Last Saturday while shopping around in Wisma Atria with Giap Hwai, we saw Sony's roadshow featuring its Cyber-shot series of cameras. Since we were waiting for the queue to service his Sony Ericsson's mobile phone, we just tried out those cameras on display. After so many years, I still haven't bought myself a digicam. I usually just take photos with friends' camera. I am really surprised to see how much the prices have dropped. One of the model DSC-W55 from Sony caught my eye with its attractive features and affordable price at $399.

Before buying on the spot, we decided to walk around Orchard to compare prices. We dropped by a shop at Lucky Plaza to ask for the price of this camera. The rather unfriendly salesperson told us that if we were looking for 300+ price range, then it's either this model or Panasonic Lumix FX10. We took a look at both cameras while he was busy wiping away our finger prints.  When asked the price for FX10, he quoted $375 with free 1GB memory card, an original Lithium ion battery and casing.

Since he dislikes us touching his gadgets so much, we left the shop after asking the price. While we were walking around aimlessly in Orchard, we noticed there's a free shuttle bus heading to Great World City. Since we haven't been to Great World City, without much hesitation, we hopped on to the bus to go there to have a look.

At Great World City, there's nothing much to see. It's just another shopping mall in Singapore. Feeling bored, I suggested to go in to Best Denki, an electrical shop, to have a look at the cameras. We can look at the prices without having to ask since the prices are all labeled beside the camera.

The friendly salesperson started to talk to us about their weekend in-house promotion. I did not pay much attention to it at first. The Sony camera is again at $399 while the Panasonic one is also priced at $399 according to the price labels. I wasn't interested to buy any of the model at all until I heard the person saying that this Panasonic model is good and it's now under promotion at $349. 50 dollars discount~! hmm.. that makes me kinda 动摇. He then went on to say he can give me extra original Lithium ion battery worth 75 dollars, 2GB memory card, tripod and casing.  Pretty good deal ya? Also, he is super friendly that it's really hard to resist and finally i decided to buy this model.

The exterior and dimensions are similar to Sony's model. The response time after each shot is much faster than Sony's and it uses SD card rather than Sony's Memory Stick Duo card. One thing i dun really like about Panasonic's model is its user interface software. The friendly staff also went on to introduce to me Canon IXUS series. I really like its user friendliness, its look and its photo quality. Photos taken with Canon cameras have really nice colours. But it's priced at $509! hmm.. though i would love to buy Canon, the price difference is just too much for me to justify. I will spend lots of money after graduation: graduation trip to Taiwan, house rental etc. I better not spend too much on camera ba~

After buying the camera from Best Denki, we headed to Sim Lim to collect Giap Hwai's external hdd. Since we were at Sim Lim, we again went into one of the shop to ask about this camera. Hehe.. the salesperson claimed that they were having in-house promotion and this camera is priced at $380 with 2GB memory card. No extra battery but if i want an extra battery, they can sell to me at discounted price at 39 dollars. It is not original battery but a compatible one.

We pretended to have to think over the offer and left the shop. I was so happy that I got a pretty good deal in fact.  Before this, I have never thought that we can get electronics gadgets from those electrical shop like Best Denki, Harvey Norman and Courts at price cheaper than those shops in Sim Lim. Well, this case shows that it's not always true. In fact, sometimes we may even get a better deals at these places when they are having promotions. Also, we do not have to bargain hard or to be thick face to ask for more free gifts. The salespersons are interested in getting their commission while we, the customers are interested in the extra free gifts. The end result is therefore a win-win situation ya

Some photos taken with my new camera. I have yet to master when to use what mode to capture nice photos. Anyone good in photography mind to share?

I dun have much photo taking skills. This is called "一树" or if u like, u can call it "艺术" too

yet another 一树照

this is where my FYP lab is located. looks nice isn't it? but i am always lazy to go there.

me at my FYP workstation, chatting with papa . it has been a year since i am assigned this workstation.

Sunset over NIE buildings.

wanted to capture the moon at first. realised there's 意外收获, one moon with 2 birds: 一月二鸟. can u see the birds?

took many photos of different flowers around the campus. this is currently my desktop wallpaper.

for the price i pay, i must say i am quite satisfied with the photo quality. at last, i have my own camera and i will definitely bring it along with me when i go out.