Pondering a major paradigm shift

I have a Canon Rebel EOS. I’ve had it since 2008 and it’s served me very well. My tween days began with a Kodak Instamatic camera that took 110 film.

In high school, I graduated to my dad’s Pentax manual SLR and thought I’d hit the big leagues. I used it all through college and beyond.

A few years after Entrepreneur and I got married, I bought my own Minolta SLR…still a film camera and completely manual. It took me to Hawaii, Mexico, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Routinely I had to take it in to have the sand cleaned out of it! And this workhorse of a camera documented every major and minor event in both our daughter’s lives.

In 2008 Entrepreneur bought me the Canon Rebel in anticipation of the birth of Peanut later that year. I guess he knew I’d be taking mega-amounts of photos and was tired of me constantly buying film! He was correct and I entered the digital world.

But my Canon is tired. Oh so tired after being an extension of my hand for 6 years. The pop-up flash doesn’t pop anymore….I have to pull it up when needed; which is doable and I don’t really mind that part. The part I do mind is the frequency that I get a shot like this:

Notice the lovely pink color bar overlaid at the bottom of the photo? Yeah, me too. Not suppose to be there. Can’t tell you how many otherwise good captures I’ve had to delete because of this special treatment.

And that’s a deal breaker.

Soooooo, I’m camera shopping. And I never thought I’d say this, but I’m seriously looking at (horrors of horrors) one that is not an SLR! But before you think me a traitor, hear me out.

I’m considering the Panasonic LUMIX DMC-ZS40 30X Super Zoom. It’s an 18 megapixal camera with a 30x zoom. That means it captures close, wide-angle stills and HD video from 24mm – 720mm. Pretty sweet if you ask me.

But one of the best perks is that it’s very portable. And other members of the family (aka Entrepreneur) could actually use it as well….which means there may be a few more pics of me on our family vacays.

But here’s the dilemma. I’ve pretty much grown up with SLRs. I’m wired to believe they are the best type of camera for quality shots. I just don’t know if I can completely walk away from having an SLR. But I can’t afford both a new Canon Rebel AND this one. I love the idea of not packing multiple lenses when traveling. And I like the idea of slipping it in my purse or pocket.

I just don’t know………..it’s definitely a paradigm shift in thinking. Should I or shouldn’t I? That is the question. I’m open to any advice or opinions one way or the other! 🙂