A Gift From Me To Me

What a lovely time I've  had in London!  I'd been planning a trip to the John Lewis flagship store in order to at least look at cameras, if not to buy one, and today was the day.

First of all, though, I met up with my BBC producer friend Cheryl at the Photographers' Gallery near Oxford Street, and we had a wonderfully animated conversation about blip, photography and what inspires and motivates us to take pictures.  It was Cheryl who first introduced me to blipfoto.  Afterwards, I went into Broadcasting House with her and popped my head round the door of the workshop she'd booked to say hello to my former team-mate Tim.  I immediately spotted that his SADiE mixing computer had an ominously black screen with machine code written on it in white lettering...  This is one of the main reasons I don't miss work now that I'm retired - the often unreliable I.T. at the BBC regularly drove me to the edge of despair!  It was great to snatch some brief chats with several of my old BBC chums and work-mates, but I'm even more sure than ever that leaving when I did was the best thing for me.

Outside on the Piazza, I wandered past a live radio broadcast of BBC London 94.9 where Roland Gift, former singer with 80's band Fine Young Cannibals, was just starting to perform a new track called 'The Prisoner'.  He had his very laid-back dog Jay with him for the Barking Hour section of the Jo Good show.

I finally made it to John Lewis, and braved the clearance sale crowds to thoroughly quiz a salesman in the audio/visual department about two or three Compact System Cameras.  Having enjoyed using my Panasonic bridge camera for the past five years, I'd more or less decided to get a Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7, but was torn between that and the Sony A6000.  Both were a similar price, and both had £50 cashback offers on them.  Still undecided, I went down to the Coffee Shop and read several comparison reviews of the two cameras over a (free) latte and cake for an hour or so.  To my surprise, I eventually left the store having bought the Sony.  There are pro's and con's for both cameras, but in the end I didn't like the feel of the Panasonic in my hands - the grip was too small, making it feel as if it might slip from my grasp.  The Sony has a bigger and better grip, is a bit lighter, and for me the wheels and buttons are in just the right place for everything to fall to hand easily.

So the first part of my retirement gift to myself is at long last in the bag, and I have an exciting new toy to play with.  Next stop, a long-overdue replacement for my tired and out-of-date laptop.  And then, of course, there are extra lenses and a case and tripod to choose.....