Bye Bye KM5D

The first digital camera I owned was a Canon S10, a compact camera I picked up in 1999 at a crazily expensive cost of $1.5K (ouch). That was followed by a better prouser digicam, the Minolta DiMAGE 7 in 2002 with an uber optical 7X zoom.

The S10 took OK pictures but had a short battery life of around a few dozen pictures (!). The DiMAGE 7 was a great camera with a 250mm focal length reach, but battery use was flaky. A fresh set of NiMH batteries could either last me for 300, or 10 shots depending on the camera’s mood for the day. In 2004, there was also a pocket Nikon Coolpix 2200 that Ling put into her handbag to take all those foodie pictures you see in this blog. The Nikon camera completely died last year – RIP.

I finally got it right with the fourth digicam in 2006, the Konica-Minolta Maxxum 5D, which incidentally was also my first DSLR. It was a terrifically reliable camera with great controls, feel, and light weight too. Ok so the camera shutter made a huge racket whenever I triggered a shot but all that whirling sounds when I powered it on to the kit 18-70mm lens’ focusing noise was sort of reassuring. The camera accompanied us on a few trips overseas too, including our Honeymoon in South-Korea, then to Pulau Medang, and to Pulau Rawa. All of the early aquarium photographs were taken using this camera too.

The KM5D hasn’t seen much use since I picked up the D300 in April this year, and it was taking up some space in the dry cabinet too. So I finally sold it away this week for about a third of the price I paid for it. Yep great bargain. It was sold with some mild sadness, but I’ll have plenty of fond memories and the pictures this great companion made possible.:)