My dad wants a new digital camera
(He already has two digital cameras, the original Canon Elph with its tiny screen and even smaller buttons, making it hard to use. The other is one of the last digital cameras from Toshiba, a 10x model that's similar to the Canon S1is.)
But he got frustrated in his search for camera that matches this wishlist:
- slim and good looking.
- big zooom, but willing to put up with 3x.
- big LCD screen.
- rechargeable via the computer USB port.
- takes movies.
As when my daughter needed a new camera, I first went on a scouting expedition. We had gotten a slim Casio that worked well from Wal-mart, and so I figured I'd see what they had. (Last time I went there, I was shocked because the carried only cameras with high prices.) This time I had a bigger shock: they no longer carried brand-name digital cameras at all, just junky and no-name ones.
When my dad showed up for our shopping trip, we figured on hitting London Drugs and FutureShop. London Drugs had a Casio that my dad initially liked, but then was put off because it required a docking station for charging and connecting to the computer. Just one more thing to loose, because he and Mom live 50/50 in northern BC (summer) and in the south (winter).
Then we thought we found the perfect one, the Samsung NV3. Looks great, and is a geek's delight, with built-in MP3 player, text file viewer, and MP4 movie playback. Internal zoom, so nothing sticks out. He bought it from London Drugs, $50 off the list price, which paid for the $50 1GB SD memory card.
But then the next day he went to use it for the first time. Here's his story:
What a beautiful day it is today. So off we went to the beach to take some scenic pictures. As it happened, one of these long-legged, long-necked,long-beaked birds was standing stock still. Out came the camera, ready to shoot. Power on? Power on? Nothing, no picture on the viewer finder, black as the night. Broken??? No, it dawned on me, the LCD viewer is utterly useless.
So add another item to the wishlist:
- optical viewfinder, so pictures can be taken in sunlight on the beach.
But that's a problem: in their frantic efforts to stay in the market, camera manufacturers eliminated the optical viewfinder from most digital cameras, because the viewfinder (1) takes up space, making the camera slightly bigger, and (2) costs money to produce (it's cheaper to leave it out).
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