HKG214: Guest Post - Josh Has a New Toy

fireworks for national day

beautiful view of central from the top of our building

handsome kitty

livie curled up on the bus into wanchai

q looking handsome on the bus ride into wanchai

josh testing the zoom feature on our cute little kitty...he's definitely ready for his closeup!

Ni hao-dy. (booo- hissss, I know.) So, Lori asked me to guest publish to the blog tonight. Of course, I said yes, but wasn’t really sure what I would write about. Seemed to me that I should write something profound or exciting as my first post to Texpat 365, but in reality we had a fairly low-key day. The big event of the morning was we got a new toy, a Nikon P7100 digital camera. We have been shooting almost exclusively with our mobiles since we got here, and the quality of our pictures shows it.

I did my research and decided the Canon G12 was the camera for us. I checked it out at the computer mall in Wanchai near where I work. Then talked it over with Lori last night and went in with the kids this morning to buy it. The computer mall is a pretty insane shopping experience. There are 3 floors of 8X8 shops set in a labyrinth pattern with narrow hallways packed floor to ceiling with every high-tech gadget on the market. Sounds awesome, but I get a bit of sensory overload in there, but can find some really good deals. Luckily we went early enough and it was not too crowded yet. For those that follow the blog regularly, you can imagine the damage Quinn could do in a place like this. That thought did not escape me, but figured we I had already done the shopping part and we could get in and out fast enough the destruction could be kept to a minimum. All went fine pretty much until I had paid for it. The sales guy very smoothly asked why I was so determined to go with this model when I came in. I very proudly told him of the research I had done and threw out some stats about frames per second I can’t honestly say I understand. He knew. They always know! He asked how was it I had not come across the *NEW* Nikon camera? NEW?!?!? OOOOOOOHHHHH! NEW GOOD! ME LIKE NEW!!!! Why me buy 6 month old camera with great reviews and recommendations? This one new!!!

The genius to this salesman was to wait until I had already paid and had two kids running amuck. A high risk move, as I could have walked out with my camera I had purchased, but he knew. They always know. The price difference was not dramatic, so I don’t feel too bad about it and so far I am very pleased with the shots. Check them out below. I still have not got all the setting down, but beats the hell out of my iphone camera.