Purchasing An Instrument

Have you ever gone into a shop or showroom and purchased an instrument? It felt like an important moment, didn't it? It could have been a musical instrument - your first guitar. A wind instrument. A Bechstein grand piano for the porch on the beach house at Dunsborough... It might have been an optical instrument, such as surveyors use - or a something for the bridge of a ship. It might have been a surgical instrument to begin practice with, or to replace one sewn into a customer. Whatever, it was an entirely different feeling from the one you get going into the DIY warehouse for tools, glues, and sandpaper...and a sausage in a bun. Instruments demand consideration and appreciation. Instruments matter - you don't just buy them - you purchase them. Well, consider developing that mind-set the next time you come into Camera Electronic for a browse. By all means see everything in the shop - that is what the glass doors on the cabinets are for. And talk to the staff - they are there to serve you. But don't just think of buying a camera as a throw-away item ( In two years... ) - regard everything you do purchase as an instrument. And an instrument that you will keep, master, and do laudable things with. You might throw it into the glove box of the car with the sunnies an an old tube of suncreen, but if you do you are abusing the instrument and your chance of using it well.