t-18: Toys for boys

I'm the photographer in our family. I take all the pictures. So this is going to mean that if we have any birth or brand new baby pictures, I'm the one who's going to have to take them. I may or may not feel up to this - and besides, let's face it - until the surprise appearance in the final act, I'm really the star of the show, so perhaps pictures should be of me. (Though carefully avoiding any of those "money shots")

The Vol-in-Law is afraid of my camera. I admit it's fiddly. I really enjoy using it, but I know this camera is not for everyone. Plus, I feel a little afraid when I see him touching it. We talked about getting a new camera.

I felt that these were our priorities:

1. Easy to use
2. Really low shutter lag time (the time it takes from when you press the button to when the camera actually takes the picture - this can be annoyingly slow for some digitals).
3. High ISO (for low light pics without using flash)
4. Small


The Vol-in-Law felt that these were our priorities:

1. Cheap
2. Easy to use
- and when I explained to him about the shutter lag, he agreed that could be very annoying.

I went to the camera store informed by his priorities - but discovered that my priorities were the correct ones - and that, sadly, cheap didn't fit in.

So, did I buy the snazzy (but easy-to-use) compact digital camera I wanted for me him? No. We made a deal a long time ago that we'd consult each other on purchases over £50 (at current exchange rates $100). Still have to have that chat.

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I can hardly wait 'til Cletus is old enough to take pictures himself. There's a cool little Fisher Price digital camera on the market - I don't think it actually takes very good pictures, but I'm hoping that by the time Cletus is old enough for this camera (it's not a toy) the technology will have moved on a little (e.g. larger file sizes so with judicious adult cropping and editing - you can actually come up with some cool little pics).

My brother had a little Fisher Price 110 camera that he liked. But we were never a family that was very good at actually getting film developed - so I can't remember any of the pictures he took. What I do remember was even as a youngster (perhaps 1st or 2nd grade) he was quite brand and image conscious. He took some duct tape and very carefully, meticulously covered up the Fisher Price label - so no one would think it was a toy. Umm, yeah - and VolBro what do you think people thought of a kid who had a duct tape covered camera?

18 days til baby Cletus, 3 years and 18 days til he gets his new Fisher Price kid tough camera.