The new camera

My cameras, not including the phone camera

On the other side of this picture.

The camera on my android phone is a decent camera.

A camera is only as good as one's understanding of it's capabilities and limitations.

I only recently realized the phone camera has zoom and wide angle ability.

Some time back the wheels fell off my point and shoot,

and I upgraded to the little blue Nikon CoolPix. 

CoolPix and I probably were destined to part company one day,

I mastered its capabilities and learned to live with its shortcomings.

And then the tragic accident. 

It was not in its case, its strap not on my wrist. 
I stumbled and dropped it on the unyielding concrete basement floor.

I broke the flash and put the lenses out of sync.

A week ago last Monday I went back to Dodd camera to buy a new camera.

In the meantime I'd done my homework. 

I knew I wanted big zoom, a little wide angle, good lenses.

And something I didn't know I wanted until I started looking at cameras.

The owner greeted me, then passed me off to a clerk, because he was expecting a customer.

The clerk reset the little blue CoolPix. The flash is still broken; the camera works.

We got down to business.

Heavy was out. That eliminated everything over six hundred dollars.

Ahead already!

One undesirable feature and another reduced the selection on the counter to two, a Cannon and a Panasonic.

We were now talking four to five hundred hundred dollar cameras.

I looked closely, but could not find a USB port on either.

"How do I get the pictures to the computer?"

He demonstrated a postage stamp sized memory card.

Apparently one takes this mini thing from the camera and inserts it in a like slot on the computer.

"No, no, no," said I. 
"My chances of dropping it, sending it spinning, are almost one hundred percent!"

"Then you want a card reader," he said, and produced a stupid piece of plastic with a slot and a USB cord.

"The card goes here; the reader transfers the images to the computer."

"No, no, no," said I. 
"You don't understand. If the USB cable does not go from the camera to the computer, I won't buy the camera."

"A deal breaker?"

"A deal breaker."

The clerk commenced an explanation of the lack of such a connector on any new camera, the danger of malfunction of picture transfer over the USB cable, and more I don't recall. I was gathering up stuff to leave, when the owner stepped from the recesses of the store.

"My customer called," he said. "He went to pick up the camera at the Medina store (another county). Since neither I or the camera are at the Medina store, he does not want it. Perhaps this will suit."

He put the red Nikon CoolPix P520 on the counter.

I recognized a good number of the dials and buttons as identical to the little blue camera. It had a little less zoom than I thought I wanted, but what did I really know. It had a USB cable and port identical to the little blue Nikon.

"Does it come with a manual?"

 Of course it did.

"How much?"

"$299"

I bought the camera. I bought a case. I bought a battery and a card. They threw in a Photoshop disc for twenty five dollars. I've read the manual, but haven't fired up Photoshop yet. It's been fifteen years since I last used Photoshop; one thing at a time.

The female downy woodpecker. Unlike the male, she does not wear a red cap.

The red Nikon grows a little more clever each day.

I've checked around the internet since I bought the red camera. The going price seems to be $350 and up. Perhaps it's last year's model.