I am dying to take pictures. It's been way too long and I am missing photography now not merely as an instantly gratifying result-yielding activity but as a form of artistic therapy. Very frustrated with the writing thing at the moment and realizing that I need to get a new camera and start shooting again -- I need it as a creative bridge between this blocked writerly state I'm in and the more fertile period I do feel is around one of these bends.
Six or seven years ago I bought an
Olympus C50 pocket camera that I absolutely loved, and I used until it gave out. As a fierce brand loyalist, after a sustained period of mourning and several futile attempts to coax the C50 back to life (note: by the time of its death the inexorable evolution of technology had rendered it not worth repairing), I eventually made the mistake of purchasing an Olympus E500, which just didn't do it for me. Not entirely the camera's fault, I might add; I need the portability and simplicity of a pocket camera, and the E500 is
not a pocket camera.
Some time later, while traveling through Chicago, I picked up yet another Olympus - this one a new generation point-and-shoot whose model number I can't even remember because I hate the damn thing so much. No more Olympus brand loyalty for me.
But the point is it has been YEARS since I have had a camera that I haven't wanted to put down, and this long stretch of not indulging my love of photography finally has me feeling desperate to get back to it. I have been shooting my world through the pinhole lens of my iPhone for the past year, and as much as I love that device and the convenience of its built-in camera, it just isn't enough.
So... off to Gasser's I shall go this next week (is that an oxymoron? this next week?) to compare two cameras that were recommended to me recently by a pro photog friend: the
Panasonic DMC-LX-3 and the
Canon G10.
Wish me luck.
