One of my favourite aspects of travel is photography, and I’ve had a travel-photography disaster!
I was taking photos while waiting for a ferry at the harbour in Torno on Lake Como in Northern Italy, when I slipped on a slimy rock. I came down really hard on my backside – hard enough to jar my teeth! I didn’t drop my camera, but it nevertheless hit the rocks just a bit too hard for some of its more delicate internal mechanism, and now it doesn’t work.
I’ve been to so many places with this camera, and taken photos of so many interesting and amazing things, that it actually feels a bit like losing an old friend! Here’s the last meaningful photo taken with my Panasonic TZ40 camera, a shot of Torno’s little harbour:
Superficially the camera looks okay, just a few more scratches added to its four-year-old much-used lived-in look, and it still starts up and zooms in and out and makes the right noises when I press the shutter button, but nothing meaningful appears on the screen, and the pictures it takes look like Bridget Riley rip-offs!
On the positive side, I didn’t break my tailbone, which would have been a real disaster as it would have likely left me unable to walk for weeks or months, which is never good and is really bad when you are travelling around and have committed to looking after peoples houses and pets for months. As it was, I was able to go for a three-kilometre walk around the back streets of Como that evening, although it was to be a few weeks before I could comfortably climb up hills or stairs.
To be philosophical about it, as well as the aforementioned scratches, the camera has had four years of continuous and intense use, having taken about 200,000 photos in its time, (most of which I’ve deleted or should delete). After every few photos the mechanism winds the lens in and out of the camera, which is a lot of work for its tiny little plastic gears. For some time it has been making grinding sounds and occasionally getting stuck as I zoom in and out.
And all compact cameras, and especially travel-zoom compact cameras, are prone to sucking dust in as the lens extends and retracts, and this camera has built up plenty of dust on the lens elements and on the sensor. I’ve had it cleaned once, but it’s an expensive process and the money is better put towards a new camera.
I’ve also been putting up with a cracked monitor for some time, the result of a less serious fall in the past. Again, an expensive repair, and not really worth doing on an old and well-used camera.
And the battery is showing signs of aging: giving inconsistent reading for its remaining charge, and going flat earlier in the day than it used to.
So, it’s down to taking photos with my mid-range mobile phone for a while, while I work out how to research and buy a new camera while travelling in foreign lands!
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