Page 36 of A Light in the Dark
I thanked him, wandered back to the case, and sent the image to Roger.
“Okay. That’s the same brand of bag, just a higher end model. Joel’s bag is made of waterproofed leather, so if it rains, his gear won’t come to any harm. The canvas bags can be waterproofed, though. The store might even sell the spray to do it. It’s a good bag, and even the canvas models will withstand a beating while protecting your gear. The camera is probably on sale to help encourage new photographers and is meant as an entry enticement. Most professionals go for the extra features. Look at the tag on the camera. What is its FPS?”
I read the label, and after a few moments, I found the information he wanted. “Fifteen.”
“The high end cameras can do thirty or higher. Fifteen is solid, however. Shutter speed?”
After another search, I found the appropriate label and said, “Twenty thousand.”
“That’s damned good. Unless you decide to go into professional photography, that camera will do you justice.”
“You know about cameras?”
“I know just enough to get myself into trouble with the actual photographers,” he admitted. “But if you buy that camera, the Hunters can compensate you for it, as you can use it to help us take photographs of the situation. Just text me with a copy of the receipt, all right?”
“Only part of it, because I will be playing with this with wild abandon.”
Roger chuckled. “We’ll go in fifty-fifty, how does that sound?”
I could work with fifty-fifty. “All right. I’m going in. I must figure out how to convince a headstrong man I can buy my own camera stuff.”
“I wish you the best of luck with that. Take care.”
I shoved my phone back into my pocket, went to the counter, and spent a few minutes listening to Chuck gush over the lens. Once I worried I would die of boredom, I reached over, tapped the man’s wrist, and pointed in the direction of the cabinet with the green camera. “Can you show me something while Joel makes friends with that lens?”
“I can test it while you show her,” my neighbor muttered, his gaze fixed on his camera’s display.
Excellent. Once I lured Chuck to the cabinet, I pointed at the green set and its matching bag. “I know nothing about cameras, but I love the color, and I want that set with thebackpack.” To make certain Joel didn’t swoop in and pay for me, I dug out my credit card and held it out. “Joel wants to get two disposable film cameras for us to play with.”
Chuck laughed, read the labels, and said, “I should have an unopened box in the back of that set in that color, but if not, I’ll pack up the display set for you. Nobody has even tested it, so it’s as new as it gets.”
“You can just pack the display set into the backpack. The boxes will be escorted to a recycling bin immediately upon departure from the store.”
Under no circumstances would I allow empty boxes to breed in my house.
According to the man’s pained sigh, I’d committed some sort of sin.
With narrowed eyes, I asked, “Why do you sound like I just ran over a brand new camera body with Joel’s SUV?”
“The boxes improve their resale value.”
“As I will not be selling my prize, that is not a factor. That camera will only be taken out of my cold, dead hands. The color is perfect as is the bag.”
“You haven’t even seen the inside of it yet.”
I shook my head. “I wouldn’t know what a good camera bag looks like on the inside even if you slapped me with one, and the outside is perfect. A friend told me the camera is a good one, and it will do everything a beginner who probably will never get a better camera needs.”
After pulling a set of keys out of his pocket, Chuck opened the case, picked up the body, and installed the smallest of the lenses on it before flipping a switch, which turned the display on. He removed the lens cap, pointed it at the ground, and fiddled with the camera for a few minutesbefore nodding his satisfaction. “All right. This is in good working order. Your battery will need to be charged, but the set comes with a charger, so you’ll be good there.”
I held up two fingers. “You can sell me two spare batteries and anything I need to make it charge in Joel’s SUV.”
He grinned, nodded, and dug out the bag from the case, opened it, and began loading in the camera and my new lenses, taking the time to explain how the adjustable compartments worked while setting it up to neatly hold all my gear. Once he finished, he grabbed two boxes from a shelf nearby and tossed them into one of the empty sections. “You will want a better memory chip. This one will last you about ten minutes before it fills up on you. I set the camera for smaller file sizes, as you won’t need the extra file format as an amateur. If you decide you want to work with the RAW files, Joel can teach you. I set the camera up to be the highest photo quality without the extra RAW file.”
“I guess hook me up with two or three chips that can hold a lot?”
“It’ll be about three hundred,” he warned.
I shrugged. “That’s fine. Do I need anything to make the chip put it somewhere else?”
