The Digital Camera Contender
 I like to talk about my digital camera the way some people tell stories about the 18th hole at Augusta, the Sox getting to the Series, or Nolan Ryan’s best field goal. My Kodak is not only part of the family, but it’s named in the will first. That’s how much of a payoff I got from researching cameras and shopping around.
Somewhere during the previous year’s holidays, my mother asked me to show her how to use the Kodak Easyshare software. I had actually sold thousands of dollars worth of Kodak cameras without every seeing the application launch. A relative had uploaded photos, and my mother couldn’t figure out how to manipulate the images to her email.
Yes, the unending battles between photographer and desktop digital uploader had begun. It’s not uncommon for even casual photo bugs to have three or four image manipulation suites on their computers. And it is far from uncommon that the owners of these programs investigate and utilize over 10% of any of the features.
Doing newsletter and website projects over the years, I had stayed leery of all but the simplest image functions. Photography just seemed like an endless time suck I could fall into and never get out of. When the order for a load of pictures came in, I gulped and said “Sure”. I didn’t tell them about the pictures from the Lake Tahoe vacation in high school I got around to developing ten years hence.
Comparing prices took some time. I had to get my bearings. I started with one of the most popular cameras ever, the Easyshot. Names like Canon, Sony and Kodak seemed to recur often. I came to know that price and availability was also about color and how close to an Ipod some of these cameras had been made to look. That was when I got smart.
I saw easily that features like a video screen, megapixels, and battery type were factors of price. I knew that memory storage multipled in density per megapixel, which was some of the ten megapixel cameras were seriously on sale. I also knew that battery power decayed faster, which meant long term photo snapping might be more practical with a smaller capability lens.
I surveyed the papers, whose garishly splashed ads quickly were parsed by digital camera brand, model type, and feature profile. I could see some of these cameras were for first-timers, and some were for people who owned several cameras but wanted one smaller, larger, an SLR, or as a gift. The video capability of some of the midrange cameras was equivalent to mine. Couldn”t I do better?
My camera emerged the winner from a Sears.com online search with a ten per cent off coupon. Oh, the world of online discount coupons awaits those who would travel those shores. My choice: a twelve (yes, twelve) mega pixel Kodak camera with awesome video capture capability, with AA battery capacity. The Kodak Easyshare would happen.
