Click!

As an early birthday present, a congratulations for getting through AFO, and a practical study-abroad gift, my parents have decided to buy me a digital camera. Big deal, right? Well, I can’t say that I’m anything more than an amateur photographer, but I’m past the beginner stage. I’ve taken two college-level classes in photography, and I’m fairly camera-literate. I’m also rabidly analog—mmm, darkrooms. I swore film photography would never die, not as long as I could contribute. Besides, digital cameras hate me—little plastic-chip things that break if I look at them sideways, grainy photos, five-second shutter lag, software that shuns Macs. I can hear their little cackling as I mess up picture after picture. Just another thing to bust or worry about getting stolen, right?

But as soon as my mom and dad said that they’d like to buy me one, I got interested. Buying one for myself never had much draw, but now I want one even if I have to pay for it. I did a lot of research on the internet about different models and brands, and I’ve decided to go with a Nikon Coolpix 7900. It’s not meant to replace my Minolta SLR—I’m taking that too, for the artsy stuff—but just to record snapshots of the places I go on side trips from Aix-en-Provence, my study-abroad “home base”.

I still wanted good image quality, and the little movie capability is attractive too (Nikons record movies in Quicktime, which my Mac likes, instead of Canon’s AVI, which it doesn’t). I take pictures of everything when I travel—recording the place, recording the trip, artistic stuff, whatever. It’s really excessive. I can’t help it! This translated to sixty rolls of film during my first month-long trip to Europe. My next trip will be for nine months. So, in the interest of not paying $5,000 in film and developing, not to mention hauling 50kg of developed photos home, this might be a godsend. But I feel myself being assimilated! I still love you, Minolta SLR! Will I stay true to film, or capitulate to the dark side of convenience and immediate prints? Stay tuned!

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