Incoherent Scribblings

A Digital Spat

Last year, about Christmas time, I wanted a digital camera. I pled my case to A., who didn’t think digital cameras were all that and after much discussion, I compromised and we got a scanner; the idea being that I could scan my regular pictures and voila! “digital” pictures.

I was never really sold on the idea, but have never regretted for one instant that I got my scanner. (I use it all the time to scan my cross-stitch masterpieces.) For about three months I tried this method of “digital” pictures, but the problem was that I wasn’t getting the instant gratification that I wanted. I wasn’t any better about taking film to the developer and I couldn’t immediately see what I had taken a picture of.

Finally, without discussing it with A., I established myself a budget, did some research, and went out one day and bought myself a digital camera. (After all, we have an agreement that unless something is over about 300 Euros we don’t have to discuss it with one another before spending the money.) It wasn’t the fanciest camera on the shelf and not even the one I had originally intended to buy, but it fit into my budget I was pretty pleased with it.

However, as soon as I showed it to A. he criticized it, and in doing so, indirectly criticized by electronics buying ability. Some people are not meant to buy electronics as they don’t have the first idea what they are looking at, but I am not one of them and he knows it. Therefore, I was a little perturbed about the fact that he wanted to return my camera from the start, but I held firm to my little camera and didn’t let the matter bother me too much.

Since then I have learned quite a bit about my photographer’s eye, ability, and desire. My photographer’s eye is crooked, my ability is slim to none, and while I desire to take superb photos everywhere I go with my digital camera, I just don’t. When I do want to take pictures though, my little digital camera works just fine. Sure it would be nice if it had an optical zoom, but overall it is a nice little point-and-shoot digital camera. The only real complaint I have doesn’t actually even have anything to do with the camera itself; and that is my rechargeable batteries are starting to show wear and tear and really need to be replaced.

In all this time, A. has shown very little interest in my camera, so the other day when he started talking about getting a new digital camera, I was mildly surprised. Last year when I wanted a digital camera his argument against them was that it would be a long time before digital cameras were as good as film cameras and/or that he wanted to wait until the really fancy digital cameras came down in price. I will admit that in the past year digital camera prices have dropped significantly, but didn’t realize they had dropped enough to peak his interest.

But if truth be told, after the experience I have had with my camera, I’m just not really all that excited about them anymore. I also have to admit that I feel a little bit grumpy about the situation: Not because he wants to spend the money and not because he has decided that he wants a digital camera, but because I still remember feeling that he was patronizing me and my electronics knowledge the day he scorned my little digital camera when I was so pleased with it.