One thing inevitably leads to another...

So, remember how back at Christmas time, I got this great new camera? It's a Panasonic Lumix dmc-fz18, in case you're wondering. Roger and I did a bunch of research, and debated about whether to go the full-out digital SLR route, and I chose this little guy. My thinking was that it's small and has an amazing zoom and because it was small and light, I was much more likely to carry it with me and actually use it.

I had a grand time using it, and became addicted to Flickr.com. And then the zoom function started being weird. So, off the camera went to the Panasonic warranty repair place. No problem. A few weeks later (eek! no camera!) it came back. I happily took it out to shoot some flower pictures... But wait! The zoom problem was still there.

I crankily sent it back to Panasonic, after an exhausting and irritating time navigating thru the Panasonic repair phone tree -- which, I'll tell you now, only leads you to a recording instructing you to send the thing to the service center. If there is a way to talk to an actual human at Panasonic, I wasn't able to discover it.

So off the camera went again. Meanwhile, I used Roger's camera and pondered whether I wanted to just demand a refund and get a full digital SLR. My weeks using the Panasonic made me realize that I really like taking pictures and I really, really like the Photoshop post-processing. (And I was already realizing the limitations of a smaller point-and-shoot style camera and how at times the quality of my images was sacrificed.)

After more reading reviews and shopping, I jumped in head first and got this gorgeous Nikon D80 digital SLR camera. It's bigger, and heavier, a real grown-up, big girl camera.



In fact, it's way more advanced than I am and I know that I'll be growing with this thing for a long time.

Meanwhile, no word from Panasonic about the little FZ18. I sent a few emails (ranging from polite inquiries to increasingly angry ones) and finally emailed the president of Panasonic North America simply because he was the only individual name I could find. I told the whole story, pointing out that in my brief period of owning the camera, Panasonic had had it in its possession longer than I'd had it in mine.

And you know, the VERY next day I got a phone call confirming me that they were sending me a new camera.

Coincidence? I think not.

So now I have a little FZ18 which, I think, will live in the car for those "I need to take a picture of THAT" moments. And maybe it'll be the one Caroline can use when we go on family walks.

The especially amusing thing (yes, NOW I can chuckle about it) is that with all the camera talk, my dad decided to upgrade his camera, which meant that he ended up passing his camera on to my sister to replace her really ancient one. So out of my camera agonies, I ended up with two cameras and Roger, my dad, and my sister ended up with new cameras too.

Maybe this is kind of like how people end up with multiple sewing machines (which I never understood until I added that second one...)