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My new camera arrived on April 18, 2007. Sadly, the last picture I took with it dates to May 20, 2007. Over that span of 30 days, I took 1,500 pictures. The professionals say to take pictures everyday, as that’s the best way to get to know your camera. I agree. I learned so much over the last month. Honestly, I’d like to take 3,000/month, which I plan to do. I’m going to focus on one specific thing each day (aperture, exposure, shutter speed, etc), or until I feel comfortable moving on. And then I’ll cycle back through to the beginning. Lately, however, I’ve been occupied with other things; but I’m dying to get back in the rhythm of daily pictures.

I mentioned my desire for a new camera. Well, that desire hasn’t left me yet, so I’ve still been doing my research to find which one would make the most sense. For a number of reasons, I’m nearly 100% for the Nikon D80. Making it through the last few weeks of all of the technical and ergonomic research, I’m now starting to look at the available bargains on this jewel. I’m interested in the kit with the 18-135mm lens. Here are a couple of my options:

1. Ritz Camera ($1,300)—I’m very comfortable with buying this camera from Ritz. Mainly because of warranty perks and I would know what I was buying. Definitely my first choice, aside from the cost. Plus I get the camera the same day.
2. Best Buy ($1,300)—Really no benefit over Ritz, just another option.
3. Butterfly Photo ($1,169)—It does get good reviews, and it’s a reasonably good price (the extra money would let me get a nice carrying case and a 2 GB larger compact flash card. But it’s a place I know nothing about, and only exists online. And I’d have to trust that it would ship in one piece.
4. eBay ($1,129)—I feel fairly confident putting a little trust in the eBay feedback system, but a $1,000+ purchase on eBay sort of freaks me out. Plus Amie once got ripped off from a seller who had great feedback, until she bought the item. Then the terrible (real) feedback was listed, along with the “this person is no longer a member” statement. Scary.
5. Express Cameras ($749)—I’m really starting to like this price. However, it’s almost too good to be true. I don’t really trust this site, and I really don’t want to wait forever to receive it. Plus, it would be painful to go through the returning process with a crappy (non-credible) company.
6. Shop Cart USA ($574)—How could this be right? There’s no way I could trust this, and I’ll stop here. But I’ve found them as low as $350 for the whole kit, which is far too risky for me.

So my dilemma is this: do I fork up the $1,300 (plus tax) and go with the comfort of knowing I’m buying a quality, brand new camera? Or do I use my knowledge of online purchasing and try for one of the sites that would save me $200 (or more)? I wouldn’t want to wait on a delivery, but I could. I don’t like the thought of it being shipped, but it’s shipped to Ritz, too. I love the thought of a face-to-face purchase on this one, but I don’t like the extra $200 or more. What would you do?