The camera is dead. Long live the camera!

On Thanksgiving morning I was kneeling in the freshly-fallen snow, taking a photograph of a half-frozen, leaf-filled puddle, when I heard a soft fluttering sound and a little plunk. I looked down to see the bits and pieces of my two-year-old digital camera that had fallen into the slush at the edge of the puddle.

The face plate of the zoom lens completely fell off, as did the black plate underneath that, along with the little shutter thingies that close over the lens when the camera is off. The zoom lens wouldn't retract and the camera shut down -- possibly for the last time ever.

I am bereft. Devestated. Seriously bummed. And, naturally, the rest of the weekend was a non-stop parade of one breathtakingly beautiful scene after another.

I bought my Pentax Optio 450 just about two years ago. I took almost 6,500 photographs with it. And, while it was a pretty expensive camera when I bought it, an equivalent camera today would cost about one-third of what I paid for it then. But I sure as hell expected it to last more than 2 years!

I will send it to Pentax to get a repair estimate, but from what I've heard about digital camera repairs, it will probably be cheaper to buy a new one. Of course part of me very much wants that to be true because I would *love* a new camera.


So far the Nikon Coolpix 8400 is at the top of my short list. It's got a lovely wide angle lens that is the equivalent of a 24-85 mm lens on a 35 mm camera. It has 8 megapixels, which is probably way more than I need, and a 3.5x zoom, which is probably not quite enough. But the fact is this is way more camera than the Pentax for less money than I paid for the Pentax two years ago: it has a high-quality Nikon lens; a flippy view-finder thingy that allows you to see what you're shooting from any angle; a fill flash (one thing I really missed on the Pentax); the ability to take accessories such as filters and converter lenses; the ability to work with RAW data; more white balance modes; a wider ISO range (50-400); more long exposure options ... And I could go on (and on, and on).

It's not practical.

But, then again, neither am I.

photography, digital cameras