Getting to the Mega Pixels
 If you have ever seen the boots worn by a champion rider, you know the equipment must be the type that gets the job done best. The ballet shoes from a prima ballerina of incredible technique will have been slammed in a doorjamb, filled with lambs wool, and wetted down and remolded to the feet. The glorious antique sheen of a priceless violin is indicative of its master’s gift.
I too needed an instrument to produce high quality stock images for websites and galleries online. I decided I was too old a dog to go to SLR way, and defaulted to a digital spear of destiny. I had the feeling from photo taking jaunts that my end product could be bettered. But how? I had a camera that was “good enough”.
Shopping for a camera that would support a professional stream of income made me jittery, but I knew I had to have champion equipment. I decided that one assignment was just too proftable to do anything but invest in the best camera I could afford. But which camera was that?
I learned quickly that a camera that looks like it means business is the ultimate accessory on a photo hunt. Someone snapping with a instant camera or a keychain memory card is very different in credibility from someone with a respectable piece of machinery on the wrist strap.
But the functions had to be easier, the screen more visible, the mode shutter more responsive, and the batteries had to be rechargeable AA’s instead of a Lithium ion that sent me investigating strange walls for plugins while smiling sheepishly at and gas station managers. Nothing so small I could drop it easily, either.
Factors like dimming light, unequal camera performance, bad camera shake on image capture, and distortions from magnification could make a tired photographer very unhappy. The process I used to package and send images had to be encapsulated and made more efficient.
I was getting orders from regular clients to provide a gallery of images from multiple perspectives and sources. I was the judge of what images were to be submitted. I needed a great camera, if only to stem my ebbing confidence in these monster (lucrative) projects.
One clumsy looking camera with a no-name brand might be your ideal camera, while the flashy number one choice may be too small, too slick, have controls too minute or have an expensive battery. I started shopping around, looking for value with features I could live with. Oh how the lessons of yesteryear came back to haunt me.
For every person I saw shrug off buying a carrying case, I can now envision them with a damaged lens assembly from stuffing it in a backpack pocket or purse. the high-tech Lithium ion battery lover may enjoy being stranded on the open road without a recharger, while the kids at the 7-11 stock up on AA camera batteries.
I knew to a certainty all the factors and phrases that made up the right camera. I could hawk a Kodak or Sony without looking at the label years later. I just didn’t have enough experience taking and delivering pictures to know how these terms involved my actual preferences for a physical camera. Now I know how easy it had been to sell cameras to people. They didn’t know either.
