What to Do?

I have been in a bit of a dilemma lately. It's about my camera, or two cameras, rather.

I have a DSLR, but it's the original Canon Rebel and more than five years old now. While I used my original SLR Pentax SPII for decades, the pace of technological change renders devices obsolete in double quick time now. It's true that my Rebel still works as well as it did five years ago, but it's big, clunky and slow compared to it's modern counterparts and even compared to lesser cameras. While the slowness is annoying, I find that I have never totally come to grips with its size and weight. I don't mind porting it around when I know that I'm going someplace with the intention of taking photos, but I can't say that I exactly enjoy lugging it when I'm simply meandering about the planet. Oh, I've bought a smaller carrying bag that does help a bit, but it's still bulky piece of equipment.

This has come to a head lately because we're to fly to Vancouver in a few weeks to visit the girls, and I am thinking of leaving my DSLR here. We'll still have our little Point and Shoot, and to be frank it does a decent job. It can be a bit slow to focus and snap, especially when I'm using the flash and have just taken a picture, but it's still more or less satisfactory. It does bother me, however, that I can see little flaws when I zoom in when I'm working on the photos. I wish it shot in RAW to offset some of the problems, but everything is a trade off, and it's pocket portability is pretty handy and encourages me to at least partly overlook its limitations.

Nevertheless, I've been looking around for an additional camera: another small one that can shoot in RAW but that has a bigger zoom and increased quickness. I did find one, the Canon SX200, that almost fits the bill but not quite. It does have a 12x optical zoom, is pretty quick and has an image stabilizer. Unfortunately, it doesn't support RAW, but I was almost willing to overlook that drawback because it's got an awful lot going for it.

However, it is a tad pricey for a pointer and shooter, so I checked on ebay and found one that was barely used, came with a memory card and an extended warranty for a fairly reasonable price or at least some reduction from the in-store price. Still, I dithered and watched while the auction was still going on. I had all but made up my mind to bid the floor amount as the deadline drew nigh. It seemed like a good strategy because no one else had yet entered the fray although I suppose that others, like I, might also have chosen to lurk in the wings until the eleventh hour. If that were to have occurred, I possibly would have been willing to play the full Buy Now price. I say possibly because I was never sure, and I'm still not, but I was sure thinking hard about it.

However, when I checked the auction yesterday, I saw that it had been prematurely halted by the vendor and that the camera is now only available for the Buy Now price. Frankly, that ticks me off because the vendor knew through an email contact that I was interested but still cogitating. He, no doubt, foresaw my possible strategy — to bid the minimum as time was running out. Knowing that I was interested, I guess he was trying to extract the full price by terminating the auction. In one sense I can't blame him, but at the same time, I think it's a bit underhanded to halt the auction prematurely. Frankly, I don't even understand why ebay would allow that.

So, he's made the decision for me because, although I admit to understanding his reasoning and motivation, I really hesitate to do business with someone who employs dubious tactics to gain a few measly bucks. In my apparently worthless opinion, ebay vendors need to demonstrate some honour and accountability by sticking to the process. The guy chose to put something up for auction with his floor price, so I think it is a commitment that he should honour. Therefore, whatever camera or cameras I take out west with me in a few weeks, his nice Canon SX200 won't be among them. I guess I should be thankful in a way because what was a difficult decision was made easier for me. Simply put: he can keep his camera, and I will keep my money!

However, I am still left with a decision: take the DSLR or leave it at home.