Camera Shopping in Cambodia

After my trip to Sihanoukville, my camera started freaking out on me. It would either photos on it's own or wouldn't take a photo at all. It's working ok-ish now (still taking a slow picture), but I didn't want to chance it not working when I needed to capture an extra special, only-in-Cambodia moment.

So this week I've been frantically researching point-and-shoots that I can easily throw in my bag with me on my adventures. For me, buying anything over $50 is nerve-wracking, but this has been especially so. In Cambodia, you never know if you are getting the "real deal." Even though something has a brand name, it could be a knock off or stolen.

Well, today I settled on buying the Sony Cyber-shot DSC W-130. It seems to take a photo quicker than my Nikon Coolpix 5600 and Cnet.com gave it a slightly better review. I could have gotten the camera from an electronics store (think something along the lines of Best Buy or Circuit City, but on a smaller scale), but they raised the price too much. You would think you could buy things in Cambodia cheaper than in the U.S., but in reality they charge you more. The special promotion price of $199 that the store was selling this camera for is comparable to the non-sale price in the States.

I ended up saving some money and buying my camera from a "house shop." This isn't as sketchy as it sounds. It is a smaller camera shop and my sales guy was an actual photographer. He seemed to know what he was talking about and after being able to test the product, I feel confident in my purchase. It's not by any means a sophisticated camera, but for my purposes, something compact that I can take with me on the go will work out for me just fine.

Soon I'll be posting pictures with my new toy, so you'll be able to judge for yourself. yourself.