Nine months ago (yikes!), I was an idiot and left my camera at a bus stop on my way to work. Ever since then, I’ve been using a camera that my friend Rick very kindly let me borrow until I could afford a new camera of my own. Well, it looks like that day may be coming pretty soon — I’m getting a new camera for free!
My current job has me staffing a facilities management (FM) site — running a small on-site copy facility for a company’s local offices. There’s been an ongoing contest for the past few months among all the various FM sites that we run for this company (they operate in a number of states) for the most number of positive customer comments. Each FM site was to send in any customer comments they received, good and bad, and the site with the best ratio of positive comments to income (to keep smaller single-person sites like mine on an even keel with larger, busier facilities elsewhere) wins.
Well, I got a call from our local account manager this morning letting me know that we won! Not only did we win, but it was a virtual shutout: our site got somewhere around 120 positive comments (no word on how many negative comments there were, but I know I haven’t seen any), and from what she told me, all the other sites got zero. Apparently, for some reason, while we were passing out comment cards and following up with customers to make sure their jobs were done correctly and on time, the rest of the sites just didn’t bother to participate in the contest. Seems more than a little bizarre to me, but I’m hardly going to complain!
So next Wednesday, I’ll be heading out to have a little celebration after work at one of the local happy hours with my manager and our account manager, and at some point in the near future, I’ll get my prize — a new digital camera!
Of course, seeing as how I’m a greedy little self-centered sod who’s never satisfied with anything, I’m wondering if I can manage to do myself just a little bit better. According to the flyer announcing the contest from a few months ago, the camera in question is a Nikon Coolpix 3200. Now, it doesn’t look like a bad camera, but is has gotten a few troubling user reviews on DPReview. Also, it apparently comes without a memory card, and the memory cards it uses are SD/MMC, while I have a couple of CompactFlash cards (including one 256Mb) here that I’d hate to have to replace with something else.
What I’m wondering is if there are any local business (Best Buy or something similar) that will take a receipt-less “return” of an un-opened box — this is the Christmas present season, after all — in exchange for a sale on a slightly better camera in the same rough price range (letting me pay the difference if the target camera is slightly more expensive). Since the current retail for the Coolpix 3200 is in the $200 range, I figure I could get one of the mid-range Canon Powershot series for just a fairly minor out-of-pocket cost — if there’s a place that will let me do this, of course.
Any ideas? If not, I’m certainly not going to turn my nose up at being handed a free camera, even if it’s not everything I might want! No matter what, it’ll be nice to have a camera of my own again.
“See My Ships” by Violent Femmes from the album 3 (1989, 3:17).
CJ
Brandon
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Wow, that’s wonderful! Congratulations on both fronts!
You know how I feel about Canon’s cameras, so I wholeheartedly encourage you to see if you can make a switch. You might also consider asking the powers-that-be if they would be willing to purchase the camera you want if you pay the cost difference. Of course, if they have the camera already, this won’t be an option, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask. If they’ve already purchased it, maybe you can ask where and try making the exchange.
Either way, I look forward to seeing more photos from you! this sounds like a great way to start your weekend!
hugs
and, push come to shove, you could post it on ebay and take the cashback and apply it toward the camera of your choosing. it would mean keeping rick’s minolta for a bit longer, but then you’ve expressed an admiration for the way the minolta works in low-level light so it’s not that bad a camera to keep around a bit longer since we’ve got plenty of dark days ahead.
ps - i like what you’ve done with the comments preview.
Wonderfful, Mike!!!
Im a very happy owner of a 7mpx Powershot S70 (I owned before a S50).
I suggest you going for a S60 (aprox. $350), or if you are not “a so serious photographer”, go for the A95.
Trade up if you can.
I have a Minolta Dimage 7i that you’re welcome to try out and see how you like it. It’s been my work horse and I AVERAGE over a thousand pictures a month and have done so since the day I bought it. (and it works with two different flash cards)The flash also works off camera so you can position it where ever you want.
Unfortunately, trading up isn’t looking like a possibility — or at least, not a simple one. I called all of the big retailers around here yesterday, and nobody will take a return without a receipt (which I’m not likely to have, obviously).
It looks like the only option would be to try and sell it via eBay and hope for a good price, but I’ve never dealt with eBay, so I’m not sure how easy/likely it is for that to work out well (not only am I fairly unfamiliar with the whole thing, but as a first-time seller I’d have no rating, and I’m not sure how much that might affect things).
Much as I’d like a better camera than the Coolpix 3200 (though it’d still be in the $300 price range of the Canon Powershot series, rather than the $800 range of the Minolta Dimage), I’m thinking I may just stick with it and have it as an everyday, keep in the pocket knockabout camera, and keep saving for a higher-end camera eventually (though at the rate I’m going, that’s still years down the road).
Continuing the Discussion