just great for most of the photos I want to take. Its compact size means I’m more likely to have it strapped to my belt when opportunities arise, and I have a waterproof case for it that cost almost as much as the camera, that I use when I’m out kayaking.
However, my close-up shots, even only using the optical zoom and not the faux “digital” zoom, are often annoyingly fuzzy. I found out that the Bums’ camera is a 5 megapixel Panasonic with a 12x zoom lens, but is not that much more bulky than my S300. It’s one of a class of sub-SLR digitals - the SLRs being, I think, of such a size that I would balk at carrying it around much. I started nosing around a couple months ago and became fixated on a similar camera, the Canon S2 IS. It also has a 12x optical zoom lens, and adds to the Panasonic the ability to record movie clips in stereo up to 1gb.
Reader, I bought it.
I ordered it online on Saturday, and obsessively clicked FedEx’s package tracking window to follow its route from Newark to Indianapolis to Seattle to the delivery truck on Wednesday morning, and worked fitfully while waiting for that thrilling ”thump” on the front porch.
I haven’t really had much chance to use it, as I’ve been pretty much chained to my desk all week. But every now & then I’ll pick it up, turn it on, open the manual and learn about another feature. I think the damn thing’s more complicated to use than the Space Shuttle! I mean, you can ignore all the buttons and levers on it and simply point and shoot with it, but I bought it in order to overcome the shortcomings of a pretty nice point-and-shoot camera I already owned, so I’d better put in some time learning to use those extra features.
I ventured out in the yard hoping to espy some wildlife upon which to visit my awesome new zoom and capability, but there was nothing - nothing - moving in the depressing afternoon drizzle. Later, Mrs. Perils came in with news of a dead robin on the front steps, but she dispatched it before I could compose what I thought would be a humorous anti-Bums natural tableau.
So, watch this space. I’ll have a little time this weekend to actually leave the house and search for blogworthy photos.
