camera issues

I've been thinking about getting a new camera for a while now.  Maybe ... 6 years?  Hahaha.  I did buy one, and it's been darling, but I wonder now if it's time to get one of the other cameras I had been considering.

I currently use a sweet little Fujifilm Finepix - it works well as the "keep it in your purse" outing camera, and it really shines in low light conditions.  That's why I bought it, actually.  I knew that it could take decent pictures at concerts, and it was small enough that I'd actually cart it around and use it.  It has done its job well.  Though it has a "sports" setting, I just don't have the speed with it to take pictures quickly.

That's why I sometimes think of a DSLR.  I want to be able to snap shots of people, especially, before they notice, haha.  My students are totally my intended main target - it would be really sad if during my time here I acquired only a few photographs of them.  Especially since they are so adorable!  Their faces are super precious, ha, so I want to keep a record of them in their shining youth.

A DSLR is big and expensive.  Not too big, not too expensive - I have one that I've picked out that's around $1,000, and I'd pay that for a good camera.  But what worries me more is the fact that I don't really know how to use one well, and I don't care to spend my life editing images.  I know the color is off with them - it's usually too unkind, the borders with white a little odd.

I'd really like a film camera.  I don't know how in the world to go about picking out a good film camera, ha.  And I don't know much about how they operate, technically.  I've read a little, but it hasn't stuck.  But the look of film!  I like the detail of it, the tone of it - and, I'll be honest, the darn "oldness" and tangibility of it.  Film prints are so different than digital prints.  And slides!  Don't even get me started on slides, people.  I freakin' love slides.   And to top it all off, I don't just want a regular, portable 35mm film camera.  I want ... I want a medium format camera.  Haha.  The kind you have to set up on a tripod with a sweet box and billows and etc.  I want that AND a portable camera.  Future ambitions, probably?  Hmm.

Since I haven't made up my mind on the camera front, I did go ahead and buy myself an expensive little baby Instax Mini.  It's super precious, and I'm really happy with the photos it produces.  I doubt they'll last long - I'll have to make digital copies.  But for now, they'll do.