Messin with the new camera.

The new camera did arrive yesterday, and it is a good news and not so good news deal.  The good news was that it was not damaged in its long trip from Hong Kong, and it worked just as it should have when I finally got the battery charged and the strap fastened on.

But, I have to report that the company pulled a fast one on me, because they said it had a USA warranty. But they didn't say it had a USA warranty card!  Because they drop shipped it from Hong Kong, it is the international version, and comes with all the funny overseas electric plugs to plug in to foreign countries plugs.

The USA warranty is a card that says that Simply Electronics.com will warrant that the camera is free from defects for one year.  That is about as good as having no warranty at all.  Nikon USA will not honor that for a minute, and may not work on the camera ever, since they didn't import or sell it.  I should pack the thing up and send it back to the company, but I just don't feel like going thru the fight.

So, I am on the trust that it will continue to work for the first year.  The panasonic didn't make it a year, but then that is probably my fault.  Lets hope I can do a better job with this one, because it is a whole lot more money!

And because several of you have ranted about owners manuals, I did get a paper manual, and a DVD with the big owners manual on it.   The paper manual is about 70 pages and does a quick overview of the various settings and menus.  But it does not go into depth on each of the various selections and options.  That is what the DVD is for.

So when I just need to find a setting in the menus, the paper booklet will do that for me.  But if I need an in depth review of all the options under that setting with the lengthy explanations, its on the DVD.   I guess I am OK with that, because it is a whole lot lighter to carry in the camera bag, and it is a rare time indeed that I am without my laptop.  (Never!)

I could go on for several days about all the stuff this camera does, but perhaps I wouldn't have any readers left, so lets just say it takes 16 mega pixel pictures with oodles of scene settings as presets.  It is more consumer oriented than professional, but does have all the full manual settings as well if you have to be in control of your F stop and shutter speed.  Or if you like to use program mode you can just adjust the Exposure Values.

It has several flash mode sync settings so you can do stuff like slow flash and rear curtain blur flash to streak movement either in front or behind the object that is moving. Also, because it is consumer oriented, it does video at 1080P at 30 FPS.  And new to this camera over the D90, it will auto focus while it is taking a video.  So it is a complete high def video camera.

And best of all it uses the lenses that I already own from the last DSLR.  And that is good because you can spend a bunch of money on those quite quickly.  Enough of the camera........

Today I went back after the Camry in the middle of the afternoon, and even though they said it was done, they hadn't changed out the bright molding around the windows.  They were still all dented up just like the hail left them.  Replacing them was clearly on the estimate from the insurance company, and they had been paid the money to do it.  So I had to gripe!!!

Oh,  we must have forgotten those....... we normally don't do that kind of work....... we'll have to order those..........  maybe you can bring it back next week......I lost track of the excuses.  But folks, if you take on the work, that means you are going to do it doesn't it?  They got all the money, so I may never get the new moldings.  I just don't trust folks too well any more.......  Oh well, give them the chance to do it right.

The hail had broken a place in the windshield, but the insurance company had called it a rock strike and wouldn't fix it.  So I went over to the glass place and asked if it was hail or a rock strike, and unlike the insurance adjuster, they said it could be either since many really hard frozen hail stones will leave a point of impact just like a rock.  This is a small ding about the size of a half pence so they put the pressure machine on it and filled it with the repair goop.  And then they billed the whole thing to the insurance company!!!  Go figure.  I think the insurance folks didn't want to buy me a new windshield since the deductable is usually as much as the entire window.  So by declining to cover it they knew I would go get it repaired and then bill them anyway.  Man the games we have to play.

And then later tonight I rode the motorscooter over to study phones some more at the T Mobile store.  Loyce needs a newer phone and her contract is up.  But remember she dunked her phone and is using a little no contract Samsung with the sim card out of the ruined phone.  I came away more confused than before I went in.  We will have to talk about it before we make a final decision.

This is long enough, I didn't mean to write a book!

Retired Rod

And thanks for the well wishes about loosing Biscuit.  We thought she was a goner, and our hearts were very heavy.  And here she was in the bedroom all along.....

I have to repost Al's comment from yesterday because he has such a way with words,

"I know that terrible feeling in one's heart when you suddenly realize a pet is missing. It's a heart stopping moment to see an open gate, a door ajar or an empty collar at the end of an outside leash. I know the fear, frustration, self doubt & anguish driving around looking for a beloved Pal. I know that hopeless sinking feeling inside as hours pass. And, I also know that euphoric feeling inside when a little bark or whimper is heard, a wagging tail is seen & a priceless treasure is re-found. So glad for all three of you that your long day had a happy ending:))"

Thanks Al