I love my main camera, a Canon 1D. It cost far too much, but it has performed flawlessly for more than two years and taken tens of (hundreds of) thousands of shots. The trip to shoot the rally in India was an example of its excellence; four days of hard shooting with the camera ending up covered in dust and muck. It delivered thousands of great shots and it never missed a beat. I didn’t even have to charge the battery. It has more than paid for itself over the period I have owned it. It not only produces shots that customers are happy with, but just having it round your neck gives the impression that some serious photography is about to take place which must be worth the money being charged. This is often just bluff on my part, but it works.

I expect it is capable of giving excellent service for many years to come; but yesterday Canon announced the new 1D and I fully expected my natural “new gadget, want it” hormones to kick in. But I was rather pleased to find myself disappointed. There was the usual offering of more megapixels and better high ISO performance; but I was also hoping for 15 frames per second, but it stays at the existing 10. And there is now a video mode, which is interesting but not sure how much I would use it. And the whole offering is soured by an increase in price from $3,500 to $5,000. My lust metre is at zero.

Later in the day, Apple announced a new range of computers, and they are actually good upgrades, but I don’t want them. Or rather I don’t need them. When I had Windoze machines, every trip to Tukcom was an adventure. What exciting new part was on offer to boost performance? Would I return home with a bag of goodies and rip my machine apart yet again; never knowing if it would burst back into life after I had rebuilt it? Then I got an iMac and could look forward to days like yesterday to see if I could “justify” an upgrade. Then I got a Mac Pro and stuffed it full of hardrives (4), memory (10GB) and a raunchy graphics card. I now have my ideal computer which does everything I ask it to do, and quickly, and quietly, and reliably. Pop across into Windoze and it is a mean gaming machine too. It’s going to be years (that means more than one) before I feel the need for an upgrade.

Plugged into my Mac Pro is an Apple keyboard and it is excellent. Also plugged into my Mac Pro is a Logitech mouse, and it is also excellent. Originally it was an Apple Mighty Mouse, but it was crap. I had been warned by more than one Apple owner that the computers were good, but the mice sucked. And they do. Very little feel to the buttons, and the tiny scroll wheel looks cute but is difficult to use initially, and impossible to use later because it stops working. But Apple have solved this problem by eliminating the scroll wheel with the new mouse announced yesterday, the Magic Mouse.

magicmouse-lg

Stupid name for something that looks like a fillet of fish. Apparently you can use the top of the fish to do all the clever swipe things that you can do on an Apple laptop, as well as button clicking and scrolling without actually using any buttons or scroll wheels. I think I’ll stick with Logitech,

So I managed to get through the day without wanting a new camera or a new computer, or a new mouse. Feeling a little let down, I cheered myself up by ordering a new windsurfing board which I hope will arrive before the end of the month.

No pockets in a shroud.