I bought a Christmas present for ME!!!!

Wahoo!!!
Bought myself a Christmas present yesterday! I never ever buy anything for myself ever and I've been saving up for a few months so I could treat myself to a new digital camera. I've had the same one for 3 years. It's great and I love it, but it was just time for a new one.
You'd all laugh at me if you see what I go through before buying something. Did the same thing for my camera (do it for everything big I buy). I create a huge spreadsheet (camera one is 17X22). It has about 14 different cameras on it across the top and all features down the side. I then filled in all the features of each one, highlighted the ones that were really good and the ones that were really important to me and then I counted all the highlighted sections for each camera. The cameras with the highest scores from me and the highest ratings became my top "contenders". Confusing? I know. This is what happens when you're an engineer. - my kids get a kick out of all my spreadsheets and have a great time showing their friends how nuts their mother is. . The one for my camera was hanging across the kitchen cabinets, so it was hard to miss. (You should have seen the one I had when I was shopping for my new car! )
Anyways - so I wrote down the top contenders (no I didn't take the spreadsheet to the store!) and I decided to go play with them yesterday. Well the one I liked the best while playing with it actually wound up being the one that got the top score on my spreadsheet! Then - the lady tells me it's on sale! , then she tells me I get some free photography classes, free paper, free photos, etc. with the purchase. .....then she tells me I get a free photo mini lab printer!!!
So....of course I went from playing with it to buying it!! Merry Christmas to me!!!!
Oh - and do you believe this. I came home with it last night, went to take pictures with my old one (since the batteries weren't charged on the new one yet) and my old one died! Do you believe that!!! Suddenly last night the zoom won't work, it won't turn off. It was fine till I brought the new one home. It's like it knew it was being replaced.
So now I just hope I like this one and it lasts as long as my other one.

Well....where are the pictures woman! Get to it We wanna see what your new camera can do

Good for getting a new camera! That is so funny about the old one though!

Originally Posted by StarryEyedTiGeR

Well....where are the pictures woman! Get to it

We wanna see what your new camera can do

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So do I! So do I! Batteries had to charge for 2 hours - then it was time for bed.
Sittin here at work - dying to get home and play!
Think I'm gonna leave work early today....hehe.

Originally Posted by lisasha3

So do I! So do I! Batteries had to charge for 2 hours - then it was time for bed.

Sittin here at work - dying to get home and play!

Think I'm gonna leave work early today....hehe.

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too funny! / don't forget to take some cute new pictures of the kitties with your new camera

What camera did you end up getting? I'm going tonight to play with them because I plan on buying one for myself this week. My old one cracked months ago and I thought x-mas was a good reason to treat myself. Plus, I'll have it for holiday pics.

Have fun with your new toy!!!

Originally Posted by twstychik

What camera did you end up getting? I'm going tonight to play with them because I plan on buying one for myself this week. My old one cracked months ago and I thought x-mas was a good reason to treat myself. Plus, I'll have it for holiday pics.

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Want me to make a spreadsheet for you.
The one I wound up getting was the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7. Hope it works as well as folks say it does.

Actually, I love spreadsheets! I'm the spreadsheet queen here at work. I've pretty much made up my mind I just want to try it out because my biggest concern is the time gap between pressing the button and actually taking the picture. Plus, I only have about $150 to spend.

Thats a really nice camera! Can't wait to see pics.

Arrggghhhh.... I gotta wait a whole 2 hours more for the battery pack to charge. May not be any pictures or playing tonite.
Before I left the office today I decided for the heck of it to check out prices of this camera in some other stores. Well - I found it for $70 cheaper in Circuit City! Unbelievable. For that I had to return the one I had and buy the CC one. Meaning I now have another new camera and have to start the charge all over again. I just couldn't believe it. $70 is a lot. For the same identical camera.
I know I should have bought the one at Circuit City first and maybe swapped battery packs, or returned the uncharged one, but I went to do the return first thinking they might match the sale price and I wouldn't have to return anything. Well they didn't. . So - no business for them , cheaper camera for me , but a 2 hour wait till I can play.

(you can bet your butt though that with this money I saved I'll be buying another battery pack - or two! I can't wait 2 hours for a stupid battery)

Lol! Actually I've made similar sounding spreadsheets....I just have no kids to make fun of me yet! I didn't do spreadsheets for it, but I did tape a bunch of paint samples to the wall for like 6 months or more before I chose a color!

