Camera? Buyer Beware

For the past five or six years I have been using a wonderful camera that took great photo's, especially sharp macro shots. It's an Olympus and had fit me like a comfortable, well worn pair of house shoes.

About a year ago the small plastic piece on the bottom that holds the camera to a tripod broke. I called around only to find that I had to send the camera direct to Olympus. The company has a standard service fee of $150 ~ before they even look at it! It was quite a process but I chose to spend the money because I liked the camera so much and didn't feel I could replace it for $150.

Last week, almost a year to the date, the piece broke again. The camera still works but will no longer attach to any type of tripod since the attach mechanism is now completely GONE! And I can't take close up stills without a tripod - and I have three! My choice is to buy a new camera OR send it back to Olympus for another $150 fix. NOT!

Those of us who have Etsy Stores or Websites know with absolute clarity just how important taking good pictures is. My husband has a small, point and shoot Samsung with very few features. In a pinch I took over 150 pictures with this little camera and every one of them was worse than the last! And this was after using my editing program! It has a poor macro function and even using a professional light box they still turned out horrible. I had no choice but to use the best of the worst pics since I had so much new inventory to list in my store.

My camera whining (to the dear husband) began less than a week ago. To be absolutely sure that I wasn't doing something wrong, I drug out the book (yesterday) and began making adjustments to the settings. I began taking pictures AGAIN of the items listed in my Etsy Store. I figured before I bought a new camera I needed to prove to myself and DH that indeed the camera is inappropriate for my needs.

After tweaking, reading, tweaking and reading some more, I have come to the conclusion that I NEED A NEW CAMERA! I took almost 100 pictures and today I am going to edit AGAIN just to see if they are any better than what I already have. It bears mentioning that my store is sporting the worst pictures that I have ever seen; and my views and sales have dropped like a rock!

This weekend (which is Monday and Tuesday for us) we are going to shop for a new camera ~ I can certainly buy a better camera for somewhere around $150 - $200 versus an additional investment in my sad old camera.

The point I would like to make is when shopping for a camera there are a few things you should look for. 1. Does the camera have excellent macro capability? 2. Is the tripod "part" made of plastic or metal? Where is the camera serviced if the need arises? 4. A camera that is touted to be able to zoom to another state isn't what we need as sellers, it's the ability to shoot tight, well focused photographs.

I'm sick that I have to replace my 'ol favorite but the fact of the matter is, I can't live without good equipment! I have every intention of taking my old Olympus with me during the new camera shop.

There will be a service for my camera at a date yet to be determined.