… but it wasn’t my fault, it was Loki’s!

And as usual, it’s a bit of a long story. Well, you remember when I got Niko back in May because my old Casio was starting to malfunction and I didn’t want to be suddenly left stranded without a camera if it suddenly died? Well, I found myself in an even worse situation yesterday when Niko’s lens froze and the usual rebooting trick of removing and replacing the battery didn’t work (have had this problemita with Niko almost since the beginning) – instead the screen read “lens error” before switching off. Now, I really can’t say if this is a direct result of Loki gravity testing Niko the other night, but it meant that I had to return to the shop this morning to try and find a solution, because I have a wine tasting tonight and another event tomorrow and I really need to be able to take photos…

So why not use my old Casio while Niko is in for repairs? Well, because I gave it to a Twitter pal in London in September after hearing she didn’t have a camera. Paying it forward, as so many people have been so generous to me. It did occur to me that having a back-up camera might be prudent, but her need seemed greater than mine at the time. And while I can take photos with the iPhone, they are hit and miss in terms of quality, there’s no zoom or macro lens, blah blah.

And so, today I desperately tried to get them to swap Niko for another camera, saying this problem has been ongoing from the start so he is obviously defective … and well, they were sympathic but store policy restricted them from helping me out that way. Then I told them about having two events coming up and needing a camera TONIGHT and one of the guys said … “well, why not buy another camera, use it, and bring it back within the 15-day trial period?”  😯

So I thought about it and then decided that, as I have been really wanting a proper video camera, I could try one out for the 15 days and no pasa nada. Then I saw this very nice Toshiba on special offer (109 euros) and thought it would do just fine as a trial model and so got out the old credit card. But now that I’m at home getting it charged up for this evening I’m kind of becoming smitten … it not only takes photos (with macro lens and digital zoom) but it comes with a wee tripod and editing software (!!) which means I’ll be able to edit all the videos I took with Niko that came out as Quicktime vids. It’s very small and light, has a cute little carrying case, and I can use Niko’s memory card with it. So it can always be in my bag whenever I want to make a video, as happened the other day when I was having lunch at a new tapas bar called La Traviesa. And by chance this one-off no-edit vid turned out quite well – have a look. Even if you don’t understand the Spanish you can see Miguel Angel’s passion and humour.

I’ve put the video up on La Traviesa’s Sevilla Tapas page and I think it’s a great addition. In fact, it’s something I’ve been wanting to do for ages with other bars, but of course had those editing problems. And I’ve still got some very charming vids I did with Victoria that never got published because they needed editing. So I think that once I dominate this whole editing process I may actually turn into a video making monster and this whole thing may turn out to be a blessing in disguise. But I shall refrain from naming this sleek silver guy for at least two weeks…