This weekend, I saved a reasonable amount of money. To be more precise, I saved €716, which is the amount I was going to spend on the purchase of my first digital camera. Which obviously I didn't buy. Yet.
In fact, I and my beloved enjoyed a marvellous weekend. We had booked a night at the Hotel Maritim in Köln (Cologne) a few days ago, intending to spend Saturday shopping there, and on Sunday to come back via Aachen to visit an exhibition I'd been wanting to see for some time. Especially since Sunday was the absolutely last day the exposition was on...
I've been considering buying a digital camera for quite some time, and I'd even picked the model, a Konica-Minolta Dimage A2, but all those months I kept hesitating and waiting for prices to come down to an acceptable level. Knowing that camera prices in Germany are always more interesting than here in Belgium, I emailed the biggest photographic shop in Köln, Photo Gregor, for the current price. (By the way, if you like cameras old or new, and you're ever in the neighbourhood, you simply must pay them a visit: they're really a treasure trove for photographers...) They replied promptly, stating the very attractive price of, you guessed it, €716.
So the first thing I did after we checked in in our hotel was heading straight for Gregor. But alas, as again you guessed, the last one had been sold a day or two earlier, and I'd have to wait for their next order to arrive in a few days. Checking out the other photographic big name of the town, Lambertin, revealed that they had the item in stock in considerable numbers, but at a price €51 higher than their competitor. I almost cracked, but in the end the idea of spending €51 "for nothing" held me back.
Although I'm understandably disappointed, to my surprise I also felt some kind of relief. Somewhere inside, the fear is lurking that once I surrender to the lures of digital photography, I might quickly abandon film photography, and all those lovely cameras in my collection might begin to collect dust. This would be a big pity. Also, in the time since I made my choice of camera, a new star has appeared on the photographic firmamant: the new Canon EOS 20D, which finally looks like an acceptable DSLR at the reasonable (though, compared to film cameras, still quite high) price of some €1500-1700. So doubt sets in again, and if I decide to go for the 20D, I'll again want to wait a few months for the prices to come down.
The rest of our stay in Köln was really enjoyable, and on Sunday, we made it to the superb exposition of photographs by that other grand old man of Paris street photography, Willy Ronis. Which is a nice transition towards the coming weekend, when we'll be spending four days in that great city.