Have you ever impulse shopped?
With plenty of time to think during the weekly Engineering Review Board (ERB) meeting, I got this feeling. I don’t really want to buy a digital camera just right yet. My 35mm, C$260 Minolta has treated me really well so far and is, by all accounts, rugged. It’s been through a lot of abuse.
With a digicam, not only am I not assured of a rugged camera, but I’ll also necessarily be more gentle with it because of its higher cost. And because of its cost, I’ll probably also want to incur the expense of getting a case for it (which aren’t cheap, either).
Add to this the fact that the current crop of digital cameras I’m looking at (3-4 megapixels, retail around US$500) still can’t take pictures instantly, resulting in blurred or late shots. A tip for anyone considering a digicam purchase: there’s a direct relationship between camera grip size and your ability to hold it still. So bigger is better. My Minolta, on the other hand, takes clear pictures all the time, and fits in my pocket.
No, no digital camera for me right now. I want a scanner.
Which one? Well, the Epson Perfection 1660 PHOTO of course. The 1660 is an update to the 1650 [epinions.com], and came out about two months ago.
- reviews of the 1660 [amazon.com]
Friday at lunch, I called up Apple Store International Plaza. They have lots of them in!
Saturday rolls around, and (fellow METI software engineer) Jeff took my car and drove up to Tampa.
We get to the Apple store, and guess what? They didn’t have any 1660s in stock. I should have had the woman I spoke to on the phone to set one aside for me. I briefly considered the cheap, ultra thin and cool looking Canon LiDE 30, but I’m glad I didn’t go with it after reading the reviews:
- reviews of the LiDE 30 [amazon.com]
The Apple Store is going to call me when they get more 1660’s in, probably sometime next week.
The trip wasn’t a complete loss. I got a grande Tazo chai from Starbucks (mmmMmm), and Jeff plunked down $399 on a 10GB iPod for Windows.
We also toured around the mall a bit and took a look at some high-cost-but-not-necessarily-high-end audio equipment, too. Some neat stuff in Bang & Olufsen. Prices start at only $1000.
Picked up Paul van Dyk’s “columbia ep” — mostly for Vega, which I can’t seem to hear enough of. There’s a Starecase remix of Vega on the CD too, no less. Good good. Prog-Trance-House saves the weekend!