So. After weighing the Canon/Nikon odds for a very long time and soliciting some very good thoughts on both sides of the scale, I came down on the Nikon side, just barely.

Through a series of random events, I was able to order the Nikon D3100. It arrived today.

I was so excited to open the box where I immediately learned I needed to charge the battery and it would take 1.5 hours.

Delay.

That’s okay because I had to run the after-school shuttle anyway so I plugged that baby in and left the house. Several hours later we were back and I was ready to roll.

I pulled out the Quick Start Guide again and noticed I needed to put the strap on. 30 minutes later I finally accomplished that infuriating task.

Then I realized I didn’t have a memory card for it. I borrowed Chloe’s. I popped her card in and the screen flashed on informing me I couldn’t use her card. So I borrowed Maddie’s. I figured it would tell me the same thing on this one only nothing happened this time. I kept pushing the on button but it wouldn’t come on.

I scanned the manual for “how to turn the camera on” but you know what? Nikon makes the sad assumption that the new Nikon owner isn’t an idiot and doesn’t bother to tell you how to turn it on.

I continued to push the button to try to get it on and sent an email to a friend AND posted on a Nikon forum about my first set-back.

I then took a better look at the button I was pushing. Turns out I wasn’t pushing the on/off button. I was pushing the “take a photo” button while the camera was off.

Good one.

“On/off” is written right there, so that explains why I was confused, but I didn’t realize you slide that tab over to turn it on.

Now I know how to turn it on.

Next step, the memory card. I practiced taking about 6 photos right off the top and then pulled the card out to see what would happen when I uploaded them into iPhoto. Turns out Maddie’s memory card had some 800 photos on it, most of them of random blurry zoo animals and the occasional “let’s see what the inside of my nose looks like” shots. I didn’t realize this until I hit “import all” on iPhoto.

Delay.

Eventually iPhoto even got bored with that set of photographic awesomeness and gave up. I then popped the card back in my Nikon and reformatted it.

I think we’re in business now. I have some more instruction manual to memorize and a few Nikon YouTube videos to watch, but I’m on the way.

It really helps to know how to turn it on.