New camera

Anyone who reads this blog knows that my recent train-chase in Altoona was a disaster.
It seemed anything that could go wrong, went wrong.
My beloved Nikon D100 digital camera, at least 10 years old, went dark.
That is, the image in the viewfinder went dark, finally completely dark. Plus the image-files recorded on the memory-chip also went dark.
Here I am 280 miles from my camera-store with -a) a defective camera, or -b) I inadvertently hit a magic button.
We borrowed the camera of my bed-and-breakfast’s proprietor, but it too went defective, or so it seemed.
Whatever, I was no longer able to take photos with it.
Plus it started thunder-storming.
Light that morning had been fabulous; not a cloud in the sky.
But then my camera went dark, and it started to cloud up.
As the day progressed we were dodging deluges; the clouds turned into thunderstorms.
I remember shooting from under a highway overpass to avoid a deluge, except by then my borrowed camera had also failed.
So back home I took my suspect camera back to where I bought it, but they too had failed. They were outta business.
A photographer friend recommended Rowe Photographic, a place I previously avoided.
They were too successful, but they were all that was left.
Rowe said repair of my D100 might cost $400.
For some time I’ve been considering an upgrade, except my D100 did very well.
Nikon marketed a series of upgrades to the D100, the D200, the D300, the D3000, and now the D7000. (There might have been others.)
It’s still pretty much the same camera, with more resolution in the sensor, and a much larger image-display.
Now, with my suspect D100, I had an excuse to consider upgrade.
So the other day, Monday July 9, long past my D100 failing, I went to Rowe Photographic.
“Before I start, there are two things you should know,” I said.
“First, I had a stroke long ago, so I might have to ask you to repeat things to make sense of what you said.
Secondly, my wife died a few months ago, so I might just all-of-a-sudden start crying.”
I then explained my D100 failing.
“But I’ve always wanted to upgrade,” I added.
“But any upgrade has to be similar to my D100, and it would just be a camera-body. It has to accommodate all my lenses.” I had my lenses with me. I only have three: a normal, a wide-angle, and a strong telephoto. They are all zoomers.
I hemmed and I hawed, asking stupid questions.
Finally I asked about damages, what a new body would cost.
“$1,079, no trade.
We’ll never be able to sell a D100, and it needs repair.”
“Let’s do it!” I said.
“I was expecting you to say $3,000 or more,” I added.
“For $3,000 I woulda just fixed my D100.
$1,079 is a good price.”
“Right,” the salesman said. “It’s a win-win situation. The prices of cameras are coming down, but the cameras keep getting better.”
All my lenses fit the D7000. About the only difference is the D7000 doesn’t have a threaded shutter-button for a cable shutter-trip.
“The D100 is the only Nikon that had that,” the salesperson said.
I have to trip the shutter by hand when I have the telephoto on the camera-body on a shoulder-grip.
So now I have a new camera-body to figure out, and my wife having died I’m not awash in confidence.
In fact, I’d say I don’t have any confidence at all.
But the D7000 is a lot like my old D100, which I drove fairly well.

• I had a stroke October 26, 1993, from which I pretty much recovered.
• My beloved wife of 44 years died of cancer April 17, 2012. She was 68. I miss her dearly.