The Sony Cybershot DSC-H1 has landed!

Yesterday my new camera landed! It actually landed almost a week ago, but Clare hid it and insisted that I had to wait until my birthday. Sadly, Parcel Force's Parcel Tracking stops working once it has been signed for. The Decision to Renew When comparing the quality of photos take with my existing camera with those of my Dad's its easy to see that there is a gulf in class. My original camera, the trusty DSC-P31 was a Christmas present from Clare a couple of years ago. Its a fantastic camera but sadly is a couple of years old now. With a million and one magic moments happening with Abigail, I want to capture them as best as possible. Why the Cybershot DSC-H1? It got a rave review at: Digital Photography Review - highly recommend by photo-geeks who know much more than me! It delivers a great bang for your buck - feature packed 12x optical zoom - I tried to take some pictures of the view from my window at work (old camera, new camera) and just cannot do the it justice (new pictures to follow!) 5 mega pixels - when cropping images to get a great picture, my old camera just doesn't deliver enough pixels and the results are too pixelated (old camera) Usability - I have always been impressed with the Cybershot's software interface and they have made many improvements as the range and developed - well done Sony boffins! Its bang up-to-date, released July 2005 - unless you are in frugal mode renewing something with old technology is daft in the fast moving gadget world Auto Pilot - if you want to tinker with shutter speed and aperture you can, but it has a point and shoot mode where the camera does all the thinking Movies with sound - my old Cybershot could record movies, but did not have sound Enough waffling already! Show me some photos God Damn It! Mmm waffles... Without further ado, here are some test drive photos. Self Portraits One of the first and most important uses of any digital camera is the obligatory Turn-It-On-Yourself-And-Shoot shot. The H1 is a little bulkier than a compact and makes this shot a bit awkward, but it still does the job!

Zoom Zoom!
Pictures of my back garden taken from the patio doors. The washing line is eight meters away, the lanterns are about two meters away.
Just look at the spiders webs on the second lantern. Yikes! Don't show Clare or else I'll be dusting outside!


Ci sono molti fiori nel giardino
These shots are not cropped or edited and are taken through glass. The first shot shows Neighbours Alex's garden with a pot of white daisy-like flowers in the middle.
The second is a zoom in on them - I am very impressed!


The Eye In The Sky
Somewhat obsessed by the zoom in, here are some more pictures of various chimneys in my neighbourhood.
tsk tsk - look at the plants growing out of the bricks and the state of the roof tiles on shot number four.


Up Close and Personal
Of course, its not all about zooms you know. Another need is to take great close-ups.
You cannot get more up close and personal than someone's finger prints, so here are some of mine (please don't copy them)


Downsides

• I am going to need a bigger hard disk
• I am fast becoming a photo-geek