From The Mailbag: Shahram is looking for a camera

OK - I am used to spam. My spam filter deletes about 90% of all mails automatically without me even seeing all the crap. I don't see ads for Prozac, Xanax, housewifes and so on and so on. All this goes straight to the garbage can. But sometimes an interesting headline makes it past the filter, and while I almost smell that it's spam, I do open the mail anyway. Like I did this morning...

From: "bo dr" <shahram463@yahoo.com>
To: <mark@zanzig.net>
Re: help me about buying camera
Date: Saturday, August 5, 2006 01:31

hi dear im shahram 27 years old amatour photograph
i like buying a canon AE-1 u think is good for now now is digital life
but i like buying AE-1 tell me about
thanks i waiting for u mail
tace care

Huh? What?

Shahram, it's nice that you call me Dear, but I prefer just my wife calling me this way, so I'd appreciate a more formal approach, like Hi, Mark or maybe Dear Mr. Zanzig. But heck, let's see whether I can help you.

So you want to buy a AE-1 camera? And you want me to tell you something about it? But what? About how to put film into the camera? About how good the camera is? About how old-fashioned it is these days where everybody has gone digital (even me)? How about visiting my page on the Canon AE-1 Program? You said correctly "now is digital life", and there are many useful services that might cough up thousands of pages on the AE-1. Think of Google, just for example. Don't be afraid - it's easy. Just visit www.google.com, and enter "Canon AE-1" into the text entry box, and hit ENTER. Within seconds you have more information on your screen than you could possibly ever understand. :-)

Anyway, I wish you good luck finding more information on the AE-1.

-- Mark

P.S.: Oh, nd pls do nt hold u breath w8ing for me reply - it'll never come. U would not understand it anyway. Tace care! ;-)