Update 105-01
Update 105-01
Rendezvous
18th November 2006
12:32 PM

I underwent a rather curious incident last night. See, America has this humongous gray/black market of used, second-hand professional camera equipment. I was rather frustrated about not being able to get a cheap 3CCD camera (If there even is such a thing) in Singapore so I've been surfing Ebay fanatically ever since I got here. The only thing that even comes close to this in Singapore is Sim Lim Square - Albeit they don't even sell used goods.

Anyway, I saw a posting on Craigslist (Something like classifieds) for a Professional 3CCD Camcorder, the Canon XL1s (The earlier version of David's XL2) at only a fraction of the price of the newer model.



I decided to give it a shot and rang the guy up. After trying to entice the chap to come down to my area, we instead settled to meet in the downtown Los Angeles ghettos... Which obviously isn't exactly the safest place to meet. Initially, he suggested some random dinghy restaurant (Think Pulp Fiction styled diners) - Which got me really suspicious. With much coaxing, I finally got him to rendezvous at a mall nearby.

Prior to this, I had conceived the notion in my warped mind that the seller was probably this clichéd long-haired, buff White guy with biker tattoos (It was his voice, I swear.). Earlier that day, I had also read about people getting shot or robbed while trying to buy the latest Sony fad product, the PlayStation 3.

Being the paranoid bugger that I am, I had a Glock stuffed in the back of my pants 'gangsta' style and a switch blade in my left pocket. Being the well-meaning but over-protective folk they are, my parents decided to head there an hour in advance to scout the location. I am not kidding when I say that it resembled some undercover narcotics drug bust:We even brought walkie talkie radios along with earpieces; a la Secret Service. We choose a central atrium and they positioned themselves at the exit and entrance to the place reading newspapers (Can you get any more cliché than that?)

We waited. I sat at the table reading a book.

Finally, he appears, wearing a a skull cap, looking like Borat Cohen from Da Ali G Show -

And we are both shocked. Speechless.

He had assumed that I too was some big, bad-ass White guy but as it turned out, both of us were Asians.. And horribly wrong about our preconceptions. Anyway, to cut the long story short (The rest of it wasn't quite dramatic) we had a cool chat. Per typical Asian-culture, I even bargained the camera down to US$900 - Which is a pretty decent buy considering the newer models retail for about US$3,500.

Anyhow, I'm pretty happy with my purchase overall. Although its far from the top of the line, the camera looks relatively new and I think *Fingers crossed* I got a pretty good bang-for-buck deal.

Hehehe. Now I can finally do what camera nerds techies call 'Depth of Field'.



Admittedly, it was a rather intriguing.. Rather exhilarating and tense experience which I prefer not to repeat again... But I think we'll be back to the ghettos again sometime soon.

Why?

Well, let's just say we spotted a Laksa (YES LAKSA!) eating place next door...
- posted by BLT @ 8:32 PM