Back again

I am back after a "No Computer" weekend where I decided to shut myself out of the web world for the weekend! I find it interesting to take such short breaks and indulge in other creative activities (like eating, sleeping, playing with my daughter etc! :-)... And today, when I login, I feel refreshed and ready to go racing!

Ok, we'll get back to the story again... Once I had my Minolta Dimage Z1, I really started experimenting in the real sense! Now I had a camera where I don't need to spend for experimenting! WoW, that was a real bonus with the digital. I just took lots and lots of shots of a juice can in all possible angles and modes just for the heck of it! And I was never tired or bored. Though learning was not proportional to the number of snaps I took, it still was worth it as I was now fully comfortable with the camera, could operate it blindfolded. And the more I used it, dearer the camera felt. To tell the truth, Dimage Z1 is a really responsive camera (except in low light conditions where focus lock was tricky). Otherwise, I was able to lock the focus quickly and shutter lag was pretty acceptable. And it offered me almost all controls I wanted. Though I had to go to menus to set some options, I felt OK as I got used to this mode very soon. And then I started taking my camera out into nature which was the whole purpose of getting a ultra-zoom...

Putting things to work

After a wait for few days, I got my pack along with a 256MB memory card. And I was thrilled to handle a camera again, and that too a digital one. Even though the camera was a point and shoot, it had nice (to some extent) SLR type shape and nice look. And it supported almost all manual options which I was eagerly waiting for.
Once the initial excitement was over, I remembered my first camera experience and decided that this time, I should not make the same mistakes again. So as the first step, I put the batteries for charging and took the manual in hand. Few sections were read and re-read with camera in hand and checking the options real time. Within a few days, I was quite at ease with the camera and was comfortable handling the camera like a small point and shoot with one hand, still managing to play around with most options. And I was ready to go....

Feeling like a Soap Opera going on and on? OK. So here comes one of the first images I tried out with my camera. (Cropped for composition)

Helping Hand

Do let me know your comments. Also, experts please let me know your comments and areas of improvements, which I plan to consolidate for everyone's benefit. Waiting for your inputs....

My first digital camera

Once I decided to go for a camera, the choice whether to go digital or film was a no-brainer. The only question was which digital camera I should buy. During that time, the prices of digital cameras were still not as low as it is today, and hence buying a digital SLR was somewhat out of question (You know, I was married by then :) Hence I had to go for a Point and Shoot. Since I was itnerested in nature and birds in specific, the long zoom catergaroy was obviously the focus. Now started the next research as happens when you decide to go for a camera. The specs were read and re-read many times, various forums were visited very often, reviews scrutinized heavily, excel sheets were filled with all possible feature comparisons, and at the end, putting all this research aside, I went for the cheapest one at that time - Minolta Dimage Z1.

And the camera has not disappointed me and with time, I fell in love with my "cheap" ultra-zoom. And I also learned that camera brand really may not matter much, but the man behind matters,... yes, that really matters!