What Camera Do You Use?

“What camera do you use?” I get asked that quite often. Apparently, a number of people do like my photos and some think my tool helps to enhance my ‘skill’! How do I respond to this compliment? It’s a little tricky. On one hand it’s great to have people say your photos are nice but on the other hand I don’t want to be accused of ‘hidung tak mancung pipi tersorong-sorong’.

My current tool

I’d tell people that I use an inexpensive camera—others would say ‘cheap’ camera—the type which does little more than points and shoots. It’s light enough to carry everywhere and fits in a small handbag. So until there’s an irresistible urge to own a fancy DSLR, this is the camera for me.

I guess I picked up the hobby from my father who took all our childhood pictures. My very first camera was a cheap plastic thing that must have cost a mere five dollars but could take okay-lah black and white pictures. It was a flimsy toy camera and it didn’t need too many borrowers to end its life.

The camera that was stolen

My next camera was a real one, a Canon, which had cost me one month’s pay but it was a necessity because I was a brand new mum and needed that camera to record my baby’s progress. A sibling borrowed it and never returned it because he assumed I didn’t want the thing back after obtaining an expensive Minolta.

The Minolta served me well for many years. I could have continued to use it if I hadn’t been seduced by a Canon SLR. I was devastated when the SLR was stolen a year after it was bought and I consoled myself by getting another SLR as well as a Canon compact digital camera. These served me and my school very well. (I was the school’s official photographer for several years. Picture an old woman with an oversized camera bag—I used three cameras—running around the padang to get good shots from the best angles during sports day and you’d see me.)

Digital cameras were still expensive when I bought  this

Now where’s that Canon compact that had lightened my purse by RM2000? It’s just sitting in a corner after being damaged by a borrower. When will I ever learn? I’m learning to say “No” and “Go buy your own camera/printer/electric drill/etc.”

I like to capture pictures of nature

So today I use an affordable Nikon ‘point and shoot’. I don’t envy other people for their grand, expensive gadgets that can do everything including take the tension lines out of their smiles. However, my heart does a somersault every time I take a nice picture with my cheap camera. And I say a silent thank you to my father for nudging me in the ‘right’ direction.

 

What's your favourite hobby?