D's tips to buying essentials

As you all know, I was a skeptic on digital photography because I liked the control I had with my SLR. And digital cameras seemed to be so small. I wanted something I could hold on to. As I began research on a digital camera I saw that what I really wanted was very expensive. In most cases you are paying $100.00 per mega pixel. The higher the megapixel the better quality depending on the manufacturer and what you plan to do with your camera. I had done all the research and finally Pentax came out with a digital and now they have several. I had just purchased my first point and shoot for those spur of the moment occasions. But I wasn't ready to shell out $300.00 or $400.00 for another camera and I had other things on my wish list. You have to prioritorize everything. Well, I do. After seeing my friends camera I thought maybe I should look into it again. Last year I purchased a small digital camera by Argus, the model was DC1730. I was in Wal Mart and it was staring me in the face. It shot digital stills, but it also worked as a video cam and that was what sold me on it. I got it home, hooked it up and it was amazing. Then I did my first pictures. I was shocked. I began taking pictures of some of my photographs since I didn't have a scanner. It was hard to tell the difference. I had stumbled onto something. There was something digital could do for me after all. I then went out on the street and took some pictures and they were good, but the camera doesn't zoom and it has a glare that you can't see in the view finder if there is too much light. All in all its a good camera and still holds up. I actually got a few other people to purchase Argus cameras, but the DC1230, the DC1730 was no longer available. A few months later I started thinking about movie making again. (I used to make movies when I was younger and it's still a dream of mine) and other things I could do if I had the right camera. I saw a camera in my Neiman Marcus catalog, yes, Neiman Marcus, it's not that big of a deal. They were showing a camera by Aiptek and it appeared to be interesting. It was a video camera, and still camera for $129.00. I figure this would be cool to play around with, get more experience before I invest more money into something that I'm not familiar with. Someone had bought me a 3 in 1 scanner, printer, copier and fax. Oh, wait, that's 4 in 1. LOL. I had already researched that and when I was in officesupplies Lexmark was a manufacturer that I pushed their products and what I had used myself. So I was getting everything I needed. Before I purchased the digital camera I then saw that Aiptek had another model, and it included video, still images, digital recorder, MP3 player and it was only $150.00. I figured this would benefit me more, so I decided to invest in it instead. I'm glad I did. I'm still learning about my camera and what it can and can't do. I love it when I can figure things out and since I've misplaced the manual I have to learn it on my own. Good thing I know something about electronics and cameras. In fact, when I bought my point and shoot I got a discount because the manual was missing. In todays technological society, you can find most manuals online. In fact you can even download programs online. The future is now. So what I'm saying is whatever it is your planning on getting into. Think of it as an investment. You can go from one level and then upgrade instead of putting all your money into something you don't know a lot about. It's better to have more than one and you can always sell one to go towards the next one. Just a thought. Thanks for stopping by, keep an open mind.