Good bye to an old friend...
Jan/17/09 02:11 Filed in: Technicalities
Switching from a Sony Cybershot DSC H2 to a NIKON D60
After almost three years of learning and growing with and close to each other, I decided that it is time to move on. Well, I actually decided that a while ago. Although one could not call it a decision perse - it was more of a mutually growing apart which was ironically a part of growing close. But that how the flow of life takes sometimes it very own turns... Foreseeable, exciting and yet painful at the same time.
But back from the philosophical paths to the real deal: I ordered and received my all spankin' new NIKON D60, as a kit with the NIKKOR 18-55 mm kit lens and the 55-200 mm VR lens on top of it (AF-S DX VR 55-200mm F/4-5.6G IF-ED - holy marketing!). This is one big step up from where I am coming from. The previously owned and used SONY Cybershot DSC-H2 sparked the interest in photography in me and this camera was a great learning tool, which I have been using since early 2006.
The H2
is one of those called "superzoom" cameras - built
in lens, 12x zoom (some 300 mm equivalent),
designed and built to have a SLR feeling to it.
This is exactly what sold me to this type of camera
back in the day. I knew I had a certain interest in
photography, but was not sure about how far it
would cary. Back then, there were a few competitors
competing in the same market: Fuji, Olympus,
Panasonic and the Sony. I learned a lot about
digital camera technology back then by
studying the
reviews extensively.
After a lot of reading and re-reading, I decided
for a trip to the local camera store (one day we
will regret driving them out of business by
ordering everything online for less!). I picked
the Sony simply because of its feeling and its
usability: it was lying great in my hands and
did not feel like a cheap soap box and I was
immediately friends with the menu and all the
user interface handling - the competition could
not match that, I found.
I don't want to write a review about an outdated product here but just a few sentences about my experience with this camera:
The digital viewfinder proofed to be blessing and curse at the same time. It was a good learning tool to have "live preview". Image composition was reduced to placing shapes and forms in the frame, since the size and resolution of this viewfinder was too small. Not the worst thing, since images consist of such elements and composition is thus reduced to the most important factors. It is not the best thing, since disturbing elements within the composition can be easily overlooked. The viewfinder was horrible to use in bright conditions and impossible to use for long exposure shots in the dark. The lens is quite unusual. It has a big zoom for its size. Image quality suffers a bit, but is fine, depending on what your are planning on shooting. The huge amount of barrel distortion can be actually quite charming, depending on the shot. Specially skyscrapers bend nicely towards the center of the image which provides interesting framing opportunities. It was extremely hard to get a shallow depth of field with this lens, despite the fairly large f/2.5-3.5 aperture settings. The combination of this lens with the small sensor results in this camera being a light hungry monster. I found myself running out of light inside and surprisingly often outside. Higher ISO settings can not make up for this, since every image taken with ISO greater than 200 is extremely noisy. ISO settings 400 and more are absolutely useless. The white balance works fine outdoors, but the indoor white balance performance was quite disappointing. The dynamic range of the DSC H2 is quite small, which results in many of my photographs being multiple exposures combined using Photoshop Elements 3 or Photomatix Pro.
This camera performed best on bright, sunny days with colorful images to shoot. That is what is is built for, i think. Although what I just wrote may sound quite negative, I really enjoyed working with this camera over the past two and a half years. Again, it was a great learning tool and it is quite powerful. I think all the cameras limitations taught me, what I need and want in a new camera, taught me about the challenges of photography and certainly taught me about the use of Photoshop...
So here I am posting the official last image taken with this camera, which is ironically and unintentionally one of the first subjects I ever published in the fotocommunity. What a nice way to say farewell...
I don't want to write a review about an outdated product here but just a few sentences about my experience with this camera:
The digital viewfinder proofed to be blessing and curse at the same time. It was a good learning tool to have "live preview". Image composition was reduced to placing shapes and forms in the frame, since the size and resolution of this viewfinder was too small. Not the worst thing, since images consist of such elements and composition is thus reduced to the most important factors. It is not the best thing, since disturbing elements within the composition can be easily overlooked. The viewfinder was horrible to use in bright conditions and impossible to use for long exposure shots in the dark. The lens is quite unusual. It has a big zoom for its size. Image quality suffers a bit, but is fine, depending on what your are planning on shooting. The huge amount of barrel distortion can be actually quite charming, depending on the shot. Specially skyscrapers bend nicely towards the center of the image which provides interesting framing opportunities. It was extremely hard to get a shallow depth of field with this lens, despite the fairly large f/2.5-3.5 aperture settings. The combination of this lens with the small sensor results in this camera being a light hungry monster. I found myself running out of light inside and surprisingly often outside. Higher ISO settings can not make up for this, since every image taken with ISO greater than 200 is extremely noisy. ISO settings 400 and more are absolutely useless. The white balance works fine outdoors, but the indoor white balance performance was quite disappointing. The dynamic range of the DSC H2 is quite small, which results in many of my photographs being multiple exposures combined using Photoshop Elements 3 or Photomatix Pro.
This camera performed best on bright, sunny days with colorful images to shoot. That is what is is built for, i think. Although what I just wrote may sound quite negative, I really enjoyed working with this camera over the past two and a half years. Again, it was a great learning tool and it is quite powerful. I think all the cameras limitations taught me, what I need and want in a new camera, taught me about the challenges of photography and certainly taught me about the use of Photoshop...
So here I am posting the official last image taken with this camera, which is ironically and unintentionally one of the first subjects I ever published in the fotocommunity. What a nice way to say farewell...
I am looking forward working with my D60. Once I
have some experience with it I will post a small
user review on here....