Cameraman

Not my camera I hasten to add. This is Scamp's new camera - a TZ35. Looks really quite good. Lots of tweaks and toys in the firmware and a fair spec into the bargain.

Got it in John Lewis and was entertained by possibly the worst sales pitch I've ever heard for a camera. The lady sales person was trying to sell a Canon DSLR to a customer. She started with the disclaimer that "this camera doesn't have Image Stabilization". When the customer asked what that was, she responded with "Well if you are taking a photo and the shutter speed is set to open for a long while you're going to get a lot of blurryness. Unless you've got a tripod, but if you've got a tripod and you've got image stabilization you're going to get even more blurriness". Confused? I was.

I used to like Jessops years ago. You got sales assistants there who knew about cameras and photography. Then they went all commercial and only employed people who could shift stock without knowing a thing about it. Lately, after the Peter Jones Jessops, the good folk are back and the sales sharks have gone. It looks like John Lewis are at phase 2 in the same scenario. Non photogs trying to sell cameras after attending an afternoon session on Photography with the ubiquitous death by powerpoint.

Anyway, I went away thankful that I haven't got image stabilization, because it would screw up my tripod photos.

365/33