From the 'You Get What You Pay For' File

After waxing poetic about saving money yesterday, and raving about going cheap for my new camera a while back, my brother-in-law and I were comparing pictures from our hike yesterday and it hit me--while I was trying to save money when I bought my camera, in this particular case, I kind of got what I paid for.
I'm not a photographer by any meansl but I do take a lot of pictures.  I like the photos I take to be exceptionally clear whether or not they are "quality, professional level photographs" (which they aren't but if I am going to publish them I want the to look as crisp and clear as possible).

So while I was comparing the photos I and my BIL took at the exact some time of day, at the exact same location, with the exact same subject in the photos, I found that my photos were not very good at all.  His photos jumped off the screen with their clarity and mine were kind of blah.

Here's the photo I took:

Here's the photo he took:

To me, when the photos are blown up on my computer, I can see quite a difference.  Of course, the photo he took is about quadruple the megapixles of the photo I took but still I was disappointed with the overall quality of the photos I took compared to his (we basically took identical photos all during the hike).

So this morning I hopped on the internet and did a bit of research and found that a camera that is a step above my old camera (that I somehow broke) received rave reviews.  It was $100 more than what I paid for my latest camera but ranked with much more expensive point and shoot cameras.  So I packed up my new camera and headed over to Best Buy.  I was two days past the 15 days they give customers for returns (it was day 17 and they clearly state that returns must be done within 15 days) but I talked to the manager and she was very nice about letting me exchange my camera for another one.  I handed over an additional $100 and walked out with a Canon Powershot Elph 330 HS.  I'm determined to take better care of this camera than the last two that I broke.

The moral of this story?  There are many times that you can "go cheap" with things you are buying but there are other times when it makes sense to pay a bit more in order to get a higher quality product (especially if it is a product you will use all the time and it performs better than the cheaper alternatives).