2005 June 07

Alas, my Nikon Coolpix 8800 has become a red-headed stepchild of my gadget shelf. Nothing's wrong with it at all – I've just found a replacement. This was my first Nikon camera ever, and it's likely to be my last one. Some people swear by Nikon's – but I'm not one of them (apparently). I've got the 8800 itself (with original box), its official carrying case, and a 4GB Microdrive to sell together as a package. Could let the whole bundle go for $850, which is about the best eBay pricing I could find out there – and that's where I'll turn should I find no takers.
The Coolpix 8800 has been pretty good to me – taking some of the best photos I've seen come from a digital camera. The 8 megapixels is overkill for me, however; I don't do much printing of my snapshots. One thing I loved about the Coolpix is that it would take unlimited video footage at 320×240 – a great thing for quick movies of misadventures. I flip the wrapper with MP4Cam2AV before encoding it into WMV, though. The 8800's live histogram and rule-of-thirds guidelines will certainly be missed, as well – and the 10x optical zoom with robust image stabilization is no slouch, either. It served me well, but I think I'm in the market for something that'll fit in my pocket.
So, any offers? Let's talk.

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I've been tinkering with a new Wacom tablet over the past few weeks (as evidenced by the sketches in my photo stream). The hardware would be nothing without software, so I've also been playing with ArtRage and Project Dogwaffle. For UI and simplicity, it's 'Rage all the way. For advanced tools and unique brushes, go with the 'Waffle. I've never appreciated the latter's “doggy” interface, but 3.1a adds a spline based paint engine (aka, Penny). Pretty freakin' sweet, as my friend Peter Griffin would say. I wasn't ready to get a full-fledged Tablet PC just to play with a stylus on my screen.
If I'm feeling stressed, I can just pick up a virtual pencil and start drawing random objects – like caricatures of friends and family members! PD Pro Digital Painter is always there for me, although I know I'm not taking full advantage of what the program has to offer. You can play with v1.2 for free, BTW.

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