My secondhand new toy

Went to Glasgow today to look at cameras. My 11-year-old Nikon D50 has a mirror problem and the catch for the flash has also broken, so I thought it time to replace it. 

I'd spent countless hours on the Net, looking at reviews and then asking friends in the Photo Club, but couldn't come to a conclusion. Every owner and reviewer has a different point of view and a different use for the camera and I got nowhere.

Eventually I found a place in Glasgow called Calumet Photographic - just changed their name to Wex Photographic, as one does - and they told me that on Saturday they would have a Nikon expert in the shop, so that's where I went today.

When I explained that I was just a keen amateur and was looking for an updated, but fairly basic camera, he suggested that I buy a good used one and recommended a D7100 that happened to be in the cabinet. It was just on the edge of my financial limit so when I spotted a D7000, the previous model, on the shelf above it for £200 less I asked about it. He immediately said that had he known it was there he would have thought that better suited to my needs - after all, I didn't really need WiFi! The fact that he was keen to sell me a cheaper camera made me feel that this was a genuine suggestion. So I bought it, and he told me that if I had serious doubts about it in the next couple of weeks he would refund the purchase price and find me another one. I'm impressed with the manual - 325 pages long and all in English! So fingers crossed, this will be the last Blip from my Sony bridge!

Oh, the Blip! I paid a visit to rather gloomy Glasgow Botanic Garden on the way home and took a few pictures both inside and out. This one is of one of my favourite trees and a wonderful specimen in its own right. It's Kalopanax pictus, a very hardy and picturesque tree in the ivy family from far eastern Asia, growing beside the famous Kibble Palace. You can see its foliage and fruit here.