Temptation

[khiemtran]

I dearly love my Pentax MZ-5N, but the only time I've taken it out of its bag in the last twelve month was to check that I hadn't left the batteries in where the might corrode and damage the contacts. It doesn't get used in the house anymore, because it seems ridiculous now to have to pay for film just to take snapshots and ridiculous to pay someone to develop them. And then you don't even get to see the shots until maybe months after you've taken them.

It doesn't get taken on trips either, because there's just no space. I have to travel with a laptop and that takes most of my checkin luggage allowance. These days I don't even carry a compact, so I just use my phone for travel shots.

Why then, am I so tempted when I find that Pentax has a new entry-level DSLR? Partly it's because I was only recently reading a JB hifi catalogue and was shocked to find the K200D, the previously entry-level model was going for AUD697 including a Pentax DA lens. True, it's the cheapest of the range, but that's less than I paid for my MZ-5N and it doesn't eat film and $50-a-pop proprietary batteries.

Part of it is also the dream of having time to actually use a camera again, although that's not likely to come up again before Christmas. As a photograph, I never had the time or the energy to get beyond mediocre landscapes and I didn't have the social forwardness to get good people shots. (You need a thick skin, for travel shots especially, to be able to stick a camera in someone's face and get a great shot instead of an ordinary one.) On the flipside, after travelling for a while without a camera, I'm also starting to enjoy it. I get to have far more interesting conversations when I not carrying one and I tend to enjoy the experience more. It's almost as though a big camera distorts the environment around it and everyone starts behaving slightly differently when you walk past.

At the back of it all, there's also the voice of rationalisation, wheedling softly against better judgement. You might as well get some good pictures while Liem is still young. Of course the DSLR will be better than the Ixus compact. Maybe you could find space in your carry-on. Maybe you could come back from next meeting with shots good enough to hang on your wall. Maybe you could. Maybe you could.

Comments

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Tricky, isn't it? I must admit that the main reason I only took the Canon PowerShot to Prague was that I can't take decent photos and fully absorb the experience. So if it was just going to be basically taking snapshots, then the PowerShot was plenty good enough and it's much smaller to carry than the Canon DSLR. In fact I might have just gone with the even smaller Olympus, but its battery charger just died and so I can't recharge the battery. (It's a proprietory rectangular cell, not standard AA type.)

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's the other downside with proprietary batteries. The other thing about small cameras is that they're also a good excuse to get some interaction with people. "Can you take my photograph?" is a much less intrusive question than "Can I point my giant SLR at you and use your photo for unspecified purposes?"

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

You know what I think about Pentax SLRs. Go and get one already.

I can't say I've had problems of not starting to talk to people while carrying a camera, and I love being able to re-live my holidays.

I find that digital has expanded my skill set as a photographer - I can do action shots, I can do people (a good telelens is worth a lot), I can experiment without it costing me a bundle.