Samsung Digimax A402 Digital Camera

After years of painstaking and detailed research, I have purchased a digital camera.

Yeah, right. I researched nothing. I asked a few relatives who bought digital cameras long ago, but in fact I just walked into WalMart last night, saw a reasonable camera at a reasonable price ($126.00) and bought it. I learned how to use it at a basic level in a few minutes, and am happy enough.

I actually did buy a cheap ($40.00) digital a few years ago. It took awful pictures, had a clunky serial interface that failed more often than it worked, and I soon filed it away as being just too much trouble. I knew I wanted something much better, but I wasn't about to pay $300.00 or more for something that is more convenience than necessity. I wanted to wait till the prices came down, and they of course have.

My needs are modest. I mostly need this for web work, and especially for my http://aplawrence.com/">Geek Yard Sale. This model has two focus settings, and the .2 meter for close work is just about right for my web site needs. I don't need fine detail - I'm not selling coins, stamps or fine art, so this is good enough. My other need now and then is to document something at a job site, and again the quality is plenty good enough for that use too. I wish I had it a few weeks ago when my wife and I were looking at model homes; it's hard for us to remember all the options we were interested in.

You can read specs at http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/camera/specification/889/show.html if you care. I'm sure there's a dozen other models with similar or even better features, but this seemed to be the best Walmart had at that moment at that price level. They did have some less expensive models too, but they seemed too limited. This has features I doubt I need (like audio and movie recording), but so what?

I was happy to see that upon plugging the included USB cable into my Mac, iPhoto fired right up, mounted the camera, and offered to import the pictures. Zero brain work required, which is always a plus for old geezers like me.

In closing, I recommend this camera in a generic sense. That is, if you are like me and are not camera savvy (what's an f-stop?), these things are now simple enough and inexpensive enough to be worth owning, as long as your requirements are modest. No doubt if your requirements are not simple, you have already bought some whiz bang digital or film camera that has its own Mensa membership, so you will sneer in the most disdainful manner possible: these toys are not for you.

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