My latest acquisition - a Sony H7 Digicam.

I have lost count of the many cameras (and camcorders) that I have bought over the years,
since my first overseas travel in 1998. So much, that when I return back from a foreign trip,
one of the first things I am asked by friends/colleagues back home is, "How many cameras
did you buy this time ? :-)

Many of them were bought as gifts for family, while I chose to retain only the first camcorder
(a Samsung Hi8) and the first digicam (a FujiFilm 3MP 3x zoom point-and-shoot). Over the
years, these served me faithfully, though I lost interest in the HandyCam due to its bulk and
also because I became more interested in still photography than in video.

I would have retained my Fuji cam for years, since 3 MegaPixels was more than enough for
my needs, while I could do with a little more zoom. However, I was forced to think of a new camera because of two issues with the camera, which I could not overcome.

The main problem was insufficient memory in the cam. It had come with a 16MB xD card
and since at the time of buying the camera, I was a little short of cash, I decided to postpone buying more memory for sometime later. But, when I did get around to buying memory, I
found that the camera had got too friendly with the 16MB chip. Meaning, it would not accept
any higher capacity cards.

I tried different brands of memory cards, with the same results (error writing to flash) each
time and finally gave up. This meant that I had to make do with just 16MB memory, which in
the highest resolution of 3MP, would enable me to take just 20 snaps. I got over this problem
by either lugging along my laptop on all trips (a real pain) or by lowering the resolution to be
able to take more snaps.

This worked well for many months till the up-down button on the camera gave way. Now, the
button works fine when you go up the menu, but would not come down. I opened the camera
and found a broken connection to be the culprit. This meant, that if I had set the resolution
at the highest (3MP), I would not be able to come down any more (since the down action is
not working).

One workaround was to open up the camera (held together by some 6 real tiny screws) and
manually move the button down. I used the camera this way for some more months, but at
times, I would have to change the setting to 3MP to get some good photos and then to go back
to the low-resolution setting, I would have to open up the camera again. Not very funny.

That is when I decided to get a new camera. Was toying with the idea of a Nikon D40 (DSLR)
for sometime, but decided that I was not that much of a professional to need an SLR camera
and I did not even have the faintest idea about lenses, filters etc. Also, I carry my camera
always with me - the rationale being that you never know when you come across something
interesting. So, a bulky camera was the last thing I wanted.

Looked at the point-and-shoot varieties, which were easy to have in your pocket, but most of
them came with standard 3x or 4x zoom. Over years of using digicams, I have come to know
that more than MegaPixels, what really matters is the zoom, though the manufacturers would
like us to believe otherwise. All that you need to get some real nice photographs is a minimum
of 3MP, with which you can have nice prints even upto 8 inch by 12 inch blow-ups (without
any pixelisation).

But you could never have enough of zoom though - the more the better. So, my camera hunt
came to somewhere between normal point-and-shoot cameras and the SLRs. These cameras
come with decent resolutions ( > 7MP), but the zoom is to die for (10x to as high as 18x). I
identified a FujiFilm (8MP, 18x zoom) and a Sony H7 (8MP, 15x zoom) and really struggled
to choose between them.

The extra zoom in the Fuji and the lower price were an attraction, but gave up just because
they did not come with English manuals (though you could set the GUI to English). Also, I
somehow had this feeling that the Sony was a tad better when it came to photo quality.
Anyway, got the Sony yesterday. Cost me 44000Yen (440$), which is higher than the price
I would have paid in the U.S., but much lower than Indian prices.

Anyway, I am happy with the product after having shot some photos today morning - of the
snow in Tokyo ofcourse. Hopefully, this camera would be the last one I buy for years to come.

A photo of the new photo-capturer (my new Sony H7)



Note : All references to zoom are of the optical variety ie real lenses. The digital zoom is just
a sham. So, while choosing a camera, ignore the digital zoom part and look for optical zoom.