Inside the Bean
If you see this blog and my others on a regular basis you may have guessed that I have more than a passing interest in Photography. In fact this past week I have been on a short vacation up at the North Shore mostly so I could shoot stuff. I am actually in this photo, that I took in Chicago last June. I am toward the right, wearing jeans and maybe you can see the pink scarf, tan jacket and bag full of camera equipment.
It wasn’t my intent to write about photography on this blog but to use it as a place to put my photos, but I don’t have any place to write about photography. I just want to share a little story today and will keep it short.
A few weeks ago I was looking at camera lenses. I already knew what I wanted to buy but while I was at Best Buy on another mission I saw a lens that I did not know about. I wanted to learn more so I asked the person working in the camera department if I could put the lens on a camera and try it. I told her any Canon will do.
She did not know how to open the display case that the lens was in but we got over that hurtle. Then we discovered that all of the cameras on display had a lock on them so that the lenses could not be detached. We found a camera in the display case that did not have a lock on it. The Best Buy employee did not know how to put a lens on a camera but allowed me to demonstrate, which I did. I gave her some little tips too and she thanked me.
After I put the lens on the camera we discovered that the camera did not have a battery in it so after all that I never did get to try the lens. I buy some of my equipment from Amazon.com and some from a local camera stores. The Proex up in highland park or National Camera Exchange in Roseville. Best Buy is an OK place to buy filters, cases, tripods and related equipment but for lenses and cameras I think the camera stores or even Amazon.com are the better choices.
The downside of Amazon is there is no way to test the lens first, and I recently had a bad experience with one of their affiliates. Both of the camera stores I mentioned have very knowledgeable sales people and they will let you test a lens out and both will take it back if it doesn’t work out.
If you venture into best buy to buy a camera or a lens make sure you know exactly what you want before you go. Their selection is limited but they seem to have the latest Nikon’s and Canon’s in stock. For the point and shoot camera’s they have a huge selection and again if you know what you want it is a fast and easy place to buy. Some of the sales staff seem to know a little about the point and shoot cameras and some do not. I generally do lot of research on the internet and read reviews before I buy anything expensive and to be honest it is all expensive. 
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1 Comments
There is no doubt that a Black and White image is still the most powerful. I am lucky in that I have a collection of cameras: I use a digital Leica D – Lux 3 for my everyday ‘record’ photography, but still like to compose the picture properly and use the Leica manual controls for depth of field and exposure.
For real pleasure, I use a Roll-Film camera and Black and White film. I use a Paterson Tank to develop the negatives and then Photoshop Elements to produce either prints or jpgs for the Internet.
This has to be the best of both worlds!
Keep up the good work,
Geoff.
.-= Geoff´s last blog ..Nokon EL-Nikkor 50mm f/4 =-.