Thursday, November 26, 2009

Camera Repair

The time has come. I've had some fun w/my digital point & shoot, but it is so incredibly inferior to an SLR I amost can't stand it any more. It focuses SO slowly. Forget it if your subject moves. And the crispness & sharpness of my ancient "first generation" DSLR is so much better it drives me nuts. If it worked, that is.

I took a trip somewhat recently, and as usually, took all my camera gear, "just in case." I wanted to take some shots that I knew would turn out better with my old D100. It took three successful shots before I was ready to throw it in the water out of frustration. It keeps going into program (or stupid happy) mode when you don't have it set on that. Anyway, three shots. When I got home (no laptop) those three shots blew my mind, they were so wonderful. It reminded me what I've been missing.

So we searched the web to trouble-shoot the problem. A few suggestions, but didn't work on mine. And so the question arises, is it worth trying to repair it?

Again, thankful for the internet, as there are no Nikon authorized dealer in my state, or even within several hours drive. Even the list Nikon has includes some that appear to be out of business. It comes down to where would I like to ship it? Luckily people still give free estimates. Not knowing how complex digital cameras might be, heck, that's good to know. I figure worst case expensive shipping scenario, I'm out $50 or so.

But I have to contemplate what price will be worth it. Obviously there are bigger, better, faster SLRs out there now. They may be a little cheaper than they used to be, but we're still talking several hundred dollars. What if it's $300 to repair the glitch. Will something else break soon after? Will the same thing go wrong again due to the inherent design (or flaw) of the camera? How cheap can I find a decent SLR as replacement if needed? What if I found one for $600? Would it seem logical to just buy a new one?

I read something once in an article about how to choose a digital camera I will never forget. Digital cameras break. They will always be more prone to breaking because they are digital. No digital camera will ever last like a film camera. Whatever you buy, it WILL break.

I know this is true, and it completely makes sense. But really think about it when you're considering dropping a few hundred on a new camera. Mine did take a lot of pictures, but I could swear it didn't make it two years before it had this "I want to be in program mode" issue. Two years. Possibly 18 months.

As you can guuess, I'm a bit out of the current loop for buying digital cameras. I've done my research as to what I'd like, vs. what I can't live without, etc. The one thing I don't know, is whether anyone is willing to sell extended warranties on them anymore. Probably not. But I'd be really interested if they did. I wouldn't want to try to buy a used one, because it'd be that much closer to falling apart. What's the point?

And I have to point out my last camera repair. On my film SLR, the Nikon F100. It was a fairly simply shutter leak, and they kidnapped my camera for almost six months. Maybe it was my mistake by sending it back to Nikon. But I couldn't take pictures with light leaking in, and I had no idea they would take so long. 5+ months. Good grief. I'm browsing smaller authorized repair shops. But still, it's close to Christmas. They'll probably be swamped. Ideally, I'd like to have it back by my next vacation in March. Is that too much to ask? We'll see.

Whether they can repair it, or I submit to buying a new one, it's still going to come down to how much to spend on something I know is going to break anyway. How depressing is that?