Behold!

Saturday, 18 March 2006

Yesterday I bought the Sony DSC-H1 camera. Sony DSC H1

Specs:

You can read the reviews here .

I bought the camera from the Sony showroom on 100 Feet ring road, near Kathriguppe (next to Silicon Honda). It cost me Rs.25,000/- . I am very impressed with the LCD quality, image stabilisation and the awesom 12X zoom.

The Camera connected to a windows XP laptop via USB cable without any hitch. The USB device was recognised immediately without any additional software install and Windows offered to copy the files over to HDD. Smooth. I'm yet to try out the software supplied with the camera. sony dsc h1 The video recording at 640x480(VGA) looks smooth, and the voice recording clarity is quite impressive.

I also bought 256MB Pro memory stick along with the camera. My only grouse with the camera so far has been the lock-in of sony cameras with their memory sticks and they are pricey too (1GB@ nearly 8000/-)

Canon

I considered buying Canon IS series. But, after visiting nearly 15 shops all over south bangalore and MG Road/Brigade road, the unanimous verdict seemed to be

  • Canon cameras are excellent
  • we do not stock them ;)
  • Poor service etc

I was not deterred by the so called poor service. Most of the time, a high end camera like the canon IS is unlikely to be bought by the hobby crowd and so the chances of "electronic mall" people stocking them are even lesser.

The only place in Bangalore, that had Canon ready was GK Vale in MG Road. But, their list price was Rs.32000+ which was well above my budget.

Konika I also took a look at the Konika model (no?) at Big Bazaar. The sales guy at the Big Bazaar camera counter was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable. Konika is slightly costlier than the Sony but their periperals seemed to be attractive, like inbuilt battery instead of the double AA type cells used by both Sony and Canon. Konika also comes with a free Tripod and has provision to stick an extra flash, which I think is a +ve for a high zoom camera. Also, there was an offer of 1GB memory stick for an additional 2000 on buying a new camera. Both the zoom control and camera control are joystick. However, the build and finish of Konika were not as good as Sony. Also, Konika's LCD is not as refined as the Sony's.