Photography Problem Solved - For Now

Customerservice Photography Technology Travel

2007-02-15

I am now the proud owner of a Sony Cybershot DSCW-55, which I’ll use for the remainder of my trip around the Bay Area to take some photos, after my Canon Powershot failed. I got it from Best Buy for the bargain price of $240 including a 1GB memory card. Not bad for a 7.1MP camera, especially given that current exchange rates almost halve that price when converting to pounds.

Advantages:

Easy-to-use Sony design - the build quality seems pretty good too. Normally I avoid Sony in the same way I avoid Apple - I just don’t understand the fuss (sorry Apple fans). This time, the bargain price swayed it for me.
Much slimmer and lighter than my Canon.
Goes all the way up to ISO 1000 (my Canon only does ISO 400). It remains to be seen how much noise there is at this level, but it’s still nice to know it can do it. I shoot in low light a lot, and hate compact-camera flash almost on principle.

Disadvantages:

Not quite as many features as my Canon. It won’t do aperture-priority, shutter-priority, etc. I can do without these for the time being.
No gravity sensor. It remains to be seen how annoying this will become, but Picasa makes rotating easy so hopefully it won’t be a big problem.
Only a 3x optical zoom. Not sure what this translates to in old numbers, but it ain’t much.
US charger - of course I didn’t expect anything different, but will have to solve this in the UK somehow.
US-only warranty - didn’t expect anything different either, but just decided to take the risk - that’s an easier decision to make with $240 than the ~$1000 the 400D would have cost.

I’m really not sure what I’ll do when I return to the UK. It probably depends on how many the Canon will cost to fix. I might sell it on Ebay once fixed and part-buy an SLR with the proceeds (I really should have followed Adrian’s advice originally and bought the 400D in the UK). I don’t really want to keep it; I’m most unimpressed with Canon now, and I get the impression the Sony will probably do everything I want from a compact. We’ll see.

Comments

@Ella, yes, I'm interested. No, I can't afford it :( @Mark, thanks for the tip (no pun intended) - I'll look out for that. Sounds really useful.

— andrewferrier 2007-02-22 20:19

Andrew, if you are smart while you are still in the US buy a Kennsington dual power supply, it has changeable tips, you can use it on a plane and in a wall socket in the UK and US, it has changeable tips and can support a laptop and camera/phone concurrently, they do tips for Sony Cameras, I have an older DSC T1. You can buy them at lots of big US electronics stores, try Frys on Market St. Here is an Amazon link for the one I have, its lighter and thiner than the standard IBM power supply. http://www.amazon.com/Kensington-33197-Adapter-Notebook-Computers/dp/B0007W1K8M/sr=8-1/qid=1172173664/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-9934911-0164619?ie=UTF8&s=electronics Make sure you get the tips you need though, Kensingtons website had the one for my Treo out of stock for months. I take the power supply to recharge phone/camera et al even when I don't take my laptop

— Mark Cathcart 2007-02-22 19:54

Not sure if you're still interested in this but hey: http://www.dpreview.com/news/0702/07022208canoneos1dmarkiii.asp

— Ella Gale 2007-02-22 11:24

[...] Andrew Ferrier’s Blog « Photography Problem Solved - For Now [...]

— Andrew Ferrier’s Blog » Blog Archive » Napa 2007-02-19 02:36

Yeah, like I say, I shall probably still buy the 400D. I'm pretty unimpressed with the E18 error though. I shall be recommending people away from Canon compacts. In a way, I can understand what you say about the Memory Stick. But I came to the realisation recently that I hardly ever take the memory card out of my camera. Once it's big enough to hold all I need before I get to a PC, that's enough. That's a typical situation for me, and with a bit of judicious pruning of the obvious duds on the camera, I don't have a problem. Plus my read-it-all USB card reader at home reads Memory Sticks, and memory is a cheap part of the whole package (a 1GB Memory Stick was $40).

— andrewferrier 2007-02-16 16:56

Fair points about Canon. I've been happy with my 350D but appreciate your frustration both over the Powershot, and the warranty for the 400D. Personally, I avoid Sony due to the proprietary MemoryStick technology. It just seems too limiting to me. I'd rather be able to reuse my storage in another camera or device if I chose to do so.

— andyp 2007-02-16 09:07