All posts by Paul Cipywnyk

Photography, Technology

Parting With Some Older DSLRs

nikon D300 D7200 for saleA couple of old(er) warhorses ready to be assessed at Broadway Camera in Richmond, BC. The chain is having a trade-in/buy-out event.

Kinda sad to see them go.

After owning several Nikon 35mm cameras starting in the early 1970s, the D300 was my first DSLR, a solid beast of a camera that lasts forever. I bought it in April 2008.

The D7200 also got a lot of use, and I have a AA-battery grip for it that added vertical shooting controls in addition to holding the extra battery power. I shot plenty of events, anniversaries, and a wedding with it over the years. I’m including a well-worn but optically good Nikkor 18-200mm zoom with the D7200.

DSLRs are gradually being phased out. I have a small Nikon Z50 mirrorless that I really like, and will hang on to a Nikon D7500 DSLR for awhile longer. And some day I’d love to get a mirrorless Nikon Z9 — an amazing camera that one of my fave camera review sites calls “a stills/video monster.” 🙂

I usually sell gear through Craig’s List and other similar online venues, but I’m tired of the runnaround. Will get less going to a camera store, but if what they offer me is in the ballpark of what I’d like to get — sold.

Business, Nature, Society

Found the “Amazing” Brentwood Overwhelming, Depressing

Sometimes I’m not that keen on “progress.”

I took the car in for scheduled service today, and while it was in the shop for about three hours, I wandered up Willingdon to the “Amazing” Brentwood here in Burnaby, BC. Had not yet been in the redeveloped mall.

Yes, it’s impressive in some ways.

But overall I found the ramble along kilometers of concrete sidewalks amid the ever-increasing density of massive new towers diminishing and depressing.

Yes, I know. People need places to live and to work. But the pyramid scheme of “endless” growth on a finite planet is increasingly troubling.

I’ve lived in New York City. I’ve lived in Tokyo. I’ve spent time in Hong Kong. . .

Perhaps I’m sounding NIMBY-ish on a city-wide scale. Perhaps for younger generations oceans of concrete and asphalt are “home.”

But give me lush forests, give me healthy creeks and lakes teeming with life other than human. . . We still have that in Burnaby. But it’s increasingly being hemmed in by walls of glass and steel.