bye to an old friend, hello to a new one · i have a minolta srt-201 slr ttl camera that i bought in 1978 when i took up photography. it's completely manual, the way i like it, and it's been an awesome camera for over twenty years. i spent a few hours the other day shooting the fall foliage around here with it. when i got the pictures back i was devastated. the camera's shutter mechanism appears to be malfunctioning. i could probably get it repaired, but for months now i've been thinking about getting serious about digital photography. my current digital camera is nice, but it's a 1 megapixel totally instamatic jobber. i had never really planned to use it for serious photography, but i found myself using it more and more and more and ... well, you get it.

my research over the past few months had narrowed my choices down to about three cameras. after a great conversation yesterday with the owner of my local camera shop, i opted for the canon powershot g1. he had one in stock, his last, and gave it to me almost at cost as the g2's will be on their way shortly. i'm dying to try it out. i'll post pics soon.