I just realized that it's past Mother's Day, and yet I can't really do anything, because my and my mum are an ocean apart right now.

Despite knowing that current, standard point-and-shoot-style compact cameras aren't really worth much of the time when it comes to image quality, it's still bound to have image quality significantly better than my mum's smartphone. Brighter lenses, higher ISO cap and performance, and still-bigger sensor sizes than what's in a phone... Oh, and being able to zoom in the first place.

I guess I should start thinking about finding a good camera to buy these days, as a gift. Any ideas?

Do you have any cameras that you no longer use? I know you have a lot of phones, at least. You could hand her down one of your previous ones as long as it was gently used and still takes good pictures.

Kind of unfortunate that I'm the recipient of hand-me-downs, huh? There's a reason why I don't have many phones on my hand. Most of them were previously used by my parents, and some are already dead.

The NEX is in fact my first camera. Ahahaha!