A Traveler’s Confession – Camera Lust

I made a hard decision today – I am moving on from my beloved Nikon D40X.

The break up went a little like this – I’m sorry, it’s not me, it’s you. You’re getting old, you process things really slowly, your SD slot is broken and your LCD screen is cracked.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s been a great six years together. We’ve gone everywhere from Galicia to Chilean Patagonia.

How else could I take such a cool photo of a spider web on Chiloe Island?

                     Or such a scary picture of the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, Spain?

My Nikon even made me money when I used to work as an event photographer in Chicago.

                My photography assistant/best buddy and I enjoying free cocktails on the job… whoops.

But I have a confession –

I want a new camera. Or to be honest, lots of new cameras.

I feel like a traitor for saying this. I feel like a vegetarian eating pulled pork. I love my Nikon D40X, I really do. But there are greener (and hopefully faster) pastures out there.

My dad gave me this Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 for my college graduation and I absolutely love it; There isn’t a better pocket-sized camera on the market. But I also really want to upgrade my dSLR.

I have my eye on the Canon EOS Rebel T2i. It has HD Video and 18 megapixels (which is a huge upgrade from the D40X’s 10). And I think it would match perfectly with the Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM UD Wide Angle Zoom Lens. After seeing Alex in Wanderland’s Hawaii photos I was sold.

My newest fantasy is that post-France I will shack up on a Thai beach to learn how to scuba dive. To take beautiful underwater photos I would need a camera with underwater housing, right? So that’s where the Canon PowerShot SD1300IS and Canon Underwater Housing come in.

This is my internal dialogue on the subject: How can I go to Thailand without a wide-angle lens? That’s like, a sin! 

And truthfully some of my biggest travel regrets involve cameras. I went to Ecuador in 2006, one of the most photogenic countries on the planet, equipped with a disposable. There I was, snapping photos of crumbling Inca ruins in the middle of the majestic, windswept Andes mountains, using a throwaway camera. It’s amazing how much you forget as the years pass, and photographs to me are the best way to relive precious memories.

But this tech-lust doesn’t stop at cameras. After 22 years as a loyal PC user, I’ve decided to move on to a Mac (again, such treason!). My computer is only two years old but is a complete piece of junk that overheats after three minutes of video-watching and weighs about 10 pounds. I’ve been thinking the 13-inch Macbook Pro would be perfect. And to accompany that I will need Adobe Illustrator, naturally.

So the grand total? A whopping $2,628. And most of that is used goods on Amazon! The grand total of camera gear alone is $1,286.

Here’s the roster:

Canon Eos Rebel T2i – $465 (used on Amazon)

Canon Wide Angle Zoom Lens -$579 (used on Amazon)

Canon Powershot SD1300IS – $59 (used on Amazon)

Canon Underwater Housing – $186

13-inch Macbook Pro – $950 (used on Amazon)

Adobe Illustrator – $389 (used on Amazon)

I would LOVE any camera recommendations that you all have. Please comment or email me with suggestions, it would be much appreciated!