URGH. The story of my digital cameras.

I have gone through five cameras in my life. The first two were pretty crappy film cameras, and the other three were digital. Just the point-and-shoot, auto, basic, whatever. No fancy shmancy cool SLRs. The film cameras are not worth mentioning, but here is the history of my digital camera ownership:

My first digital served me for about three years. I bought it at Wal-Mart in 2004 and it cost me around $190, if I remember correctly. Stinking things were expensive back then. It was a Fuji Film 5 megapixel camera that worked fine (Besides going through batteries like they were free. Seriously, I changed batteries like every two hours!). It traveled the world with me--London, Paris, Frankfurt, Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Talinn, Riga, Vilnius, Quebec, and more. And then one day the power button broke and it wouldn't turn on anymore. This was right in the middle of my friend's wedding. Urgh. I figured it was time for an upgrade anyway, but still.

The next digital camera I got was a Kodak 8 megapixel camera. I bought this soon after Violet was born. I got it on Black Friday at Target for only $89. (There was this four month break where I had nothing but Dan's old mission camera--it was only 3 megapixels. I really need more megapixels because I photoshop like all my photos.) This Kodak camera was my favorite camera. Then there was this one day when I went on a cattle drive. I took along my trusty camera, of course, and secured it in my coat pocket. I was taking pictures from atop my horse along the way. Then there was this one time when I forgot to zip up my coat pocket. Alas and alack, the camera fell out. Out of the pocket, off the horse, onto the ground. And in the midst of a herd of cattle. This was all unbeknownst to me. I realized that my camera was missing probably twenty minutes later, after all the cows had gone up ahead. I rode back and found the camera in the middle of the road, all scuffed up. I tried it, thinking the worst, but voila! It worked like it always had! Or so I thought.... Later, I found out that the charging mechanism or device or thingamajig had been broken by some thoughtless, heedless cow. My camera couldn't be charged up again. Once its battery ran out, it was through. dead. gone. This was after I'd only had it for about 7 months, but I let my integrity win out and convince me that since the warranty didn't cover cameras that were "dropped," it certainly didn't cover cameras that had been trampled by a herd of cows. Urgh. And drat.

My latest camera was purchased from tigerdirect.com. It was $79, and I got it around Violet's first birthday. It was also 8 megapixels, made by GE, and I thought it would be a good replacement for my Kodak. Turns out that GE makes horrid cameras. The flash is like brighter than the noonday sun right in your face. It washes all color out unless you're standing like twelve feet back. So, I covered the flash with a few layers of tape. It helped, a little. Another annoying thing was that this camera's auto focus takes about 5 seconds before it lets you take the picture. Not great for taking pictures of toddlers. Also, unless you use the flash, the pictures are always blurry, no matter how still you are (or maybe I just have the shakes--who knows?). Now this camera has an even more serious problem. I have no idea what happened, but now it can't take ANY clear pictures. Seriously, after you take the picture, the display looks like you took the picture through some blinds. There are horizontal white lines through EVERYTHING. I thought maybe just the display screen had bit the dust, but even uploading them to the computer didn't change much. There still are these white lines through everything. Any clue what's wrong? I'm getting sick of replacing my cameras so often. I have only had this wretched GE camera for about 8 months. I'm going to try and go through the hassle of having GE replace it for me, as it is still under warranty (how does that go, by the way? I've never done warranty stuff before...). But is it even worth it? Is the next one going to be just as crappy? Urgh.

I am dreaming of getting a Canon Rebel 10.1 mgp SLR. It looks so loverly. Too bad I have no money.

So, there you have it. My beleaguered sob story of my life with digital cameras. (By the by, my lack of a working camera partially explains the lack of posts.) How have your cameras treated you?