We got a new camera! We are all very excited about it. It has been a desire of our's for some time. We used to have a digital camera, purchased about 9 years ago. Well, when we replaced our computer 2 years ago, we could no longer use that camera. It did not have a memory card of any kind. The only way to put the pictures on the computer was through a cable and a program but alas, the program was not compatible with Windows XP AND they had no update drivers. As a matter of fact, the company does not appear to be in existence any longer.
Consequently, we had to use our old 35mm cameras. The digital camera was purchased because of our growing problems with the 35mm camera (battery issues). So several months ago I bought another 35mm camera to tide us over until we could get a new digital camera. While on vacation, I took a lot of pictures one day and was amazed that it seemed that I'd taken so many but still hadn't run out of film. (That was my first clue that something was amuck.)
As it turned out, all of those pictures I'd taken, did not come out. I think that the film was not loaded correctly. Unfortunately, you could not tell this without opening up the back of the camera and thus messing up the film/pictures that may have been taken if it was correctly installed.
The friends that we were vacationing with had a wonderful digital comera. It is a Canon Digital Rebel EOS. It takes amazing pictures. They paid a LOT of money for it several years ago and still love it. Well, I got to thinking . . . it has probably come down in price a lot in the last several years. So, my oldest son and I started looking.
What we found was that their exact camera couldn't be found any longer but the next closest that we could find was about a third cheaper and takes about a third better picture (i.e. 8 mega pixels as opposed to 6 mega pixels).
Now we had the problem of this still being an expensive camera! So my son and I began planning out how we could manage to get the money to purchase this wonderful instrument. Ahhh, Circuit City to the rescue—they offer interest free financing for one year on large purchases.
We had to go into town yesterday to get my neice a birthday present anyway, so we went and got the camera. We had to buy the memory card separately though. Unfortunately, the salesperson helping us didn't usually work in the camera department. We drove the 35-40 minutes home and realized that the SD card will NOT work in our wonderful new camera. Now tell me, what good is a digital camera if you cannot save the pictures? It is like having a 35mm camera with no 35mm film! Ugh!!!
Well, we got back in the van and drove the 35-40 minutes back to town. The clerk told us to find some guy around the corner that would help us. We could not find the salesman that she told us to find. While we were at home, we got familiar with some of the lingo and what was needed. I found what I thought we needed—a CF card and not an SD card. We took it back up to the clerk and she allowed us to open it and see if it worked.
Thankfully, there was another sales associate that walked up and was very familiar with this camera. He told us that what we had was indeed the correct item. But we could not get it in. So, we asked him if he'd try. He couldn't do it either. As it turned out, our brand new camera had some bent pins in the CF slot. We traded cameras.
We've played around with it a lot already! It has been a lot of fun!!! I'll have to play with it some more and see if there are any accessories that I want to have for Christmas. We only got a 1 gig CF card; so I may want to get another one for Christmas. We'll see!
This is really neat because my oldest son, who is 16, is learning how to use different computer programs that we have to manipulate our digital pictures and learning to use the camera too.
My recommendation to anyone getting a digital camera is to get one that is by a well known company. That way, if you upgrade your computer, you should be able to continue to use your equipment. Don't just get a camera on clearance by some unknown company; you may be sorry down the road.
We will be leaving soon to go celebrate my niece's birthday. Which means, we will be getting to play with our camera some more. Whoo hoo!
(Me and my dd, Tiffany on an easy to climb tree limb on vacation in VA in 2007.) These are my ramblings on homeschooling and whatever else comes to mind.
Counting Down
The Holidays are over and I'm not quite ready to start a new count down yet. Maybe I should start a counting up the number of days I've stayed on my "diet".
