Tuesday, April 01, 2008

New Cam On the Block

Well folks, the bigger, badder Fuji S700 arrived today, and as I noted in the previous post, I'm just getting familiar with its most basic features! But I don't want to spend this quick post rattling off all its prowess ... in fact I'd rather sing the praises of its older and smaller cousin the Finepix 2650.

The 2650 was my introduction to digital photography and it has done some amazing work for me over the past five years. For a mere P&S of 2 measly mega pixels, it has outperformed a lot of other cameras I've seen, thus making me a confirmed fan of Fuji cameras.

This little camera has really been a trooper over the years, and has survived bad weather of all sorts, drops and many other adverse conditions with nary a complaint. To be honest, I'm a bit wistful to put it aside in semi-retirement ... This was the camera that finally brought the joys of profligate photography to me, because up until the point I got the 2650, I had always thought of photography as something that was just too expensive for my admittedly modest means. This little camera blew that notion right out of my head and opened up a whole new world of experimentation with what I could do with a good quality basic digital camera. It has taken literally thousands of (mostly good to amazing) shots of all sorts of subjects, but has really excelled in macro mode capturing the diverse flowers we have planted all over the garden. This blog is a testimonial to what it can do, because everything here was taken with the 2650 since the very beginning.

As you can see in these photos, neither camera is really big, and even the S700, though larger, is relatively compact (thus the smell phone prop up for comparison). As for the 2650, I'm not sure right now what I'll do with it ... I could sell it for a fraction of what it cost, or I could pass it on to another novice photographer (what I'd prefer) who wants to get a start in the digital realm. Admittedly, it has gotten a bit quirky in its "old age," but I think it still has a lot of life in it for the right person ... then again I might just hang on to it and use it in situations where I care less about the fancy features and just want to take snapshots ... I'm truly undecided at this point, because this little guy has been way too good to me over the years, and I have a somewhat emotional attachment to it.

I guess you never forget your first digital camera, eh? I'll always think fondly of the 2650, no matter what! (Want to guess which camera took which pic?)

5 comments:

Larry Kollar said...

Hooray!

In your shoes, I'd keep the old one as a backup — take it to situations where there's a chance things could go w0rNg. If something happens, you're not out the price of the new camera. Or it would be good for times when you need a simultaneous 2nd angle and have Fernymoss along.

If you can, discharge the battery about halfway before storing it.

olivia said...

Very exciting IVG ... wow ... and yeah, it does look like the 2650's rougher older cousin ... heh ... :)

Unknown said...

Hey, new camera! That's always fun. New learning curve too, hey that's fun too, keeps the mind young! I'll be lookin' forward to this season's garden shots.

Iowa Victory Gardener said...

Hey folks, yeah it's a whole new challenge here (never mind the rest of the garden that needs cleaned up, lol)! I think that with all the photo pals I have here that I can really learn to exploit what the S700 has to offer. Of course, my main intent is to get mo betta flowa pics, but hey, now I have a fireworks setting on the new cam, so I might actually get some shots this year! That is if Olivia can put up with my incessant questions!

Iowa Victory Gardener said...

Olivia, older rougher cousin eh? However did you get that impression? Must be me, I've always been a fan of rough hewn, so go figure.