Au revoir, mon petit

Earlier this month, on January 8th, I bought a used Canon PowerShot G9 from a professional wedding photographer in Ottawa. For me, this represented the next step up, in several functional respects, from the Canon PowerShot S80 I bought on May 12, 2006 (the first real accounting it gave of itself can be read here), not quite two years ago.

Well, as a result of that purchase, about a week ago I offered the S80 to fellow photographic enthusiast P-Doug. I did it for a number of reasons, but they all basically branch from the fact that the S80 would basically be sitting around doing nothing from now on. The limbs were: I wanted to gain some remuneration; I wanted the camera to remain "in action"; and P-Doug is a friend with photographic experience spanning decades. All-told, it's where the camera needed to be.

In August of 2005 I sold P-Doug my Kodak DC4800 for pretty much all the same reasons when I replaced that camera with the Rebel XT. I've been with him any number of times he's had that camera along on various hikes and tours, and I know he's made good use of it... about as much as I did, given it's not the kind of camera you can carry around with you on a daily basis. But the S80 is a pocket camera in spades, so his output may rise exponentially. We'll see.

When I made the offer a week ago I was sincere, but I nearly immediately regretted it. The S80 was, all things considered, easily the camera I've made the most use of in all my life. For over a year and a half it was pretty much a constant companion, worn on my hip in a fanny pack, rain, shine, snow and whatever. Dozens of gigs of memory are dedicated to containing its output. Today, I went to a local watering hole P-Doug and I favour and I handed the dear thing over. It's now in good expert hands. I know it's silly personifying stuff like this but I can't help it. That camera was essentially part of me for 20 months... it was my eyes and memory. Sorry to say, but it's hard to turn my back on all that and leave it behind even for money.