You Read the Manual??

Okay, I don't do owner's manuals. I mean, I generally keep them. They're good for filling up drawers. And we have to keep those pulp mills busy in case the Ivory Billed Woodpecker isn't quite extinct after all.

But okay, I've been getting more interested in photography. I bought a Canon PowerShot A520 last February because my ex took the camera when she split. And because my Inner Child wanted it. Me taking 'too many pictures' was one of the stupid things we used to fight over, and with it being 'my' camera instead of 'our' camera, well...

So anyway, I didn't research the buy, I just bought what was cheap. Not hanging in the impulse aisle cheap, but Canon had just rolled out their 5 Megapixel version of the same camera and I was able to get the 4 Megapixel model with a 1GB SD card for under $200 including tax. I think closer to $175 than $200.

And I got lucky. Way lucky when I compare other cameras I could have spent as much or more for.

The times I've gotten killer shots like Em and Mo doing the Buddha thing in the Nelson or Mo in the moonwalk at the Roots Festival, and I go to blow them up to 8x10 or a little bigger, I don't have the resolution to do it cleanly. Or when we went to the circus, and I was trying to fight low light and distance to get shots. So I started thinking of maybe a telephoto lens kit for my camera. They make them, but they're not quite cheap.

The more I researched, the more I found that digital SLR's have come down in price. Way down.

They're still far from cheap, or even affordable, for me, but they're no longer in a class with a Triumph Thruxton as things I'm better off not even knowing about.

Meanwhile, I read the owner's manual for my camera. Page after page of, 'No shit? My camera will do that?'

I'm very good at talking myself into spending money, but until I've figured out how to really use my cheapie pocket camera, I'm gong to wait on buying anything more 'serious.' It helps knowing that the longer I wait the more I'll get for my money.

My Dremel came with a manual that says, right on the cover, 'Really, have you read this?' Nope. Don't plan to: I can burn my foot doing callous removal on my own, thank you. I guess I'll always wonder what else I'd learn if I read more manuals than the one that came with my camera, because I'm sure not going to read them to find out.