pholbrook

There are two things you can do with a goal – proclaim that you want to do it, or say you’ve already done it.

There’s a third state that keeps popping into my head as I browse around – something I haven’t done or want to do, but that I know something about from observing others. Call it a ‘goal I know something about’.

For example, there’s a goal about projecting movies on your wall. I have a good friend who just did that, and I’d be happy to share something about it, but I don’t want to claim it for my own – I just want to kibitz.

I thought very seriously about getting the Canon Digital Rebel this Christmas. And I was even offered the chance to get it by my spouse … but I turned her down. Several reasons:

1) Even though the Digital Rebel can take very nice pictures, it’s deliberately crippled in several ways. I’m much fonder of the Nikon D70 or the Canon D20.

2) Canon is doing some serious rebates on the Digital Rebel and associated lenses. After being stuck right at $1000 all year, you can get a DR for around $775 with rebate without much trouble – and probably cheaper than that. Still, $775 is a lot of money, more than I could justify spending on myself this year.

But a digital SLR is worth it. I own a Canon G2, but because of a friend, I’ve had a chance to use the Digital Rebel a fair amount. And there’s simply no question that a digital SLR is worth it – if for no other reason than the sheer speed. I’ve been able to get pictures of kids and people that I’ve never been able to get with the G2 because the Digital Rebel focuses and shoots so fast. If all you’ve ever used is a regular point and shoot (digital or film), the comparison is similar to the difference between dial-up and DSL/cable internet access – they are almost different beasts.

This is one of those “maybe someday” items on my list. From everything I understand, learning to fly takes between $6,000-$8,000, and a serious commitment of time. (I was talking to a flight instructor recently, and she said there’s a big difference between people who take lessons 3-4 days a week and those who only do 1 or 2. If you do 1 or 2 lessons a week, she says, you spend the first half of the lesson relearning what you did last week.)