The Little Camera I Never Liked But Miss Anyway: An Obituary

The lens is stuck open. The on/off button yields a sad silence. A piece of Scotch tape covers the flash from the day I tried to manually diffuse the light. It's been three days since the water damage, and after asking me one last time to please change its batteries, my Canon Powershot A720 IS finally died.

A few years ago I got a DSLR camera for my birthday. Though this is not the camera in question, the story starts here. I carried it everywhere for a while, but as it began to weigh down on my shoulder, I realized that a shallow depth-of-field is not necessary in every situation. So, the next Christmas my parents got me an Olympus point-and-shoot from Costco. The details are not important, but I didn't like my Christmas photos, and I returned it. I ultimately purchased the A720 IS from Target. I was between this and the Digital Elph from that year, which was slightly smaller. My boyfriend, Nick, told me to go with the Elph for maximum portability, but I bought the A720 IS because I wanted to control the f-stop too. This was a mistake. I do not change the f-stop with a point-and-shoot, and the thing has always been a little too cumbersome. And, since the recent release of smaller Powershots in different colors, mine has since become even less appealing.

The water damage happened last Friday. I had to get up earlier than usual for a day of training at Apple in Cupertino, and I filled my travel mug with water. While I securely screwed on the top, I neglected to close the part you drink out of--and I tossed it in my backpack. I rode the MUNI like this to Civic Center. I walked in the direction I thought was my co-worker Troy's apartment. I felt some moisture on the back of my knee. I thought I stepped in a puddle and it splashed up. When I felt wetness on my lower back, I knew what happened. I pulled the bag off my back, started grabbing things out of it, and I turned around, realizing--to top things off--I was also walking in the wrong direction.

At first it turned on and seemed fine. Later, it turned on, flashing "Memory Card Error." I removed the memory card and batteries and tried to air it out. The next error message I got was to change the batteries. I could see the moisture along the edges of the LCD screen. I popped the memory card in and out, repeatedly drying it in a fruitless effort to remove as much water as I could. At work the next day, Guillermo suggested that I close it in a container with a silica gel (those little things that come in the shoeboxes and say, "do not eat") because they attract moisture. I left it in a Ziplock with the silica gel for 24 hours and tried again. With a meek beep, A720 IS made one final plea for batteries and then couldn't even find the strength to close its lens.

Bye, little camera. I'll miss you.