After being cameraless for about a month now, I realized how much it sucks being cameraless. I enjoyed the ability to quickly and secretly snaps some pics of crappy cars as well as anything else I thought was cool. I used to have a silver Casio Exilim EX-Z40, but now I (finally!) have a Casio Exilim EX-S600. And no, I’m not trying to be just like Nev, it’s just the vendor ran out of blue cameras, and I didn’t want another silver one.

My old camera:

My new camera:

I ordered this little hottie online (of course), and with two-day shipping it cost around $270. If you do a little search on eBay, you’ll find very few people trying to offload this unit, which normally means it’s solid. Also, you’ll see a TON of vendors peddling this unit, which means it’s popular. However, I did not find an appealing listing where a person is selling a camera like this as I didn’t want to buy from a faceless online store.

FYI: I foud this exact camera in a local mall for $350.

I almost bid on a $300 + $19.99 Buy It Now listing, but remembered that Nev paid a similar price from this unit like a year ago. Realizing that prices for older technology do drop, I went comparison shopping to PriceGrabber. The first online store that came up was Abe’s of Maine at $258.89.

Here’s the eBay screenshot for comparison.

Suspecting that $50 price fluctuations normally signify REFURB items, I decided to check. I called and got a real person who assured they sold only new items and explained that placing an order over the phone is the same as placing it online (they literally punch the order in online when they are talking to you). The site looked a little shabby and had some glitches in Firefox, which was a major turn-off. I reopened in Explorer and decided to try to place a sample order.

Everything seemed to work in Internet Explorer, so I decided to continue (I also emailed support and asked them to fix Firefox glitches, which they promptly did). I went to my credit card site, created a new temporary account number, and placed the order.

The camera was by my door two days later. Go Abe’s!

So it is cool, is it cool?

Oh yeah. However, as with anything, there are some upsides and downsides.

Old Camera (EX-Z40) pros:

• Perfectly sized, not too big, not too small, square-ish, solid.
• SD card goes in and out easy.
• Battery really lasts.

Old camera (EX-Z40) cons:

• USB 1.0 makes it slow to transfer images.
• Slo-o-o-o-ow operation.
• Cannot edit video in standard video editors (Muvee, Adobe Premiere).
• Video quality is crappy (320×200, 20 frames ps).
• Obsolete.
• Not as cheap as you’d expect from an older unit.

New Camera (EX-S600) pros:

• USB 2.0 makes it easy to transfer images.
• Fast in operation.
• Video editable in standard editors.
• Video quality is better (640×480, 30 frames ps).
• Visual appeal.
• Smaller cradle.
• Dedicated button for video shooting.

New Camera (EX-S600) cons:

• Almost too small and thin, harder to hold. I’m afraid if I give it so someone to snap a pic of my wife and I, that someone is going to drop it.
• Short lanyard makes it very hard to snap pics while having the camera secured on the wrist.
• Hard to get the SD card in and out.
• No dedicated button for Macro shooting (up close).

Since I’m back in business, expect more pics. My 300SD site was really beginning to suffer – the big reason for starting it was to fill the lack-of-old-diesel-pictures void on the Internet.

My comments:

• eBay sucks. My general perception is that even though one can get a good deal, (s)he will wait forever to actually receive the item (slow shipping). Also, eBay dropshippers suck as much as eBay does. eBay is great as a yard sale venue, but not as a store (unless buying used from an individual … which makes it a yard sale venue).
• Reputable online vendors rule. Shipping is fast, return policy is better, the price is lower, and there’s a better legal recourse if things get sour.

Awesome.