Cameras I Have Known and Loved

It should be noted that I like to take photos. As far back as when Mom first let me handle the camera myself, I have liked to take pictures. And once I owned my own camera (a Kodak Instant 110) around the time I turned 12, I was the one who took all the photos of all my friends and everything we did — even though I'm not in any of them.

I was the first person I knew to go digital. Mind you, I sort of inherited my first digital camera — a Sony Mavica — as a hand-me-down from my gadgeteer uncle. But nevertheless, until he gave me that camera in 1998, I had no idea there even was such a thing as a digital camera! (And yes, I got my first digital camera before I got my first computer — at least, my first computer that ran Windows. I'm not counting the Commodore 64 that I got from that same uncle back in 1985.)

Since beginning this nail game, you can imagine I have gone through several cameras for the purpose of snapping photos of my work. In my personal life, I was once rather proficient with my Canon A-1 system which I continue to brag was "the best camera Canon made — in 1985."

But all good things must end, and the reign of the 3.5 inch floppy disk-taking Mavica came to an end no sooner than the film-loving Canon A-1 became little more than a fondly remembered paperweight. Just two more examples of losses to the evolution of a technophilic culture that prizes "nifty" over "useful." Someday, when it's not too painful to talk about anymore, I'll share the story of my beloved Palm Pilot.

Meanwhile, let's discuss my camera collection: Pictured here is the Canon Powershot I was very fondly using in the salon up until last summer when it suddenly went "blind" on me. At first I thought the LCD screen had simply gone bad. But alas, however the digital lens "sees" has ceased to be. If it were a film camera, I would venture that the shutter shut down. Naturally, I have learned enough about how electronic toys work today to realize that it would be just as expensive to have the camera packed up and shipped off to be repaired — not to mention the wait time — as to just run out and buy a replacement. And, indeed, with some research that turned out not to be enough, I found the also-pictured Olympus 800-UZ for about $100 less than the Canon had cost me 2 1/2 years ago.

I hate the Olympus. First off, apparently "manual" means something different in regards to camera control terminology nowadays than it does in the minds of people like myself who learned how to operate a Canon A-1 system — which is actually manual. No no ... even the Powershot gave me actual manual control. Which comes in mighty handy for my super macro nail photography in ambient light conditions. The Olympus apparently defines "manual" as meaning that I can choose between Auto and Program Priority modes. Program Priority allows me to decide for myself if I want the macro mode on or if I want the flash on. I have very few photos taken with the Olympus that have a proper white balance.

And so, introducing the Nikon D90! This has been my likely replacement for the fancy Canon A-1 for the last year or so ... and with each unhappy photo from the Olympus, my feelings about a decent DSLR system have grown stronger. So here it is — much to my credit card company's delight.

It's way too much camera for snapping shots of nails in the salon. But gosh darn it, at least I can decide on my shutter speed and aperture settings for myself!