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Mirror, mirror on the wall, reflecting the door on the restroom stall.
It's a sunny day in Austin. The high today is predicted to be 82° Fahrenheit. T-shirt weather. Birkenstock weather. Rangefinder with 21mm weather! And that was my plan. I grabbed the same camera off the desk that I used on a different walk yesterday, got in the car and headed over to the UT campus to meander around, photograph and reminisce about my long years there as, first a student and then a Specialist Lecturer in the College of Fine Arts. I was looking forward to seeing the crowds of students crossing the streets with cellphones firmly in hand. The perfect landscaping of the University. So easy to do when budgets are infinite and local labor is cheap. I was also looking forward to having a nice coffee at Medici Caffé. Right there on the main drag. Just across from campus.
I parked my car at a metered space about a half mile from the epicenter of my destination, tossed my camera onto my shoulder and meandered through the side streets and into the campus flow. Then I saw a great scene appear in front of me. A majestic building with an unending line of students passing in front. I turned the camera on and looked at the rear screen for confirmation of life only to find the dreaded notice on the LCD: "Warning! No memory card inserted !!!" and just like that the air came out of the fun balloon of my afternoon. Hard to take photographs, even with a Leica, if there is no memory card plugged into the card slot.
It wasn't the end of world. It wasn't a job. No one I can think of was depending on me to inject some sort of new brilliance into the world of photography. But I was crestfallen because, well, I like to get things right and I hate it when I screw up the basics. I usually recharge the battery of the camera when I get home from a walk or a shoot. I usually download from the memory card the images I've taken as soon as I get home. And, as soon as I download images (automatically backed up to a second HD...) I re-format the card and stick it back in the camera for next time. But, yesterday we were in a rush to meet people for dinner at a favorite restaurant and I broke with habit. Now to my chagrin... and embarrassment.
I re-learn stuff all the time. After I wrote that last paragraph I scrounged around and found five or six slightly older 64 GB SDII cards, put them in an appropriate container and stuck them into the center console of the car. Now, if I'm willing to circle back to the car to correct this kind of oversight in the future, they will be there waiting for me.
It's a pretty safe bet that I'm not the first photographer to trip over my own lack of attention to details. And it's not the first time I've left the house and gone somewhere only to find that either the memory card or the extra battery for the camera didn't complete whatever journey I planned. Never came along for the ride. But it's rare enough that I'd say it only happens once every five years or so.
The other potential oversight/stumble usually involves either camera batteries or flash batteries. Nothing like going out on a cold day with a digital camera, watching the battery level gauge drop minute by minute as the chill wind cuts through your thin, cheap, Texas gloves and only then realizing that the poor battery in your camera is flying solo. Once it's done its best and given its all your shooting day is over. Done. Makes one long for the old days of film when many cameras ran on double "A" batteries or were so totally mechanical they could be used without batteries. One less point of failure. Of course, those were the "good old days" when we might have assumed that there was a fresh roll of 36 exposure film in our camera only to find, while seeing the most beautiful, potential image imaginable, that your camera's frame counter stopped counting about 50 frames ago ---- because there was no film n the camera. There's always something that can go wrong.
While it's easy to get frustrated by these small roadblocks that the universe sometimes conjures up to keep us on our toes my response today was to shrug my shoulders and continue on to the coffee shop for that perfect latté. At that point I really did consider my Leica as just expensive jewelry.
Chateau somewhere just outside of Paris proper.
In full costumes to amuse the American corporate clients
that paid a king's ransom to party in style...
The Champagne and caviar flowed like...whatever.
If you went to Paris with an Olympus Pen FT camera and your camera's
meter battery died you could still shoot the 72 frames on your roll of film
without issue. All the better if you were shooting color negative film and
you were smart enough to figure out ballpark exposures....
Same in Mexico City or Venice.
Louvre. Is that a spiral staircase or just
swirly bokeh?
On the streets of Madrid. Across from the Prado.
Boat racing in the Jardin de Luxembourg.
Question: It is "upgrading" if you are adding a new camera but not getting rid of your current camera?
Can one "upgrade" from a newer camera to an older one?
Is it okay to just own both?
9 comments:
As long as things don’t get out of hand, it’s fine to own both the camera you own and the camera you are “upgrading” to. Even if it’s an older camera. The point is to enjoy yourself. Forget the old saying “The one who dies with the most toys wins.” It’s more like “The one who has the most fun wins.”
Everything would have turned out just fine had you brought the M11 or M11-P ! ;-) I think more pro-level cameras should come with built in memory.
I wish all cameras, not just the “happy few,” were designed with at least 64 gigabytes of embedded memory. Too late now, I’m afraid: the data centers are gobbling up the chips, and prices are increasing.
Twice in my life I have gone out and had a battery die after a short time and then find that my cleverly included backup battery was also dead. Talk about slinking home, tail fully tucked.
Early forecasts a week ago hinted that we'd be above freezing for a couple of days this week but mother nature had other ideas. It will be at least another month before I can swap out the winter tires.
So far, I've never forgotten to put in a memory card mostly because I rarely remove them from the camera. It's heresy I know, but I download via USB connector. Is that as bad as leaving the lens hood on backwards while shooting, because I never do that.
I have run out of battery once or twice however. I now have a system: charged batteries in my right side pocket, discharged ones on the left. It's embarrassing how long it took me to master this.
What has worked for me is when I remove the card from the camera, I always put the camera down upside down.
Kirk, I follow the same procedure as you do--recharge battery, download images on card, etc. So far so good but I know I'm gonna screw up eventually. I almost always do.
I never thought much about cameras with two card slots. But that is a handy place to keep a spare card.
I never take the memory card out of my cameras. I just transfer to the computer using a USB cord.
Being absent minded, I leave the memory card door open on the camera and the camera on the bench until I put the memory card back in. The same with the battery. That way, I notice something is amiss when I pickup the camera.
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