mental manifestations

I recently purchased a Nikon D60 upgrading 4.5 years of using my Canon PowerShot S70. My previous camera had was compact, but had some “advanced” features (aperture priority, shutter priority, etc.) that wasn’t found on other cameras. I hardly ever got really understand what all those things meant, so I kept using the thing in Auto mode.

Photography has always interested me ever since when I was a kid. I picked it up from my dad because he would always bring it everywhere we went or anything we did together as a family. I didn’t understand any of the concepts of photography back then, but the mysticality of the device that magically captured moments of life (and light) on a tiny roll of film intrigued me.

This fascination with cameras and photography is almost genetic in my family. My oldest uncle on my dad’s side is a real, legitimate photographer. I remember I sometimes would have to stand for what seemed like an eternity holding a reflector so he could take a picture of my sister. When I wasn’t holding the reflector, I would often have to sit for a long time.

I had been wanting to purchase a new camera for a long time, but I was hesitant what to get. After I purchased my PowerShot S70, the whole market went in the way of small, compact digital cameras. They were great for the consumer market since they were easy (and fun) to use because of their simplicity. I had considered getting one of these because it would’ve just suited my needs of taking pictures of random things as life goes by. I was also considering higher-end consumer cameras that were like my PowerShot S70, and I was deciding for a long time which one to get. These types of cameras were better than the compact ones I didn’t want yet they still felt limited in addition to their bulkiness.

After much discussion, a friend of mine helped me narrow down what I wanted and that is how I ended up with the Nikon D60. It has been out for about a year now so the price was good. Anything else would have been a little more than I would have been willing to spend. I’m starting to really pick up a lot of new things about it though I will still need lots of practice and experimentation. I have discovered that lenses can last very long (if you take good care of them), and that camera bodies (rhe digital ones in this time period) depreciate quickly and “upgrades” will always be available. This purchase may have set me back a lot finanically, but it’s so nice to have photos with such clarity and sharpness (even on Auto mode) and no limitation of the distance (or not as much as my previous camera) between the lens and subject.

I feel like this camera is a worthwhile purchase. It will give me incentive to go out and use it and discover new things in the process. I doubt I will ever trod anywhere near professional level (not that I could afford to be professional either). Being a (somewhat uneducated, uninformed, naïve consumer) hobbyist is good enough for me.