time to get me a REAL camera!

I’ve been taking photos, LOTS of photos using the only camera I have: my cellphone, all this time and I’ve been learning a lot about photography and photo-editing so I think it is time to buy a REAL camera with REAL photography functions and better capabilities.

Of course, the images that my cellphone produced all this time was not bad at all, as you can witness by the various photos that I posted here in this blog; I know it’s not great, but at least it’s decent enough to be able to convey some meaning. I really like the sushi pictures. It’s like my cellphone’s speciality in macro-photography or something.

I’ve been surveying some decently priced cameras with good basic functions, equipped with the latest, essential camera-technology; like face recognition, shake-reducing etc. and I have found two very good candidates that has great tech with decent price: the Canon PowerShot G9 (43500 yen) and the Nikon CoolPix P5100 (28000 yen).

According to online reviews, it was obvious that the Canon G9 is a better camera than the Nikon P5100; the G9 is about 15500 yen more expensive than P5100. It was easier if I just pick up the better camera, but what if the 15500 yen difference was not worth it? The only advantage that the G9 has over P5100 (advantages that matter to me, that is) are it’s better optical zoom (6X compared to 3.5X) and a fast manual ISO switcher located on the top right of the G9.

Last year I’ve borrowed my senpai’s P5000 (this model was launched 6 months BEFORE the P5100) for a week to take pictures during my Kanto trip and I must say, for a non-SLR camera, the P5000 was an awesome camera, being able to produce images so impressive, an untrained eye (like me) could easily mistaken it to be produced by a 100000 yen SLR camera!

Talking about SLR cameras, sorry, I don’t like them. They’re bulky, horribly expensive and so tricky and time consuming to use. Of course they produce great looking pictures, but is it worth it? Unless it gives me financial benefits in return, I’m not going to buy one, ever. I’m not a photography-mania; I just want a good camera with a great lens, a good image processor and a huge megapixel so that when I take a picture of a cute girl from a distance without her noticing, I can return home, connect the camera to my computer, upload the image to an image editing software, zoom on her face and still got a good, crisp picture of her pretty face. That is the kind of hobby that I want to be able to do. OR, maybe I should just stick to my hobby of taking delicious looking food everytime I found one. Especially sushi. Ohh.. sushis are so sexy!

So after an intensive surfing and research-comparing both of the great cameras, I have decided to get the Nikon CoolPix P5100. I placed an order from amazon.co.jp, and my package of photography-goodness are going to arrive tomorrow! I just can’t wait to start shooting more rubbish!

I bought a cheaper camera, but I believe I have bought the better one.

In the cost-performance department, that is.