Something funny happened last Saturday. Well, it technically started before that, so let me back up even further.
We journey way back to the days of 2014, when U.S. presidents weren’t sociopaths and pandemics hadn’t been around for almost a hundred years. It was a simpler time.
In December, I upgraded my 16 GB iPhone 5C to a 64 GB iPhone 6. The new phone was bigger (but not too big), faster and all that good stuff.
We move forward three years to 2017. The U.S. president is now a sociopath, but there’s still no pandemic, so not totally awful. My iPhone 6 is starting to sputter a bit, performance-wise, though the battery is still fine for my modest needs. I decided to upgrade to an iPhone 8. Other than a faster processor and support for wireless charging, it is functionally the same phone.
We move forward again to May 2018 when I get a kidney infection. This is not nearly as fun as getting a new phone. I lose over five pounds. I am forced to walk much slower than normal, because my innards hurt if I walk faster (my usual pace). This leads to a little bit of serendipity.
As I stroll the neighbourhood, I begin to notice more and more details–flower beds, fruit-bearing trees and so on. I take out my phone and start taking pictures.
I take a lot of pictures.
In 2017, I took 510 photos. In 2018 that jumps to 1,149, and it stays that high (or higher) after.
We now catch up to the fall of 2020. My iPhone 8 is about the same age as my iPhone 6 was when it got replaced. Unlike the 6, the 8 still performs well, thanks to Apple’s CPU improvements. The battery, though, has suffered terribly. Is it due to taking so many more pictures? Hijinks related to wireless charging? Just generally a lot more use? I don’t know.
What I do know is that now, in November 2020, the battery on the phone is so bad I can’t go out for more than an hour without needing a power bank to revive it. So I made the sensible decision to replace it and conveniently, Apple has an entire line of new phones for me to choose from (I loves me Apple Watch too much to consider Android at this time).
At this point, you may be wondering, what does any of this have to do with getting a camera? I will explain.
Last Saturday Nic and I went to the Reifel Bird Sanctuary. Knowing my phone was likely to poop out, I did two things:
- I brought along an Anker power bank that could fully charge the phone up to six times
- I dug out my 12-year-old Canon Powershot point-and-shoot camera and charged it up to bring along, just in case
My initial plan was to use the camera as a backup in case the phone died. The phone did, in fact, die. I found I could tether it to the power bank and still take pictures, though (sort of like having a portable generator for it), so what I ended up doing was taking a lot of pictures with the phone, then the same shots with the camera to see how they’d compared. What I found was:
- The camera still takes pretty good photos!
- The 3x optical zoom allowed me to get shots that were impossible with the iPhone
- Some of the photos from the camera were actually superior to those from the phone (some were not)
All of these–but especially the optical zoom–instilled in me a sudden yearning I did not have before. I wanted a standalone camera again. Surely this is madness, I thought. Do I really need a dedicated camera for most of the pictures I take? No. Would it allow me to take pictures I currently can’t? Yes! Would the pictures in general be better than what I’d get with a phone, even a fancy new iPhone 12? Yes again.
So now I want a camera, and I am starting to research models. My main criteria:
- Must offer specs that put it above a smartphone, otherwise what’s the point?
- Spec 1: High pixel count (iPhone cameras are 12 megapixel)
- Spec 2: Good optical zoom. I’m thinking at least 8x but more is better
- Spec 3: Must be capable of good night/low light shots
- Spec 3: Must cost no more than around $1,000 because I’m not going full prosumer crazy here
I am starting by looking at point-and-shoot cameras that generally come with a single lens but still offer good quality, then seeing what else may be out there.
Oh, and I’m still getting a new phone, but now I may not need the best camera since a good camera will likely suffice. Look for a rambling long post about the new iPhones soon™.