New Camera.

Several years ago we purchased a small Nikon digital camera that has been through many outings, parties, trips, birthdays and so on. The last year or so we have noticed some major problems with our Nikon. Shutter lag and release lag times were getting longer and longer. In the past couple of months, some of the functions were not working well making picture quality terrible. The biggest issue of all was when the camera would completely freeze up in the on position rendering it useless and the only way to reset the camera was to pull out the batteries.

After milling around the idea of getting a new camera we decided to use the money we fortunately had at Best Buy. Looking for a new camera is not easy. We wanted to get into a larger optical zoom while not attempting to stay away from a bulky heavy camera.

So we test drove the Sony DSCH3B. We had two weeks to find out if it was the one so we put it through as many scenarios as we could without leaving to far from home as we would not want to drop it, and return to best buy saying "It was the damndest thing, we opened the box and there it was in a ton of black plastic and silver metal pieces. Could we get another please.

The basic specs with the camera fit what we were looking for;
10x optical zoom. 8.1 megapixels. Low light and night shots are excellent. It has all the basic shooting functions we require and some we are learning more about i.e. ISO settings and so on. Shooting speed shutter time lag: approx. 0.3 sec. and release time lag: approx. 0.008 sec. which doesn’t mean a lot to me when I read them but when I am using the camera there is no comparison. These times will almost entirely eliminate any missed shots waiting for the camera to process.

The weight was a huge factor and weighing in at approx. 264 g (Body); and 380g (9.3oz) w/ Memory Stick and battery it is perfect weight to through in a pack, carry-on and its slim style makes it easy to carry in a pocket.

The major trade-offs; Sony makes a memory stick Duo that means it does not take the SD sticks, which we already have two of from our other camera -so extra $$$. Second the camera only takes Lithium Ion battery meaning all those AA rechargeable we have can not be used -meaning $$$. We wanted a view finder it does not have one, but has a great 2.5" clear LCD screen. And the last one con that is not that problematic is no zoom option while in video mode.

So, all though there are a few cons the pros out weighed them greatly. The picture quality alone is amazing. I haven’t taken too many with it yet but here are a couple from Tracy’s site that really stand out and provide an idea of the colour quality and definition.

With the hikes this summer along with the Alps and European cities in the fall, we are anxious to see how the wide arrange of scenery will turn out.