So today, I went into my local Wal-Mart–which I realize is definitely not the best place to buy anything to do with electronics–with high hopes of getting a nice digital camera to be friends with my new Flickr account. I immediantly saw the Philips PT44434, and thought it would do the job. Dude, I have never been more wrong in my entire life. This camera BLOOOOWS! So, the thing is made out of straight action figure plastic, but I figured for $90, what should I expect? The picture quality didn’t look too great as me and my brother played with it gleefully in the car on the ride home. I figured it would look better on my computer, though. Okay, I was really wrong about this one. The camera apparently puts things in RAW format, and since no one in God’s green earth owns a turd as a camera, it wasn’t supported by iPhoto. So back to Wal-Mart I went…
As a bit of a sidenote, the damn boxing blows. It had this one little cardboard flap that just stuck out. I have no idea how it was supposed to fit in there. Plus, the whole package smelled of kerosene and illegal laboring.
So back at Wal-Mart, I brought my crappy-ass product to the customer service person–whom acted like she didn’t know whether she was talking out of her ass or her face. After about 5 minutes of explaining to her that what I held was “cam-er-a” that I use on a “com-put-er”, I got my $95 back in my hands. Back to the camera section I go. So there is a new associate, as Wal-Mart calls them, back there. She was younger, and I hoped would know what she was talking about. So I explained to her my situation, about how the camera sucked, and how it wasn’t Mac-compatible. So then she rambled on about how none of the cameras were Mac-compatible. Naturally, I recogized this statement as sheer ignorance. So I went off on my own once more, and looked at several cameras. Finally, I found a HP Photosmart E327. I have had great experiences with HP in the past (I have a HP printer and scanner, and at one time a HP computer), so I knew their Mac-friendliness. Plus, it was a much better camera. It ran me $120. (A $30 increase for those keeping count). I took a few pictures in the car and they looked awesome, but now it was time for the real test.
So I take it home. Take it out the box. And plug it in.
Kudos to you Hewlett-Packard. A great camera, great support, great quality. All I asked for to begin with. So if you, dear reader, take anything from the story you were just told take this: Fuck Philips. Now we will have some serious Flickr fun!
