I came to a sad realization, however, during my trip. My pride and joy digital camera, the Canon SD110 Digital Elph, is nearing the end of its lifespan. It still works perfectly, but at only 3.2 megapixels and 2x optical zoom, it really isn’t cutting any edges anymore. It also takes too long to focus and take the shot. Turning the camera on, pointing, focusing and shooting is a five-second project, and sometimes that’s too much.
But, the old Elph is a beautiful camera I am sad to report is just getting old. And this is something, after two years of ownership, you didn’t used to have to say about a camera. I am thinking of staying in the Canon family with an SD630 in the future, but I’ll ask you, the educated reader, to help me out on that one with any comments.
On the subject of all things digital, the last gadget I carried was my Nextel Motorola i560. I can write a book on why I made a mistake switching to Nextel, but I will stick with it’s public relations deficit: they’re not even trying anymore. The biggest buzz-generator to hit Nextel in the last year and a half has been their merger with Sprint in 2005. The company will be keeping the Nextel iDEN network (with the walking-talking service) through at least 2010, so any benefits the consumer is hoping for through this merger are far from coming.
Not only is the Nextel voice service terrible, the i560, marketed by Nextel as a “rugged flip phone” that “adheres to Military Standard 810F for dust, shock, vibration, temperature extremes, low pressure, and solar radiation…performs in extreme outdoor environments and stands up to dusty environments, drops, exposure to vibration from heavy machinery use, and hot/cold climates,” has a little problem.
I can throw it against the wall, bury it in sand, put it in the freezer, and expose it to x-rays, but when I was playing poker at Caesar’s on Wednesday afternoon, I had the phone in my pocket and noticed the phone had turned off. And then again Wednesday night it turned off a few times. A few more times Thursday. My brother and father, both much longer Nextel subscribers than I, have the same phone and had the same problem. There is a defect in the phone where the battery comes loose and the phone shuts off.
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