New Camera

This was our parting view of Nehalem Bay in the distance.  We left the Bay on Friday and pulled the trailer to Portland Oregon.  Anne-Marie had several errand's to take care of, and Yesterday we moved the trailer to Hood River Oregon, and we plan to be here for a week.

Sunday afternoon, Anne-Marie had the Ikea Store on her list, and we had lunch in their cafeteria, to build our energy levels up, before wandering through the maze.

The next stop was the Best Buy store, and this again was for Anne-Marie, she needed some items for her tablet.  I went straight to the camera section, and was looking at Sony cameras for an upgrade from the one that I have.  The camera that I have been using since we were in Arizona, has a large on/off button, and it gets turned on several times a day, and most of the time while in my pocket.  The old camera has a finite life because of this design flaw, and I have been looking for a replacement all summer.

The Best Buy store had a camera that was an immediate upgrade from the one that I was using.  I was interested in buying it, and Anne-Marie granted permission.  The sales guy listened to my humble requirements, of not being too complex, and easy to reset, and he said “We don’t have that one in stock, and I checked the other stores in town, and they don’t either.” “But I have a open box return of one of these” he said pointing to a higher priced model.  The cost was the same as the simpler camera, and the more advanced camera, had a 16x optical zoom.  After a short amount of training I was buying a much better camera.

The new camera is a little bit larger than the old one.

The cameras lined up show the difference in the size of the lens tubes.  The new camera has a onboard user guide, and is easy to sort out.

The sad news is, I brought the new camera home, and charged the battery, and turned the camera on.  The lens extended out, and the screen display showed the normal startup stuff, then the lens retracted and the display said “turn the camera off and back on again”.  This happened several times, then began normal operation.  Yesterday morning, I started to take pictures, just to get a feel for how it worked, and the camera would lockup, and display the “turn off and on again” message.  It seems that the camera locking up, is why it was returned. The Geek Squad overlooked this intermittent problem, and gave it a attractive discounted price, and sold it again.  Monday morning I was confronted with a broken camera that needed to be returned, and it was a travel day for us.  The Best Buy store opened at 10:00AM, and I was there shortly after to return the camera, and I got a unopened one, after paying the difference between the discounted bad camera and the new one.

After the new camera had its battery charged, I took several pictures in and around the trailer, and I am impressed with how well this one works compared to the bad one that I returned.

Last night Anne-Marie and I had dinner with friends Bill and Judy, James and Tina, at Sheri’s in Hood River, and next week we will meet at the Chinese Restaurant Down Town.

Today I get to work on the front brakes on the van, I found a machine shop to turn the rotors, but I have to remove them from the van again.