The digital camera saga (Part 1)

After Christmas 2004, I was faced replacing a defective digital camera I had bought for my girlfriend. Originally it was a bit of an impulse purchase, since I hadn't expected to find that exact camera at Target. The manufactuer of the camera NHJ makes a number of small inexpensive digital cameras most of which are marketed in Japan. Two distributors here in the U.S. are able to get them, and Target is one of these companies. There's no doubt it's a cheap camera, but it's definitely the case that name brands always sell in the $400-$200 range and not a penny less. NHJ runs in the $150-$50 range using less expensive CMOS imaging chips, and lithium polymer rechargeable batteries. These two things have always been the biggest selling points. LOW POWER is what it's all about for me. When I want to take a picture, I never worry about how low the battery is. The battery on these cameras never run out completely, no matter how many flash pictures you take. And until NHJ, none of the low end cameras included an LCD preview screen. For someone who isn't a photographer and doesn't already own a digital camera, a nice low end entry into photography would be ANY NHJ camera.

And better yet! If you don't use the camera as much as you think you should or if you drop it and break it,... Big Deal! Get another camera. I can buy 4 NHJ cameras for the price of one small and thin Casio Exilim style camera. In fact the first camera I bought was a Logitech Pocket Digital (CMOS and Lithium Polymer Battery). I had it one year, then dropped it in the snow, ruining the camera. I paid $129 for that camera. The next generation camera (higher Rez) cost $99. So I bought one immediately from Amazon.com. I arrived in two days. I'm a big fan of this form factor which has been championed by a company called SmalCamera. They make the guts of all these cameras and resell that "kit" to people like Radio Shack, Logitech and NHJ who put all the industrial design goodness around the Printed Circuit Boards.

I had been considering buying an NHJ camera, but I didn't want to go to Target to look for it. I didn't even want to try buying it off of their website, I disliked the idea of Target the same way I disliked the idea of Walmart. Big box, low entry price goods made in China, is not my idea of a company I want to do business with. But on the Friday after Thanksgiving 2004 my Mom and my Girlfriend decided they wanted to go to Walmart. So I decided to go for it. I was going to try and find the NHJ Che-ez! Foxz2 digital camera at this store near where my Mom lives (Ithaca, NY). At first I walked around and around the case where all the cameras sat. I kept looking for the $100 cameras, there weren't any in the case. I didn't feel like talking to the salesperson either. I was too embarrased really. "Who would buy a $100 digital camera?" Right. So I gave up, and purchased some gifts I found and waited for my Mom and girlfriend to show up in the check out lines. I waited a while, then got the idea, maybe I should look again.

I walked back to the Electronics dept., and this time walked up and down the aisles. This time I found the film cameras, and right next to them was hanging on peg hooks the very camera I had been looking for. In fact they had a NUMBER of different NHJ cameras there, and about 4 of the Foxz2. I was elated, and immediately bought the camera and ran up to the check out line, making sure no one saw me buying it, because my intention was to give it to my girlfriend. She wanted a camera, never really had a good film camera, and now my whole plan was coming together. She was the perfect candidate for this camera. I was able to sneak out to the check out lines without seeing my girlfriend or my Mom. So I was set, with my surprise gift, ready to spring forth on Christmas day.

When my Mom and girlfriend finally showed up at the checkout lines, I was already waiting. I was going to get away with this whole unplanned surprise gift. But when I went to leave, the RFID (radio frequency ID) tag set off the alarm. I froze, I thought ohmigod, my girlfriend is going to see the F'ing camera because security will need to search the bag. I was thinking at a million miles per hour, what to say to the Security guard, I wanted to do the search out of sight of my girlfriend so she wouldn't see the gift. What happened was the checkout girl hadn't erased the RFID tag when I had bought one of the gifts. It was still active, and now I was in danger of being accused of shop-lifting.

The guard came over and wanted to see the receipt. And I was going, oh god, oh god, don't make me take everything out of the bag. Some how she determined that the computer game I bought my brother was the offending object. So she let me cut into the line at the service desk to get the RFID tag erased. Whew! That was close, so close. After that no problem smooth sailing the rest of the day. Now,... cut to Christmas Day.