Tag Archives: Cardinal Camera

Today, August 19, 2023, Is ‘World Photography Day’ — But For I, EVERY DAY Is A ‘Photography Day’, Without Fail.

by Anura Guruge
on August 19, 2023

Click to ENLARGE. Two pictures I took this morning on my ***daily amble***.

While I was happily ambling away this morning, I got a TXT from a ‘888’ number. I thought it was spam. But, it was NOT. It was from ‘Kurt Seelig‘, the current owner of ‘Cardinal Camera’ — my PREFERRED camera store (from whom I just bought my new ‘Fuji X-S20 kit‘. Kurt is a GOOD GUY. Very fair. Very kind. I like Kurt. I don’t mind getting TXTs from Kurt.

His TXT was to inform me about today’s ‘World Photography Day‘. I am glad he did. I had not known about it. Thank YOU, Kurt.

Every day is a PHOTOGRAPHY DAY for I. I take & PUBLISH at least 7 pictures a day, each & every day, without fail. This blog bears testament to that. I have been doing so, DAILY, WITHOUT a single days break, since at least 2016!

I decided that this was the only way I can stay current with photography & also justify the money I spend on photographic gear. SMILE.

I went over 20 years WITHOUT owning a camera BECAUSE I didn’t want photography to interfere with my WORK! I only got back into photography, c. 2015, when I kind of ‘retired’. I spend at least 45 minutes a day on photography — BUT, I do NOT consider myself a photographer. I am not that good. I just take a lot of pictures.

Here is a cute video by Kurt on ‘World Photography Day’.

I Got Myself A REAL Camera After A 3.25-Year Gap — The New Fujifilm ‘X-S20’ Mirrorless.

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by Anura Guruge
on July 5, 2023

Click images to ENLARGE.

My **Fuji X-S20** with **XF 18-55mm kit lens**.

**Very first pictures**. ALL the pictures here have been DOWNSAMPLED to make them SMALLER.

Bokeh & Selective Focus. WOW.

Click to access the ***‘Cardinal Camera’ listing***.

I was getting fed up of people asking me what kind of camera I used. Plus, I wanted one for shooting events, especially concerts, with a superzoom.

I had been THINKING about it for 9 months or so! I am now too old to rush in.

To be honest I did have two other cameras, a ‘Panasonic ZS80’ & a ‘Panasonic ZS200’, BUT I NEVER USED them. Finally, about 6 months ago I sold them both ‘online’. Hence, the ‘REAL’ in the title. I didn’t consider the Panasonics real! They were toy cameras.

Yes, this, unlike my last REAL camera, a ‘Canon EOS RP‘, is NOT full-frame. But, I didn’t want full-frame!

My needs & preferences have changed DRASTICALLY.

My Google Pixel Phones, currently the Pixel 7 Pro, will continue to be MY MAIN ‘cameras’ as they have been for the last 3 years.

The Fuji is just for special occasions. I plan to go days, weeks & during the winter, MONTHS, without using it.

So, I am NOT going crazy. Got the kit lens + one SuperZoom. I will tell you about that later.

I will at most get 3 other CHEAP lenses — all PRIMES I think because I already have two zooms that cover a huge reach.

As with the last 4 cameras I bought (& 5 altogether) I bought the camera kit & superzoom lens from ‘Cardinal Camera‘ (rather than Amazon)! That says something as most of you know that I do 95% of my shopping on Amazon (given that I do own a fair amount of Amazon shares).

But, I LIKE CARDINAL CAMERA — ‘Kurt Seelig‘ (the owner) & ‘Scott Lui‘, Kurt’s main man. Scott, who I have dealt with before, takes good care of I. I am happy. More on Cardinal Camera in future posts.

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‘KEH (Cameras)’ Delivers On Its Promise Of Buying Used Cameras — In My Case, 2 Panasonic DC-ZS Compact Zooms.

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by Anura Guruge
on October 14, 2022

Click to **ENLARGE**. Click here to access the ***‘KEH’ Website***.

I had got a ‘Panasonic ZS80‘ (24-720mm zoom) & a ‘Panasonic ZS200‘ (24-360 mm zoom with 1″ sensor) as trade-ins for my full-frame ‘Canon EOS RP‘, from ‘Cardinal Camera‘, in May 2020. I had got a ‘Google Pixel 4’ 6-months earlier & had realized that I was using the Pixel rather than a camera for taking my daily quota of pictures. So, there was little point holding onto an expensive full-frame camera.

My thinking was that I would use the ZS200, with its 1″ sensor, for higher quality images & the much smaller senor BUT longer reach when I fancied zoom photography. But, that was the theory. With me taking a ‘Pixel 5’ later in 2020 & a ‘Pixel 6 Pro‘ in 2021 I basically STOPPED using these cameras. I would take one or both with me but they would NEVER get used. Yes, I will admit I was not overly enamored with either of these two Panasonics. So they just sat in a drawer getting old.

Then I started seeing Ads by KEH Camera. While I knew I wouldn’t get much for these two ‘low-end’ cameras, anything was better than them sitting there collecting dust.

So, I started the process. It was slick & painless.

I shipped the cameras out, in one box, via FedEx, on September 11, 2022. It took KEH a week, i.e., up until September 18, 2022, to acknowledge that they received the cameras. Wasn’t too thrilled with that (especially since I had NOT retained the FedEx tracking (& as such had no visibility as to when/how they were delivered)). But, eventually I got the e-mail saying that they had the cameras & will start evaluating them.

It then took another 17-days before I got my offer. Much to my surprise & delight the offer was about $18 higher than their original estimate. I was NOT expecting that. But, to be fair, the two cameras were in essence ‘nearly new’/’unused’. I don’t think either had a shutter click count greater of even 1,000! So, in the end I was COOL. Yes, the process had taken a tad longer than I had hoped — but, when I checked, it was only a day longer than what ‘BuyBackWorld‘ had taken when I sold them my ‘Garmin Fenix 6’. So, I guess that is the norm for these online buyers. Fair enough.

All said, I would DEFINITELY RECOMMEND KEH to anyone who wants to sell a camera online bypassing the hassle of trying to sell it themselves on eBay, Facebook, Craigslist, etc.