Meet Niko.
The little point-and-shoot Casio camera I bought back in December 2007 started fucking up about a month or so ago. Been having to click-cllick-click on the clicky button 5-10 times before the damn thing engages and actually takes a photo, which takes way too long – too many clicks – resulting in many missed moments. And half of them come out blurry. Then the other day I noticed that the moulding was actually coming off the top of it and I had to face the harsh reality of getting a new camera…
Harsh you say? Well yeah. Because anyone following this blog knows I’ve been flat broke and racking up credit card debt ever since I got sick with cancer two years ago. But just like I need to have a working computer at home, I also need a functioning digital camera. I had recently been day-dreaming about getting a real grown-up camera one day, and saw this very sharp looking Olympus a couple of weeks ago. Which to me looked like an “in-between” kind of option. A bit more techy than your basic point-and-shoot, but not as wieldy and complicated as the proper grown-up variety.
But with the Casio dying I realised I needed to find something to replace it that I can easily carry in my bag at all times so that it’s there when I end up spotting an interesting tapas bar or “Sevilla moment” I can take photos on the spot. And so I did some research yesterday, stopped in at a couple of shops, looked online, asked around … and came up with Niko. A nice little point-and-shoot Nikon with more than twice the cool options than the Casio had (review and specs here). Also there was a special offer going – a package deal including a 4GB memory card and a carrying case.
So what the heck. I now have a new camera. Couldn’t afford it, but really couldn’t be without one. And well, that’s what credit cards are for, right? He’s pretty cool, matte black and kinda sexy, and should last at least a couple of years. But I’m not as excited as I usually am when purchasing a new gadget. This feels more like when I had to replace the washing machine last year, you know? Going to take him out for a test run this afternoon…
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My little casio camera is starting to act peculiar, too. Must be the season. I’d like to find a new cheap little camera that takes the pictures a lot faster. I missed a lot of moments with this one. Is your Nikon any better about that?
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I love my little Canon S550. However, I have found that like its predecessor, it lost resolution over time (unless, it seems, that photos are taken with the camera flat on its back… which sort of reduces that range of photos you can take by about 99.9%). If it weren’t for that, I would be getting another Canon when I can afford to replace this one. I don’t like things that.
I have to say, as well, that I have found that the S and SD series tends, in my experience to have far too limited use in a variety of light ranges. I often use the camera only at ISO 50 and even then take most shots at between 0 and -2 whether it is a bright outdoor shot or dark shot in a bar. Trying to take longer exposure or higher ISO and the photos are either over exposed or too grainy. The flash is WAY TOO BRIGHT so in order to use it I generally hold a piece of torn napkin or tissue over the flash… Not exactly something that is easy to do while taking photos.
So… Why do I “love” my camera? I guess because I am used to it and because I have been able to work around many (though not all) the problems in many cases to get some great images. Still, if I could find a camera that was as easy to use which DIDN’T have the problems I would buy it and love it even more.
I would love to get a Digital SLR but I don’t know if I can manage an SLR-type any more with my vision problems. I like the versatility of the point and shoots and since I do more rendering with my photos than straight photography, I may well go for something P&S, again.
I am weighted to recognized camera brands (long-standing names in cameras) rather than computer company brands like HP or the like. Nikon, Canon, Kodak, etc. A friend bought an HP and gave it to me because she couldn’t figure out how to use it. I hated it.
I also prefer ease of use. A friend bought… not sure what brand and there are far too many things you need to scroll through to set up a shot. I don’t want to take 45 minutes to set up my camera to take a photo. As well, I wasn’t particularly overwhelmed with the resulting photos. Whether that is the camera or the friend’s abilities, I don’t know.
I don’t need anti-shake or whatever it is called.
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I almost never use the flash. Especially with food shots – they come out looking really garish. The real selling point for me with Niko was the macro lens that can take a shot up to an inch away. I found my iPhone took better close-ups than the Casio. Looking forward to trying out different options with Niko.
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I have both a macro and a “close-up” feature which both do a great job for me.
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I’ll let you know about speed later on today, Beth, as I’m going out with Jessica this afternoon, possibly back to the Medieval Market. I just tried out a few shots in the house and it seemed a lot speedier than the old Casio, with about a 2-second delay before being able to shoot again.
To be honest, I was never happy with the Casio. It wasn’t as good as my old Sony Cybershot (first ever digital camera) and even with the “anti-shake” on, lots of the photos still came out blurry. When taking food shots for the blog I always had to take about half a dozen of the same plate to make sure I got a good one. And I have very steady hands. Nog couldn’t take a non-blurred photo with the Casio at all. So in a way I guess having it start falling apart was a blessing in disguise – as long as it was still working more or less properly I couldn’t have justified getting a new camera.
But I am already liking Niko much better. He feels more solid, even though he’s not any bigger than the Casio.
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I need a point and shoot to take photos on the “fly”. I also need one when I am going somewhere that I want to keep weight to a minimum. I am going to the Great Wall this summer and I just can’t see me dragging my heavy Nikon D90 along the wall (as much as I’d like to.) I’m going to have a look at this one. It might fit the bill, and will not add any extra weight to the camera bag.
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Wow, just googled your Nikon D90 – that is one serious camera! It also looks very heavy and complicated to use. I can imagine you wouldn’t want to drag it along The Wall.
There were two options in this Nikon series – the S6000 and S8000. Here is a review that compares them, shared features and S8000 primary features. The extras on the S8000 didn’t seem worth paying extra for. Plus, I would have had to buy the card and case separately.
