Demoted

Years ago, when I was a young university kid, I took a photo class, learning on an old manual film camera. About a year later, I invested in a digital camera, and convinced my photo teacher to let me shoot digital. I decided on an Olympus E-10, almost DSLR camera. It had a fixed lens, but in every other way it was a DSLR. It was a whopping 4 megapixel. It was slow and it had other faults, but it served me well through many photo classes and on many travels, including my first trip here to NZ.

After I graduated I rarely used it. But I began to miss photography, so I decided I needed a new camera to re-inspire me. I needed something I could take everywhere. Something I could shoot anytime, any day with. A pocket cam. I would have nothing else. After much research and review reading I went with the Casio EX-Z750 because it's image quality was on par with other's but it offered the best creative control and features. It was and still is a great camera. It has gone everywhere with me and made so many great digital memories to share. I credit it for getting me re-obsessed with photography and eventually leading me to blip.

Blip has taken my photography to a new level, and with it the inevitable desire for better equipment. I began to get frustrated by the limitations of my tiny camera. Even with it's quite large 7.2 megapixel images, the quality isn't great due to it's tiny lens and sensor. But, most importantly, it loves to put tons of noise in any shot less than ideally lit. So the search began for a serious camera. Something that couldn't limit me creatively, but wouldn't lighten my wallet too much either.

I did some research and narrowed down the choices, but more importantly I listened to bluesheep, who did much more research and eventually decided on the Canon 30D. He got his a while back and has been producing excellent shots with it. I knew I had to have one. And now, I finally do. This is its first shot.

So today is a tribute to my trusty old Casio, which is being demoted to backup. It is certainly not being retired. It will get continual use. There will always be places where I don't feel like lugging around the big boy, and situation where small-size and stealth are required.

So here's to you, EX-Z750. You've served me well. But please, scoot just a bit down the desk to make room for the new toy. And take a break for a while as a new era of benek blipage begins.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
two great multiple exposures