Hey everybody!
I own and extensively use a SONY DSC W7 digital camera. When I saw the name listed in here, I expected some reviews. But surprisingly I am the first to write a review for this product on MS.
I had always desired to have a digital camera, ever since the time those 2mpx models came in the market. And I would envy any of my acquaintances, who would have returned from abroad, and who would flaunt their newly acquired digital camera to me.
One of the major points that would entice me is the large LCD display on those cameras, where you could actually see your image on scree. Well, at certain age, that was a novelty too.
I wanted to dabble in photography, but the high costs of film and development (due to high volumes) kept me from pursuiing that activity.
Last year finally my desire to own one was fulfilled. I got a SONY DSC W7 point and shoot digital camera. Man what a piece it was. It felt great to hold one.....finally.
Now I could pursue my amateurish interest in photography without worrying about recurring costs. Because there are none!
In a digital camera, there is no film, so basically you are wasting nothing. IF a photo did not turn out the way you expected, just delete and click again! As simple asthat.
And you are not limited to the paltry 36 shots a roll! Just keep clicking on and on and on till you exhaust your memory.
This model has a 7.2 effective megapixels (mpx). Ok before buying the digital camera, I was of the misguided opinion (like most novices) that the more the megapixels, the better it is. But after buying the camera, and learning a few things about photography, I have learnt that you need more megapixels only ifyou plan to extensively do portraits or enlarged blowups of your images. Otherwise anywhere between 3-4 mpx is good, if just printing is what you are planning to do.
But the above statement need not discourage you from going for this model because there are several features which are really cool, if you actually take the time to read through the manual before using it.
This camera has two faces. One: it is a completely simple SWITCH ON; AIM; CLICK kind of camera with all settings ’’auto’’. This is best suited for techno phobes, who are intimidated with too many buttons menu options settings etc. But want a decent quality of photos.
Two: it has a fully loaded menu, where you can minutely adjust aperture, shutter speed, flash timing, focus etc, . and get a perfect (of course it cannot be compared to an SLR - but still in its own capacity it is good) professional quality photos. And the zoom is also very effective. THe photo does not distort when you use the zoom feature.
The camera comes equipped with one pair of rechargeable batteries (AA x 2); One battery charger unit; Firewire/USB cable for PC transfer; Software driver CD; Direct to TV output cable (I love this feature).
Using the direct to TV output cable, you can turn your big screen TV (if you have one - any TV with a DVD input type jack will do) into a camera view finder. Infact it is good if you have a high definition (HDTV) because on the regular 50hertz TV, the previews will be shaky.
How i’d love to meinton the fun we had with that one. Just switched on the tv and connected the camera to it and placed it hidden on top of the TV under some show pieces. Now whoever walked into the room was surprised to see himself on TV......LIVE!!! hahah
The optics are decent. The camera sports Carl Zeiss optics, which are considered high quality.
If you buy the camera, a memory stick is an essential addon (i have a 256 MB memory stick) because the camera has only 32 MB internal memory. I little more would be desirable.
The batteries usually last 2 full days of out door shoot usage. This may vary from person to person, so please dont take this statement at absolute face value.
the only drawback that I noticed, and later learnt that it is the same with all ’’point and shoot’’ digital cameras, is that since this is not an SLR, it has extremely sensitive light sensors, which sometimes cause dust particles to get out of focus.
This causes big round spots on some images. At first I was terrfied thatsomething was wrong with the camera, but later, on joining a photography forum, I came to know that this was a known issue. And one had to live with it.
Inspite of its selling price, in india, I call it a budget camera because when compared to the real mccoy (read SLR) it is pretty cheap. ANd I got it even cheaper because I did not purchase it from India. :-)
On the whole, it is a very satisfying experience to own one. Small and convinient to carry anywhere and capture magical moments in a snap!!