Got my camera back today!

A couple of months ago I saw some new, Panasonic Oxyride batteries in Shoprite. The packaging boasted that these batteries lasted much longer than traditional alkalines in high-drain devices, specifically digital cameras. I decided I'd give them a shot and see if I noticed any difference.

Turns out, the batteries killed our Olympus digital camera. After inserting the Oxyride batteries, the camera instantly drained any batteries, of any type, inserted into the camera.

After receiving an unhelpful reply from Olympus tech support/customer service, I emailed Panasonic, explaining that their batteries had killed my camera and I wasn't happy about it. Panasonic sent me a non-canned reply, clearly and professionally explaining that the Oxyride batteries were incompatible with my camera, and even indicating the exact page number in the Olympus owner's manual that stated not to use batteries of that type.

So, feeling like a dolt, I spent a couple of nights pricing replacement cameras, and in the end decided to just send my camera back to Olympus for repair. The camera was delivered back today. I give the Olympus repair service these grades:
Courtesy: B+
General 'having-their-act-togetherness': C
Speed/efficiency: A
Quality of work performed: A
Communication: C+
Price: C

Overall: B

And, in honor of getting the camera back, I have a few pictures to share. The pictures aren't all award winners - by the time I could take some shots it was dark outside, and Max isn't a great photo subject - he wants to walk right up to me before I can take pictures of him. I'll post other, better pictures, once I have them.

Maren - in the 'cool' outfit Nate put on her this evening while I ate dinner:















Nate - in the same 'cool' outfit, after seeing how cute I thought Maren was:















Max - contemplating a jump:


And, finally, a few not very good pictures of my NEW CAR! Yes, that's right, a 2004 Mazda 6s: