Sight to Insight

Chasing technology is like chasing the sunset as a photographer. Just as you thought you had the best picture on sunset, another one with more vibrant color will overtake it. Fuji has just announced four new cameras, of which two of them were what I was about to purchase. These are the Fuji 300EXR and Z800EXR replacing 200EXR and Z700EXR respectively. The 300EXR has an optical zoom of 15x, and a wide angle of 24mm! The specifications are very tempting. Well they have not been released yet in Singapore. Given the practice that Fuji always underprices Lumix and Sony, this buy is definitely on my radar screen. Today, iPad is also released by the three telcos in Singapore. I don't believe I will go the "Apple" way. More than likely, I will be picking up yet another Samsung with Android 2.1 as the operating system. Why not Apple? Perhaps it is my non-conformist attitude or perhaps I don't like the fact, you are not allowed to change the battery, and even to put in the SIM ...

I am in the process of buying another point and shoot. I have Fuji in mind. These models are 80EXR and Z700EXR. The former is a 10x optical zoom while the latter is 5x but with a 3.5" touch scream. Initially the prices on the market were S$539 and S$449 respectively. When I check with a low cost accredited vendor, the prices were $399 and $339 respectively without the 7% GST. The pricing is rather surprisingly different. This makes the purchase even more attractive. Is the camera what I should be spending money on, or shouldn't I spend it on the Samsung Galaxy with a iFlex plan costing around S$49 monthly payment and about S$148 on the phone? Wouldn't this give me more pleasure in surfing? I have already 3 working cameras (Pentax K7, Fuji s100fs and Fuji J250), and it doesn't make sense to buy one more. I have a Sony videocam which I don't even use now! It doesn't make sense to buy another camera, come to think about it. Perhaps I should focus on the phone upgr...