I say good for you for buying yourself a new camera!

Originally Posted by MoochNNoodles

Lol! Actually I've made similar sounding spreadsheets....I just have no kids to make fun of me yet! I didn't do spreadsheets for it, but I did tape a bunch of paint samples to the wall for like 6 months or more before I chose a color!

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I do that too!!! A good friend of mine has his first house and asked for my opinion on the bathroom he was doing over. So I took him to like 5 stores and kept picking out samples and he thought I was nuts. Until I went to his house and taped them all to the wall. Then he really thought I was nuts.
Is there any other way to pick out paint?

Congrats on the new toy!!! And we need pics as soon as the batteries are charged.

Circuit City in New England normally keeps up on their competitor's prices to make sure they are the lowest.

I can't wait to see pictures!

Its been 2 hours!!! So we get to see pictures?????????

No pictures. Camera sucks. Used it for like 30 minutes then boxed it right back up.
For anyone thinking of buying - it was a nice camera, but it was almost as if the LCD could not keep up with movement of the camera. That's the only way I can think to describe it. When I look through the LCD of my Canon and follow a moving object or pan across something it's just like following it with my eyes - crystal clear. When I followed a moving object (or just panned) with the Panasonic it was one big blurr across the LCD. It was awful! It didn't clear up till movement stopped. Don't know how folks take photos with it. If you're into nothing but still shots - then this might work fine. I do a lot of action as well and it would be one big blur after blur. I was very disappointed.

Back to the drawing board today (or back to the spreadsheet - however you want to look at it. ). Have 4 more on my list to play with. Going into work late today so I can go play. (One of the advantages to being an engineering contractor - I can make my own hours. ).

Hope my SS present doesn't arrive today! I don't have a camera to take pics and I might not be able to wait till I get one to open it if it comes.

Arrrggghhhh...hate Circuit City!
Please bear with me while I vent
Went to return the Panasonic to CC and they wanted to charge me 15% restocking fee cause I took the camera out of the box. "The box was opened she said, so it's a 15% restocking fee". She said "we only don't charge if the camera is defective" - so I said, "fine, it's defective"(wasn't lying - it's a piece of crap). So she says I have to exchange it for another of the same kind, so I say "fine, give me another one then I'm going to turn around and return it again, unopened this time and not get charged the restock fee" To which she just looked at me (didn't expect that). So she finally says "well, if you find something else you like you can get that instead and not get charged". ARRRGGGHHHH - idiots!!! They are one of the only stores that do this. I had forgotten about this stupid thing at CC. So I did find something else in the store, but I just decided now - I"m going to return it unopened and tell them to put it and I am going to take my business elsewhere. How the hell am I suppose to find out if I like it or not if I can't take it out of the box? And if I do take it out of the box it costs me $45-$60 for every camera I try (cause all the ones I've looked at are in the $300-$400 price range). I am beyond furious. Hate Circuit City.

So now I gotta return this one and then wait a few days cause I've purchased 3 cameras in the last 2 days and of course the bank is right up on the charges, but none of the credits have come through yet. So now I have no camera.

Oh no! Thats horrible! I hope you find a good camera soon!

Awww.... I just read all this and how crappy. I know how much it sucks waiting to get somethign new and fun. I get to go out for mine tomorrow. Do your electornic stores have display cameras out you can try? I ran to Best Buy yesterday and they had a large selection of cameras out and available to test and play with right there. That way you can see first hand how it opperates wth out buying it. Things like screen blur when you move it and "shutter" speed. It's also nice to have an idea of size and weight.

Originally Posted by twstychik

Awww.... I just read all this and how crappy. I know how much it sucks waiting to get somethign new and fun. I get to go out for mine tomorrow. Do your electornic stores have display cameras out you can try? I ran to Best Buy yesterday and they had a large selection of cameras out and available to test and play with right there. That way you can see first hand how it opperates wth out buying it. Things like screen blur when you move it and "shutter" speed. It's also nice to have an idea of size and weight.

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They do have them out, but not all of them and for the most part, not the models I've been looking at (just my luck). I can try to play with others that are similar brands and models, but you never know.