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I’ve been using a little Sony job I bought at a charity auction a couple years ago. It isn’t as fancy as some of the cameras some of my friends have but it fits nicely into a shirt pocket and takes decent pictures.
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As I said to Beth, I liked my old Sony way better than the Casio, and was also looking at Sonys this time. But for the price and the specs this Nokia seemed like a better deal, especially with the promotion including the memory card and carrying case.
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My Canon is so old they don’t even make the batteries for it any more. One battery has died completely and the other one needs constant charging so it’s on its way out too 😦 I’ll have to bite the bullet and get a new camera sometime soon. Please not let it be in the next three months… I’ve got car registration and a holiday coming up, I can’t afford anything else.
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That’s what happened to my old Sony. The batteries stopped charging properly and were so expensive to replace that I decided to just get a new camera instead. I didn’t realise when I bought the Sony that it was already the previous year’s model. About three months later I saw the new Sony Cybershots for the same price, much sleeker and with a much bigger screen on the back, which was annoying.
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I bought a number of batteries and card because I am constantly taking so many photos or videos during one day (or was… I haven’t been feeling “creative” lately so haven’t been using my camera as much — Summer comes, though and that is always more inspirational for me) that I was either running out of memory or running out of batteries.
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So I’ve got Niko fully charged and ready to go. I LOVE that there is only one cable for everything (charging battery, transferring pics to computer). I also really like that it’s very intuitive – I haven’t actually needed to use the instruction manual (yet). Though looking through the options in the menu I don’t reckon I’ll be using most of them anhow.
And – live & learn – I made sure that this was a recent model. At one shop I went to they tried to pawn off last year’s Panasonic at a cheaper sale price than the new model – then I saw the new model at Fnac for that “cheaper” price. Shameless bandits! The S6000 just came out in February, so I know it’s at least up-to-date technology-wise.
Niko’s special offer price was 230 €. With the included memory card and case I reckon I saved about 30 €, so in the end the camera was about 200 €, which I think is a pretty good deal. I’m glad I didn’t wait until the Casio totally broke down as I may have just bought something in a hurry and regretted it. I’m quite happy with Niko. He even came with a built-in name!
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Sweet looking toy. I rarely have stand alone digital cameras anymore due to losing/breaking them and tend to rely on my Mobile phone as a camera. Though I do find the quality is never quite as good as with a proper camera.
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Yeah, I should have realised when my iPhone pics were turning out better than the ones on the Casio that it was time for a change.
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New tech day in Sevilla, way to go! Way back for Christmas 2004, my family gave me a gift certificate for a digital camera to replace my 35mm point and shoot that had died. I bought a Nikon CoolPix E4500 that runs on regular old AA batteries. It’s just 4MP, with a 3x optical zoom, but it shoots movies and takes pretty good action shots. It is old enough to still have a viewfinder along with the LCD, which comes in really handy when I’m shooting dog shows outdoors in bright sun and the LCD washes out.
But we must be in a parallel timeline, Az – yesterday, I ‘sort of’ upgraded against the eventuality of needing something better for quick shots and uploads. I had another gift card from Christmas, and this was on sale at Target: http://preview.tinyurl.com/yk38bfh – so now it’s mine, and it’s charging. I have to go out later so that I can test it. I need to video some rescue dogs later this week, and I didn’t want my backup video camera to be my Blackberry (although the BB videos aren’t half bad, there’s no zoom and they don’t do fast moving creatures well.) This shoots better video, and 5MP stills, has a good zoom and is about the same size as my Blackberry.
Some days, though, I really wish we could just ONE device in a single, small as possible and usable form factor, that provides stellar functionality as phone, PDA, decent camera that shoots still and video and uploads nicely to online sites, travel alarm and flashlight in dark hotel rooms. And if it had a MacGyver-style corkscrew in it, all the better. If I am going to be dependent on technology, then I want true device convergence, n.o.w. 😉
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Ha, my old Sony also had a viewfinder. And also ran on AA batteries.
“But we must be in a parallel timeline, Az”
Have thought that many times myself, but how funny you also updated your camera yesterday. Let me know how the new Sony toy works out. I went out to the Medieval Market this afternoon with Jessica (sent you another MEAT pic on Twitter) and it was amazing … everytime I clicked on the button Niko took a photo! Heaven. Haven’t transferred them to the computer yet, but I’m sure they’ll be fabby.
Will your super-gadget also make coffee and do the washing up?
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I still have an old-ish Casio Exilim camera, purely because I was able to buy an underwater housing for it in 2002 that is good down to 40m so I can take it scuba diving. But that’s all I use it for now, since I got my Cybershot with the x15 optical zoom and the video function a couple of years ago.
To be honest, though, I take most of my day-to-day pics with the camera on my iPhone. Easier to upload them even though they’re not as good as the Cybershot ones, plus I don’t then have to carry another camera around with me. 🙂
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Nikon / Nikor has always been my camera of choice- Az, the little point and click I had when I was there was a Coolpix and then an S800. Great glass and easy to use, I still have two SLR F100 that I can’t be bothered to buy film for.
Great choice! 🙂
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I like simple phones, so I need a separate camera. My current phone does have a camera built in, but I’ve never used it. Both my current and my previous (first) digital cameras came from Lidl, and have worked fine.
TRiG.
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Well darn! Nancie had mentioned on her blog that she was hesitant to buy another point & shoot Nikon because she had a problem with the one she had before “freezing”. And guess what? Niko just froze with the lens out this morning while I was taking some pics of Loki. Less than two months old! Well, I hope they give me a new one because I don’t want to have to wait for this one to be repaired. 😦
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