The Great Grandma Camera Campaign

Alright folks, the drive to get a camera that actually works to film grandma begins today. I've gotten several e-mails and a comment saying "The Canon GL2 is the finest camera known to man. It also makes French Fries. It not only captures your subject it captures their soul. You can also use it for amateur MRI screenings to find tumors. It's THAT fucking awesome." Look, I love French Fries, and I've used the GL2 before; it is a beautiful machine, but dude. It's $2,799.99 plus shipping. It's a great camera, but it's a bit more than we need. Also, I fear that if we ever raised that much money and didn't add it to a humanitarian cause, I would be clubbed to death by my Jiminy Crickett conscience, or my mother. Which ever is more disturbing.

I think we found a MiniDV camcorder with a much more appropriate price range: The Sony DCR-HC21 Cheap Ass Handycam. I use the phrase "cheap ass" as a term of endearment; Sony has always been good to Grandma- case in point:

One day, Grandma's PS2 stopped reading discs. I believe the game at the time was Final Fantasy X; not one of Grandma's favorites, but worth finishing. After about the 100 billionth cutscene with full dialogue (a reasonable estimate) the game froze; flickered off; reset; and said simply: DISC READ ERROR or some such horrible message. In a panic, Grandma grabbed the manual and found Sony had a tech support number.

...Long story short, Sony sent Grandma a refurbished PS2 at no cost that she still hammers on today. In addition; we had the tattered unit repaired at a low cost which performed well in my apartment at Case Western and now performs well in the living room here. This was back before Grandma had a following, Sony was just doing their thing. We like Sony.

So here it is:Check the specs: It has a 20x optical zoom; 800x Digital (like anyone ever uses digital anyway); 2.5" Touch Panel SwivelScreen (there is a funny story about me trying to find the "Menu" or "Exposure" buttons at Wal Mart before some lackey comes over and pokes the screen for me; I'll tell it to ya' one day... ...you know, when your older) ; PCM Stereo (I liked what I heard through the headphones); A/V, DC, i.Link IEEE 1394, and USB input / outputs.... and the best part is: it isn't three grand. With 7.5% Portage County sales tax (I already have tapes and an external mic that will work and a Bogen Tripod with a decent fluid head courtesy of my days as a wedding photographer) the total comes to a reasonable $428.78!

I think we can do that. That's only 22 donations of $20; or 43 donations of $10; or 86 donations of $5; or 429 donations of $1.00. If you think like grandma, it's only 15 games of bingo @ $30 a game!

We just put the donation button up last night and we already have $5.00; so we're not doing too bad. Usually when I listen to NPR and they have some sales thingy, I turn the station because I figure All Things Considered has a lot of affluent followers that can do better at donating than me. Yes. This makes me a horrible person. That's why I feel awkward doing this now. NPR has Around Noon and The Diane Rehm show, bringing insightful commentary and hard hitting political action. We give you Grandma Hardcore, so it isn't quite the same. If you like Diane Rehm, go donate to NPR, they need it more. If you like Hardcore Grandma, clicky the little paypal button on the right and send some love.

--The last video the Optura 20 spit out is being cut right now, so come back to see us. Thanks everybody!--