Cameras for Greece Page 1

Cameras for Greece are nice except when there are electric cables strung all over the best vantage points. Has that ever happened to you too? If its a major site they have to light it up and usually do a pretty good landscaping job. But if its in a populated area there may be tram lines or street light lines or some other utility in the way of a nice clean picture. This is Hadrian's arch on the left after they gussied it all up for the games. For years it had scaffolding around it as did the Acropolis. That's gone too, at least for the moment!

I read in the Athens News, Letters to the Editor Dept., that power lines are disfiguring Evia from the wind generating plants that have sprung up there. Some poor ex-pat named James Brown wrote in about an "endless stream of of electricity pylons/cabling disfiguring the mountainside." James obviously has soul and cares about the environment and so do the folks up in Brussels as they are taking Greece to task for three different environmental issues. (When I say task I mean court). Ahem! The beaches are still the cleanest in Europe however! Praise the Apostles for that!

This power line area must be where the real photographers among us prove their mettle or metier? Perhaps they hire helicopters or have a better lens than I do? Maybe not. Do digital cameras have good lenses? Mine is supposed to be good, but its got a small fixed lens. Is it just me or are they hard to hold steady? Keep your arms tucked in? Lean on something? A full sized tri-pod is a pain to lug around but how about those mini-tri-pods I see for sale in the camera shop windows on Stournari St. in Exarhia? I might buy one of those. The light is strong in Greece too so shadows can be a problem and getting on the proper side of the subject not always easy.

I am toying with the the idea of a digital camera with interchangeable lenses. Bear in mind that if you are going to be posting images to the internet you don't want or need really high resolution. 72 dpi is standard. Maybe I should get serious about photography and buy a new Nikon or Canon EOS digital camera that boasts interchangeable lenses? Lenses are extra no doubt. Can I afford minimum 1,000 eu to get started? Maybe If I wait the price will go down and for crying out loud, I already own 3 digital cameras.

My first camera is great and I may switch back to it except that the others are smaller and easier to tote around. I bought all three in the US by the way because there is more competition in the US.

Camera no.1 is a an older Sony Mavica and the only digital camera to use 3.5" floppy discs as storage medium. I haven't paid a dime for film or development in years. Cant say as I miss it either. No $35 to 150$ memory cards required . The 3.5 ' floppies sometimes jam up however, particularly if you don't put them back in the box during storage. Occasionally you get a bum one too. A major drag if you took some nice photos.

At "medium" quality I get about 40 to 45 digital photos per floppy and half that at "fine". I can't up grade the floppy disc like I can the memory cards the other two newer cameras I have require.

Floppy discs are cheap too but they pile up physically and need to be stored! This older mavica Sony is simple, box like, the size of an old style Kodak and seems to want to keep working. Sony on line has a newer even bigger one if you are interested.

It still wont fit in my pocket though and that's bad.

Cameras Page II