In case you didn't already notice, I barely took any pictures in 2006. There were a bunch of reasons, most of which squarely came down to a combination of mild depression and acute laziness, but there were a few technical factors inhibiting my photography.

Plain and simple, our camera wasn't working too well, and still isn't. Since 2003 Samir and I have been using an Olympus C-4000z, a 4 megapixel, 3x optical zoom that is the size and shape of the average potato and takes 10 seconds or so to start up and take a picture with.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Don't get me wrong, it's a fantastic camera and I wouldn't trade it for a dozen Canons. The image quality is phenomenal and while I've read a dozen reviews talking about how the images are too contrasty (and I partly agree), there's a certain look to Olympus digital camera results that I just like.

Now, of course, we come to the problems. The first one is that the batteries are wonky. We use two sets of four AA NiMh batteries for the thing, different brands and ratings, but over the years they've become depleted to the point where they barely hold any charge, and anything they do hold leaks away within a few hours. I'm not sure if it's the old simple battery charger we were using or some kind of fault of the camera, so I'm reluctant to plonk down on a new set until I know for sure. Despite this we've come to understand the quirks of the unwell batteries and can squeeze two full cards worth of photos into a session through judicious use of the screen and zoom.

This brings me to the second problem, which is that two 128MB SmartMedia cards (which aren't available here anymore) don't hold that many full-quality pictures. Sure, 140 pics is still a lot more than a film camera, but on an average day out even that number can be limiting. I like to use the freedom that digital cameras give me to take many pictures of the same thing -- sometimes dozens -- then choose the best one later. The image limit takes me back to the days of 36 shot films with the developing and printing expenses. I like to plan my shots, but I don't like to obsess over choosing one over the other at the shoot itself.

The third and most frustrating problem is that the navigation buttons on the camera don't work anymore. We've been talking about giving the thing in for repairs for months, but usually some kind of weekend trip or other photo-op comes along to tempt us and our camera away. It also is neither the fastest nor the most compact piece of equipment to carry around on a day-to-day basis.

All of these factors, plus the increasing strain of two passionate photographers with just one camera between them (the last trip to India was frustrating enough with the battery issues) made one thing clear:

We needed to get a new camera!

Back in 2003, when we decided to plonk down good money for our first digicam, Samir did the hunting. I hadn't actively handled a camera since the mid nineties when we each had 10$, plastic lens focus-free 35mms. I learned pretty-much everything I know on that old lavender-coloured thing and still have tons of old photos (some of them are even taken from the even-cheaper and older 110 film camera I had when I was six). None of the shots are as experimental as the ones I take now but they were a lot of fun to take (development and film costs etc. meant that photos were precious, but we still took a roll a month, much more than most people, and certainly most 10-year-olds).

Samir had researched and fished around for all subsequent cameras, and was the primary user of them too (I was busy, addicted to my PlayStation): the all-singing, all-dancing Samsung 35mm, the Ricoh compact and the strange and beautiful Praktica MTL5 with a Zenit lens, our first and so far only SLR. We love to research stuff. It's a wonder we get any work done...

...Oh yeah, right, we don't.

He spent the better part of his free time in August 2003 looking for just the right camera, and finally we decided on the C-4000z and went out to look for it. Just wandering around the shops and looking for stuff in our price range was and is not a fruitful endeavour, which I'll expand on later.

Getting used to a digital camera after using a film camera all my life was frustrating, at first. I wasn't prepared for the enormous amount of lag between pressing the button and the taking of the shot. Where previously I'd just run my thumb over the dial quickly to advance the film -- a two second operation if I was nimble, and a one second job using the Praktica's trigger-like film advance -- the digicam would take a more glacial approach and spend 5 seconds showing me the picture, then writing it to the card, and prepping for the next one.

This is why I got into macro photography: I could use the screen to focus exactly on the part I wanted, frame things without having to worry about a discrepancy between viewfinder and lens, and hey, I could take my time -- my subject wasn't going anywhere!

As time progressed and I learnt the ins and outs of the camera, I did get a better hang of taking outdoors and relatively fast-moving shots, but a quick scan of digital camera sites over the past few years revealed that resolutions had improved; more is now squeezed into a truly pocketable form factor; higher ISO settings (faster 'film') and anti-shake technologies are now available in consumer-level compacts so taking night shots is easier; and my main quibble -- the lag between shutter release press and actual shot -- is vastly reduced.

While most people would move up and buy a bigger camera for their second purchase, a digital SLR usually, I chose to go for a compact because I needed something small, quick and versatile for everyday use. I don't want to end up lugging a massive SLR to the mall.

Having a good compact camera for everyday use is an important thing for a hobbyist and professional photographer. Contrary to popular belief we don't all like to roam around with bulging equipment, and the smaller the camera the less likely it is to warrant attention from security guards in public places (this is especially important if, like me, you are an unshaven brown man). It isn't a replacement for a large pro or 'prosumer' camera, but it is a necessity if you want to take pictures while living your everday life.