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Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Choices, Choices, Choices

I am officially out of a camera. Yes, I am already having withdrawal symptoms, but at the same time I am weighing my options carefully. My little Walmart special camera finally bit the dust for good and I sent it off to cash in on the extended warranty that I bought on it way back last June. It has served me well all these months and I was happy enough with it's features even tho all the while I have coveted all those big fancy spancy cameras. So, the search is on. The Black Friday adds were a very real temptation, but alas, the electric bill came first again which meant I gladly went back to sleep at 3:00 A.M. rather than brave the cold and snow to drive to Stuffmart. The cheap side of me doesn't want to spend any more money than I have to. Weighing my spending options between the mortgage, winter coats for the kids or a new camera usually leans towards the foremost option. But being two girls quit the same week at work, and I am one of the only other options to cover the emergency room desk for the weekends until the new girl is trained, I have a little bit of green thoughts rolling around my brain. That is after the new truck tires are purchased. Sigh.
So here are my options: This cute little Fuji camera in Berry {cute}{cute}. I loved the closing cover option on my old Fuji as I could take it everywhere (on horseback, to the barn, on top of shed roofs, etc, etc) without worrying about it getting destroyed. It's cheap and is a good everyday camera that you can put in your pocket. Some of the pictures even won first place at the Fair.
But what I really want is something like this. Big. Black. 26X zoom. More options than I could ever figure out. Sigh. The price isn't too bad, either, but it would require another 30 hour weekend shift. Sigh. What I really want is both of them, one for everyday outback pictures and one for fancy shooting.
Then there's this end of the camera spectrum which would require me winning alot of Fair entries and working full time or raising a few more calves to even consider buying. I wouldn't even know how to put that lens on, nor would I honestly want to read the manual to figure it out. It costs more than most of the vans we looked at last spring. Choices, choices, choices.


So for the time being I will just have to use some of my thousands of old pictures for blog post inspiration until I can make up my mind what to buy. You'll just have to take my word for it that the snow is beautiful; the puppy is getting bigger and fatter and is soooo cute now that her eyes are opened; having the yearling horses in the half finished barn is a sight for sore eyes; the friends and family who made it for Thanksgiving were cherished again; and Micah really is a bigger boy now that he had his 6th birthday.

7 comments:

  1. Wow! Our similarities are amazing. I am identifying with the camera withdrawl, the electric bill, mortgage, kids needing more adequate winter gear, AND the tires! Crazy! Wishing I had some of that income about now too.....

    Oh, and while I am sad over how many photo opportunities that we have missed out on here, I'm now in a fit thinking that I have to miss out on YOUR photos too!! If I can't keep up on Terri news via pictures on the blog, guess we'll have to use that as an excuse to get together soon -wink-

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  2. HAHAHA! Love you Cathy! What a great excuse to get together~ but then we won't even have a camera between the two of us to remember it by! Give Hannah a sqeeze for me before she grows up too big:))

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  3. My 13 year old daughter has the photo-bug too! We were able to find her a great deal on a "fancy" camera through ebay. It was like new and reportedly only used once. The condition would confirm that. Take a look on ebay! Maybe you can get more for your money. :)

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  4. Sonja~ Our last camera fiasco was an ebay purchase that resulted in a couple of months of battling with Canon and the seller to fix the 2 month old "brand new" camera that we purchased. Because it was purchased through ebay, and because the company did not include a warranty card (odd, huh??) it was considered black market and would have cost nearly as much to fix it as it was to buy it. So, needless to say, ebay scares me a bit:)) at least for electronics. At least I can look somebody in the eye at Walmart and use their warranty plan if something does go wrong:))

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  5. Sorry that you are having the Camera Blues this Christmas. I had them last year at this time. Not fun!! I love my Nikon that I finally ended up with. It was very pricy and I almost feel guilty everytime I use it but I still love it. Now if that dag gone electric bill didn't get in the way of the new lense for it.........

    However being in healthcare too, I have been asked to pick up an extra day EACH week to cover for being down 2 nurses. (4 days) I agreed. Then I was asked to just go fulltime! (5 days) Not sure about that one yet! If I have to work so hard for my money I think I can get what I want! Right???

    Good Luck!! I don't want to not have Terri pictures to look at either!

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  6. I too am in a crunch for a camera. My little Wal-Mart camera has been great up untill recently, It is erasing pictures withOUT my permission. I lost the entire livestock show season. It was there one minute and gone the next. Also the batteries will not stay in so I have resorted to taping the bottom of the camera. So I need a new one also. My daughter won 6 blue ribbons at our fair and best of show with my little camera.

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  7. I hope you can get a new camera soon but totally can relate to the situation with bills too :)
    LOLz I've done the "window shopping" til 3am thing... only to not buy anything <3
    Can't wait to check out more of your blog. I haven't "visited" you in a while :)

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