Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

or is DH? (trivial)

15 replies

CheerfulYank · 05/04/2015 17:38

Okay, first of all I'm almost 32 weeks pregnant with DC3 so be gentle. I'm a seething mass of hormones. :o And happy Easter, if you're celebrating in some fashion.

Here's the thing. I am hideous with electronics. They always break around me, no matter how careful I am. I'd list all the laptops, tablets, and phones that have had a short life around me but it would be depressing.

I broke my previous phone sometime last year and DH lent me his during the day as I am at home with the DC and we don't have a landline. It had a pretty good camera on it, as far as phone cameras go.

I take a lot of pictures for FB, etc, of the DC as my best friends and parents live pretty far away and don't see them often. I used the phone camera for this.

DH was always bugging me to use one of the digital cameras we have because he says that phone pictures are crap and we might want to print them someday. I said I would use the camera if we went somewhere but most of the pictures I take of the DC are day to day things...DD making a mess like the little monkey she is, or DS reading the book his grandmother sent him. Things like that. I wouldn't want a copy of the vast majority of these photos lying around so printing them isn't an issue, I just snap them because they're cute and it's fun for the grandparents to see. Plus, it's easier for me to use the phone as I can adjust the light or whatever.

Anyway, for Christmas he got me a new phone of my own (which is still working, woo hoo) and...a camera. He says the camera can be set up to up load pictures to FB or Instagram or whatever. The camera on my new phone isn't very good at all.

I tried out the actual camera a few times but I can't edit the pictures and they just don't seem to be very good...red eyes etc. I don't use it, I just snap pictures on my phone and try to edit out the blurriness.

Today I was trying to get a picture of the two DC in their easter outfits on my phone, and it wasn't working. I asked to use his and he got snippy about my not using the camera he bought. I said that it wasn't charged and again reiterated that I didn't really know how to use it and that the pictures inevitably have red eye.

Now we're driving an hour and a half to see his aunt in stony silence over that damn camera, broken only by him telling me that I think the pictures on the phone are good, but they aren't, and "the camera uses a flash so they will have red eye" etc. Why would he want to print them then?

Arghhh. I think we're coming at this from two different angles in that he doesn't like social media. He uses it for work but other than that I think he thinks it's all a bit silly, for lack of a better word. Whereas to me it's a way to keep in contact with people and interact with a few adults every now and then.

I understand he wants some good photos of his children and he was being nice to get the phone and camera for me. However I feel (and this is maybe the hormones) that he is being the slightest bit controlling as, many times before, I categorically stated that I did not like using cameras for day to day stuff. I don't know if he knew before buying it that the phone had a bad camera, but I sort of wonder if he did and thought it would "force" me to use the camera.

So AIBU, or is he?

OP posts:
Nolim · 05/04/2015 17:46

He can use the camera himself, cant he? Let him take the amazing photos he wants.

CheerfulYank · 05/04/2015 17:51

That's what I said Nolim! However since I'm home all day I'm usually the one taking any pictures.

OP posts:
EastMidsMummy · 05/04/2015 17:52

He is BU. The camera is not "better" if it's too awkward or confusing for you to use. If he wants "better" pictures, why can't he take them himself?

GotToBeInItToWinIt · 05/04/2015 17:58

I know exactly where you're coming from. I have a great camera which i use for holidays/days out etc for day to day I use my phone. So much easier. DH will occasionally say 'you never use your camera' but nothing more. It seems an odd thing for him to get worked up about. Does he use the camera?

crazykat · 05/04/2015 18:44

Yanbu. We have a camera (that I bought) but only use it on days out/holidays as it's a pita to get it out, turn on etc every time I want to take a picture of the dcs. My phone is usually near to hand and much quicker to use and can edit on the phone without having to faff with the laptop.

I always get phones with a decent camera for this reason. My current phone has a 20 mega pixel camera on it and takes brilliant photos.

If your dh wants high quality photos of your dcs, which I can understand as I'm the same, but knows you prefer to use your phone camera then he should have got you a phone with a decent camera.

nocoolnamesleft · 05/04/2015 18:49

YABU - I'm a total technophobe. In fact, I've never successfully posted a picture from my phone to FB. Probably because I ran screaming from the thought of a smart phone, and kept one that allowed me to make phonecalls. But even I can get better pictures on a camera than on a phone - oddly enough not a suprise, as cameras are primarily designed for taking photos, and phones are not. Why not ask your husband to show you how to turn the flash off? Most half way decent compacts let you (only took me 1/2 hr to figure it out on mine...)

CheerfulYank · 06/04/2015 19:35

NoCool I've told him repeatedly that if he wants to show me how to use it, I will. But looking up instructions for this thing I don't want to use anyway, when I barely have any time to myself, sounds like the worst.

I like to spend my free time mumsnetting :o

OP posts:
cardibach · 06/04/2015 20:08

The camera on my oh knee is quite considerably better than the digital camera I had before it, so the pictures are plenty good enough for printing! I won a photography competition with a photo taken on my iPhone...

PuntasticUsername · 06/04/2015 20:29

YANBU. He's trying to push you into his own preferred solution, rather than accepting that your preferences on how to take and share your photos are just as valid as his.

Ask him if, when he goes to buy his next camera if he's planning to simply walk into the shop, say "I want a camera, please" and let the sales person sell him the one they think is best without any reference to his exact requirements? Because that's pretty much what he's expecting you to put up with.

CheerfulYank · 06/04/2015 20:35

Thank you Puntastic. That's how I feel. We didn't have much of a chance to talk about it last night but I think I'll bring it up as it is bothering me.

I don't know if he deliberately chose a phone with a bad camera but if he did I'm going to be seriously annoyed.

OP posts:
HazleNutt · 06/04/2015 20:40

YANBU - if you always take pictures with your phone, he should have gotten you a phone with better camera (there are excellent ones available). Not a crappy one and a separate camera you didn't want. He's YABU expecting you to use something you don't want to use, just because he bought it.

HazleNutt · 06/04/2015 20:40

He's BU, of course, not YABU.

chickenfuckingpox · 06/04/2015 21:53

take pictures with the camera and upload them to snapfish it automatically takes out red eye

you are both being a bit unreasonable pictures on a phone are okay he wants good ones you obviously take good pictures so he gets you a camera you cant use and wont teach you

you could both learn to bend a little

HazleNutt · 07/04/2015 13:22

Reminds me of an ex who bought me a ski suit. I don't ski. I never intend to ski, and he was well informed of that. But he was of the opinion that I should ski, and mightily pissed off that I wasn't all over the moon about a present I clearly did not want.

Nolim · 07/04/2015 16:54

Teminds me of when homer simpson bought a bowling ball for marge, who didnt bowl.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page