Digital Camera: Purchase

I spent a lot of time recently researching a digital camera to buy. This post is really just my notes / narrative of what I did for future reference for me (or others). Trust me, you don't want to bother reading this!

I did a bunch of research on the web and called around to find the best deal on the Canon Powershot a75 I wanted. Eventually I realized that the most I could save over buying at my local camera superstore, B&H, was around $30. And saving anything required buying online. Paying $30 extra dollars to buy locally from a reputable merchant (rather than an sketchy internet discounter) and deal locally with issues and have a satisfaction guaranteed return policy seemed like a reasonable tradeoff to me.

So I bought it, and a 256 megabyte flash card ($44). (Online wouldn't save me any money on this and a smaller 128 megabyte flash card was only $9 dollars cheaper.)

B&H is a really cool place. It's run by a lot of orthodox jews. Trust me, the yamakas, the beards, the noses, the clothes all give it away. All they sell is photographic/video/lighting/seeing (e.g., telescopes, binoculars) products. And they sell anything you'd ever want in these areas. They have so many helpers in the store -easily over 50 not counting the cashiers and doormen- each of which is an expert in a particular product line for a particular manufacturer. When buying, I talked to someone who was an expert in Canon digital cameras. I overheard a discussion that lead me to believe the experts are actually approved and/or trained by the manufacturer they are responsible for, in addition to being trained by B&H.

But that's not the only cool thing about B&H. You don't buy products directly in the store. You pick what you want and then they deliver it from elsewhere (the basement? upstairs?). The delivery mechanism is a set of rollers near the ceiling that push boxes around, also with some under the floor and a few tiny elevator like things. And they also have similar lines running around the store with hooks upon which items are transported. When leaving the store, you go to one line and pay, and another to pick up the items you selected which magically appear together in your shopping bag near the exit.

I'd go in and take some pictures of all this but they're really paranoid about people stealing stuff and going in with a digital camera would be difficult.