At last: a weekend of sanity and rest!

[Tannin]

Outside of two weekends worth of tree planting for the Regent Honeyeater project just now, there has not been a single day since I bought my scope and camera about three months ago when I haven't either gone out birding with it (joy!) or gone to work (ho-hum). (And come to think of it, I snuck in two hours worth of early morning birding before the tree planting days, so that makes it a clean sweep.)

Until this next weekend, that is. Then I will have a whole two bird-free days.

You see, last Sunday, when the planting was over, we did a little bushwalking and .... I fell over and broke the Coolpix.

I was just walking along at the end of the day and planted my foot on something unexpectedly slippery - zap - I was flat on my back. The scope is OK but the Nikon is now in two parts. The area around the lens thread broke off and remained attached to the scope, the rest of the camera didn't.

It seems to work OK, albeit without the flat front glass, and it still takes pictures, but it it obviously unusable for digiscoping and on its way to Nikon in Sydney now to have a new body grafted on, I understand that it will take between 2 and 6 weeks.

Wow! Saturday I'm going to have to mow the lawn! Sunday? Maybe I could watch the football on TV. I dare not go outside birding (though I still have the scope) because I'd be terrified of seeing some mega-wonderful rarity and not getting the picture. Safer indoors, I think.

The following weekend, I'll just have to hang tough. I could prune the big Acacia that's hanging over the driveway, I guess.

And the third weekend ...... If the camera is not back by then, I think I'll just buy another one. I have no idea where the money is coming from, but I think three weeks without digiscoping is about my limit. I'll sell my mother if I have to. (She is a nice mother: well-dressed, good conversatonalist, likes birds and flowers. Email me for details.)

Nope: I'm not joking. I have five weeks off starting around the end of this month and I'm heading north to take pictures of as many birds as I can find, come hell or high water. If the camera is not back before then, I'm not cancelling my leave - I might not get another chance - I'll buy a second camera.

I suppose it will have to be another Coolpix 4500. I don't really like the camera all that much (the shutter delay is intolerable) but I don't think there is anything else on the market now that won't vignette all over the place. Hobson's choice.

Wish me luck!

[Charles Harper]

Hard luck last week, Tannin-- hope better luck is headed your way!

[robinm]

Bad luck. I know what it's like when you're without the camera (mine had to be mended) - everywhere you go you say "If I only had the camera".

Hope you get something sorted for your holiday - I want to see those pictures in the Gallery.

[Tannin]

Thanks Charles. Oddly enough, I wasn't upset about it in the slightest. I knew immediately that I'd broken the camera and it honestly never entered my head to wonder what to do about it, just instantly knew that it would either be fixed promptly or replaced with a new one. I'd decided that before I'd even picked myself up and dusted my pants off.

I guess the closest way I can explain it is the feeling you have when you break a shoelace - it's an inconvenience, but it never occurs to you to be upset about it or not do something about it (such as buy a pair of laces). It's just one of those things.

Sure, cameras cost more than shoelaces, but that's irrelevant. The thing that causes heartache is (I think in every case) indecision: having to decide between unattractive alternatives.

Here, there was no question of not getting the camera fixed or replaced ASAP, no heartrending decisions to agonise over, no possible alternative way to spend the money that could have an equal priority.

I seem to have turned a hobby into an obession. No matter: it's a wonderful obession and I wouldn't change it for the world.

And it wasn't really bad luck. Really bad luck would have been breaking the camera before I saw the Grey-crowned Babblers. ;)

[Edward]

Hi Tannin
I admire your composure when you realised that your camera was broken. I wake up in a cold sweat at nights sometimes after having dreamt that I left my binoculars on the car roof or something. But it's only money in the end :-)
When you say that you are heading north, do you mean north of Victoria or do you mean Queensland or NT? I've just bought Bransbury's "Where to find birds in Australia" and it already has me feverishly wondering how I can plan a trip to fabulous places such as Iron Range NP (600 km NORTH of Cairns, Palm Cockatoo and Electus Parrot for goodness sake!) or the Kimberleys. My head spins at the very thought of visiting such places.
Whatever you plan to do in the weekends without the camera, DON'T be tempted to pick up a set of golf clubs.

E

[Tannin]

Fixed! Less than two weeks - and I was knock-down, drag-out stunned at the price: $135 - that's about $65US. I was expecting maybe $500.

Fast, remarkably inexpensive - full marks to Nikon.

[IanF]

Congratulations Tannin that is wonderful news. It's almost amazing that you got the camera back so quickly and so cheaply !

It certainly goes a long way to restore my faith in Nikon. I'm not a great fan of the 4500 either, but it does do the job that no other camera seems to do as well.

Plenty of time to get snapping this weekend too ;)

[Tannin]

Thnks, Ian. I have other things booked in for the weekend, alas, but I managed to sneak in an hour or two at my local city lake first thing this morning. Nothing brilliant, mostly just Common Coot, but the nesting pair were good value. I think the camera is OK. The viewfinder picture is slightly distorted (but that doesn't matter for digiscoping) and I'm not 100% convinced that the focus is right - but given that I was taking pictures of black birds against reeds (lots of nice sharp lines for it to focus on where the bird isn't), I'll suspend my judgement.

I've 90% decided to buy another one so that I (a) have a spare, and (b) can take pictures of trees, flowers, and other stuff without always having to fiddle about removing the camera from the scope and risking that I'll miss a great bird.

I don't need a $1350 CP4500 as a second camera - something half that price, such as the nice 3.2 megapixel Fuji I bought for a friend the other day, would do, but (aside from having a spare ready for instant use) this way I can at least economise by sharing flash cards and batteries between them.

Besides, what if they stop making the 4500 and something goes wrong with this one?

Having just spent an entire weekend on Cold Turkey camera withdrawl, I'm not in a mood to take chances.

(BTW: if anyone thinks that this indicates that I have too much money to throw around, rest assured, I don't! Most people wouldn't put their dogs into the tiny old fallie-down house I live in - but in the end, given a choice between buying a second camera or getting that new heater the house so badly needs - well, in my book, the question doesn't arise. First things first.