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March 29, 2008
Sony Cybershot DSC-H1 - Digital SLR, 12x Optical Zoom, Steady Shot Camera
I bought a Sony Cybershot DSC-H1 Digital SLR in early 2006 and have been thrilled with it ever since.
The first question you should ask yourself when considering a digital camera is what you are most likely to use it for? If you're mostly interested in point-and-click shots of your friends at various social activities, I'll point you in the direction of a Canon Elph... specifically the Canon PowerShot SD1000 7.1MP Digital Elph Camera with 3x Optical Zoom that I ordered for that purpose. But, if you're looking for a camera to allow you to indulge in a bit of amateur photography, an SLR is the appropriate choice.
Sports Photography
My main interests lie in the area of sports photography. I'm a baseball nut and wanted to take good quality photos to use on my Cubs Blog. I had previously managed to ruin a weekend of photos with a low quality digital camera that substituted a digital zoom for an insufficient optical zoom. So, one of the main criterion I was looking for was the best optical zoom I could afford within my budget. At 12x optical zoom, the Sony DSC-H1 was tops in the market. Of course, anytime you're zooming in that far, any camera shake is magnified immensely.
To combat camera shake, Sony has included a 'steady shot' feature. This works pretty well, but is by no means fool proof. Because of exposure times, daylight shots almost always come out very clearly, but inside shots, and night time shots are much more susceptible to blurring.
The best solution, however is a tri-pod or a mono-pod. (If you just thought to yourself, 'I'll never buy a tri-pod' you should probably go check out my point-and-click recommendation.) The tri-pod is extremely handy for taking night shots, interior shots, and super-super crisp daytime photos. Also, if you're at an event where you feel you can't miss a single shot to blurriness, like a baseball game, then the tri-pod is appropriate for you.
Photo Examples
Here are some of the photos I've taken with my Sony DSC-H1, and a little blurb about them.
This shot of Chicago's West Loop was taken from my rooftop deck. I used the slik Tri-pod above to steady the shot. I also used the landscape photography option. (There is a dial at the top of the camera that allows the photographer to pick standard camera settings for all kinds of situations, the user can then drill down into menus to change other options.)
Larkspurs?
Here's are two pictures I took at Huntington Gardens in Pasadena, CA. I never saw a sign telling me what kind of flower the purple ones were, but I researched it a bit later and determined that they were larkspurs. The second photo is the most beautiful rose I have ever seen... and there's a friendly little bug who agrees with me.
Anyhow, both pics were taken using the outdoors-still setting (the icon is a palm tree), designed for daylight shots of still objects, but where you want a focus to the picture, as opposed to a landscape which doesn't have a focus. I did not use a tri-pod for either image.
Both of these photos were taken at a Cubs Game (May 6, 2007). I bought seats in the lower deck, about thirty or forty rows back. (Incidentally, when taking game shots, if you can't be on the field, you generally want a bit more elevation so as to avoid having beer vendors walking into the shots, or half of the pictures you took that whole day showing up with a blue blur in the bottom of the frame because the guy wearing a Cubs hat three rows in front of you is just too tall.)
When taking action shots, you've got to use the 'sports mode' on the camera, otherwise your images will turn out blurry. (The 2.5 inch screen is good, but when you put the pictures on your computer, you'll notice blurring and blue hats you don't realize are there from the screen... the alternative is to use the zoom mode on the camera and zoom in to make sure your shots are nice and crisp.)
Anyhow, I digress once more. The combination of a tri-pod (used here), the action mode, and the 12x optical zoom of the Sony Cybershot, and a sunny baseball game at Wrigley Field makes for some fantastic pictures.
Oh, I should also mention that each picture, as presented above, was reduced to 25% of the original image. (Cut from 36" by 27" at 72 pixels/inch to 9" by 6.75" at 72 pixels/inch). The only other 'tampering' I've done is to slap the copyright on the pics.
Update: Ok, I couldn't resist. I'm including these two photos I took in Cancun because they are breathtakingly beautiful. Both were actually taken without the aid of a tri-pod, but with bright sunlight, the exposure time was very small and the photo's are incredibly crisp.
This was the view from the balcony of the condo I stayed in when I went to Cancun in February. (The resort was called Solymar, and I rented from Michelle and Peter Hermick.)
This guy is an iguana (at least I think he's an iguana) that lives in some bushes out front of one of the resort hotels in Cancun. I went for a stroll one day, and this guy decided to pose for a pic. I believe this shot was taken using the 'point-and-click' setting.