HP Photosmart 945 5.3 MP 8x Optical Zoom

R.I.P.

HP PhotoSmart 945 5.3MP Digital Camera w/ 8x Optical Zoom

No, it's not the same feeling as seeing a dog run over on the road. But it is a sinking feeling. I've used that camera since 2004, and it's been a great camera. It took most of my England photos. I've got huge posters on my wall from photos I took in Yorkshire. They are not the least bit pixelated. I used this camera for all my blog post photos - with a few exceptions, like the photo above which I found on a search for a replacement. But who wants to buy a used camera. How *used* is it? Is it at the end of its life?

I had set my husband's old work boots on the deck and was going to take a photo of them. They were beautiful. By that, I mean that they are Wolverines, my favorite boots, those well-made, comfortable boots that one wears for years and doesn't discard lightly. So I carefully set them on the weathered wood and snapped the shutter button. The display showed vintage pink, blurry boots. Trust me - they're not pink. And I know enough to hit the 'Macro' button, so they shouldn't have been blurry.

Ah, then my camera automatically shut down and said that the batteries were depleted. Phew! So I went into the house, tracked down another set of batteries, and tried again.

Same thing.

Ah, then I remembered that I had already formatted this SD card several times, so maybe the SD card was worn out. Okay, I'll get another SD card.

For this camera, it's not easy to find a plain SD card. All the new cards are SDHC, and they don't work in this camera. BUT, Walmart did have another SD card, so we bought it. Phew!! (But I'll have to admit, my confidence that this would be an easy fix was waning rapidly.)

So I put in the new SD card, and took the broom outdoors to sweep the maple seeds from the deck where I would lovingly place the old workboots before getting the photo.

I tried again....holding my breath...

...vintage pink blurry image.

So sad.

And I don't even know if I can bear to throw it out. (Tear slides involuntarily down cheek.)

So sometime this spring or summer, I'll need to buy a new camera. Actually, I'd rather just have the old camera back because I KNOW IT. A new camera means another unplanned expenditure, another attempt at comparing/contrasting cameras, another instruction guide to read, most likely written by someone whose first language is not English? and another camera to understand.

So here's what I'm looking at right now: 
 

Nikon D3100 14.2MP Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-S DX VR Nikkor Zoom Lens

                           OR

 

 Nikon COOLPIX P510 16.1 MP CMOS Digital Camera with 42x Zoom NIKKOR ED Glass Lens and GPS Record Location.

Would you like to weigh in on this? Any strong opinions one way or another?

Thanks. :-)

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