Camera :-)

Of all gadgets, I have a weakness for cameras. Yes, I like watches and handphones too, but not in the same way I drool over cameras. I can trace this back to my childhood when I was envious of the only guy in my whole kampung who had owned a Seagull ( see picture ). He was a teacher, and he used to charge RM1.50 for a print of black and white

picture. Whenever I saw him walking around with his camera hanging around his neck, I used to follow him - silently praying that he would let me touch it, once...just once! Alas...not a chance. I could not afford to pay for a print, so I dared not hope to own a camera....but I dared dream!

I first realized my dream after I went to study in England for my 'A' level. I saved my first few months of scholarship to buy a camera, also a Seagull but of different model - the folding type (Sea picture ).

While my room-mate Adzhar was strongly recommending more well known brands like Pentax and Konika, my mind was set on Seagull. It was amazing how childhood dream stuck in my my mind like an engraving on an ancient wall. I was the most happy seventeen year ol

d back then, saving more of my scholarship to buy rolls after rolls of Kodak and to pay for the 'Processing' too. Unfortunately, I was not good at keeping photos I have snapped, of daffodils, faces of English girls, and memories of the good old innocent days.

Since then, I have bought and upgraded various. A couple of them found sudden death due to my carelessness; either soaked in water or smashed to pieces from accidental drops.

"None intentional", that I had to reassure my wife a few times. She began to think I purposely 'killed' my cameras to justify buying new ones! Later in life when my sons have turned into teen-agers, they began to 'borrow' which almost always turned into permanent change of ownership. Hence, my Cannon G10 is with Adlil, Canon EOS400 with Fariz, Canon E40 with Haziq, Sony T10 with Luqman, Samsung with Zety, and a couple more got lost i

n transition when we relocated place to place.

I was left with a 1.3mega pixel handphone camera from my Blackberry. Huh! **kesian ayah!**

Last night, I was at Jarir bookstore and unintentionally passed by the camera display. My

eyes caught sight of a slim design Sony. I managed to say, "No" to myself and walked on, only to find Amirul at the bookshelves and 'casually' informed him of my encounter with the c

amera.

"No lah ayah!" he said. In the absence on Lil, I have been relying on Amirul to be my conscience whenever I have an urge to splash money for myself!

I nodded, and silently headed towards the cashier to pay for his purchases. We left the store and started to walk to the car, when he said, "You really want that camera, don't you?"

I nodded again, and a smile broke across my face.

"Okey, I will keep these books in the car, and I will see you at the camera counter inside!" He said. I made a U-turn and a dashed back into the store.

It may not be the same feeling like when I bought my first Seagull, but I can tell you I still got a lot of 'kick'. I still got butterflies in my stomach...and that, I can tell you, is an amazing feeling!

For SR1300, I owned a Sony with Carl-Zeiss lense, 3" touch screen panel LCD, and HD movie capabilities.

The picture of the two Portmeirion mugs was taken using the brand new camera~!