Friday, August 21, 2009

Take a picture it'll last longer...

While away at Shambhala (which I still need to post about...I know...) some asshat stole my little backpack which had (among other things) my camera and gorilla pod in it. Annoying. You don't realise how much you use a camera until you don't have one.

Now my old camera (Canon Powershot A80) was about 7 years old and quite big and was sucking batteries like a sucky battery demon...so we'd been thinking about getting a new camera for next year. It was a good little camera, but it's days were numbered. This sort of pushed things up a bit. We've done a lot of web snooping and found that the Panasonic DMC-TS1D is going to be our new camera friend. The Canon version of this (D10) was good, but rather large and potato shaped...not really a pocket camera. It was neck in neck with the one we've chosen:
The Panasonic DMC-TS1 is much smaller than our old camera, it can record 2 kinds of video and takes photos at 12.1 megapixels. It is antishake, droppable and dustproof and waterproof to 3 metres (ie. me proof). It has a good wide angled lens, lots of features that even I can use...AND it comes in orange. I like. It is a bit more pricey than I'd initially hoped, but luckily we have been saving for this for a while, so we won't get too beat up about it. I will pay a bit more for quality and getting exactly what I want in a camera. It should do us another 7 or 8 years I'm sure. With any luck we can pick one up this weekend...we have to see if anyone local has one in stock. I can't wait to play with it. :)
I will post a nerdy little product review once I've gotten my mittens on it :)


Side Rant: Missing the "Positive" Consumer Experience: I've found lately that a lot of stores list an item but it's not actually in the store - that you can "special order" it in...which usually takes at least a week...and then is often backordered taking up to a month more. I know it is impossible to stock all things...but this is why mega stores bother me so much. Smaller specialized stores will be able to carry stock of specific things...I don't need to be able to buy a toilet and shoes while purchasing a can of soup. I can go to multiple locations. This is becoming more and more common...very annoying. The big box mall stores popping up (even here) all look the same. There is no push for quality...just quantity. And buyer beware. Even with the tiles I specially ordered to reno our kitchen, after the 2-3 week delivery period I got a call saying they'll likely be another month. I've made trips across town to stores to get other things I like only to be told I was misinformed or that I'd have to come back some other time or that they would be longer to arrive. People who work in some departments at hardware stores who know nothing about what they are selling.... I DO try to purchase locally from companies that respect and honour the customer and ideas like quality and customer service...but it is getting harder to see those things in life. Are you finding this too?

Anyways...enough of that.
Hope you all have a nice weekend. I know I will :)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

A nice bright looking camera. :-) Though I'm sorry to hear about your stolen pack, with the gorillapod in it too.

I haven't had that experience yet (re hardware stores) but have read that other people had similar experiences... being told something is in stock, driving miles to get it... and it's not there. Some of the staff in these places don't seem to know whether they're coming or going!

Geosomin said...

Yes - this jsut happened AGAIN with some pro gear I'm ordering for J.
Items (very specific and took months to select) went from in stock for shipping to not being made anymore and unavailable.
Bloody hell.
I'm not feeling very pelased at the moment...

the Bag Lady said...

And here I thought that sort of thing was only specific to our location! We are constantly being told things have to be ordered. It's annoying - especially when it's things like parts for a piece of equipment that we are using that has broken down! Grrr.
I'm sorry to hear that it happens in your city, too!

Captain Chlorophyll said...

And then the "service" personnel can't answer your questions because the computer doesn't say if the item will be restocked or when.

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