Usable Camera Can Exist For Likes Of Me (Short Piece)
Today is Sunday. It is my day off and I don’t have chores due. The weather is better than usual and I slept in to make up for past few days. My walk to the cafe was not rushed. The weather did not bother me to walk faster and had no ToDos that required a schedule. The leaves are falling and crews are cleaning up. My attention was drawn to the leaves around the library since I have noticed them before and I took a few photos. We shoot in black and white nowadays. The shooting continued until I arrived at Starbucks to read on my Kindle for a while. One thing I noticed when I was looking at the small park that has always been there was that TODAY I have time to STOP. I have trouble finding the right camera to use in lieu of my Blackberry 8520 as camera. I am thinking now how much time one has to set up and shoot and pack and go has a good deal to do with what camera one can use. If I am to use a SLR, a megazoom or even a good point-and-shoot, I will have to figure how to carry them and put them to work. I carried my Casio Ex-whatever on my belt for a long time. It never did result in photography more significant than casual shots. It is too awkward to grab with a bunch of fingers and fight to be steady for a shot. They all are. It could be that I have got used to shooting with Blackberry but then again the only other cellphone I have been able to shoot effectively was a flip phone by Kyocera. It shot very good photos for a 0.3 (VGA) megapixel camera so compact that the photos had to be emailed to be seen! I shot a zillion photos simply because it was always there when I needed to shoot and handled lighting and sharpness SO WELL. It held steady as Blackberry 8520 does and so did a (fake Blackberry style) Samsung I had afterwards. Maybe a vertical design that holds half as a handle and half as a viewfinder AND operates via thumb movement (and does not cost $500+) is a better design for a camera that has to be used with little notice and preparation BUT very often. I can use a camera like that but I cannot use what I find in the market. Physically, it will look like my Blackberry. I can pull it out and hold with right hand and operate with my thumb. The lens can be advanced and the image sensor can be awesome all in an unusual package. Then the photos would be what I am expected to shoot. Then I won’t have to listen to talk about what is a camera and what is a cellphone and that I just don’t get it. The hell with cameras we have and some cellphones beat any camera because they get USED. When I bought my second camera last year, I was told one of the executives in our company was betting I would never use it. I did. But he was absolutely right in that 90% of buyers of digital cameras use them very rarely if ever. They are made not to be usable, I say. Would you disagree?
