geek column be warned

So having made 3000 snaps with the digital camera thus probably damning me to life as an associate professor for being a photographer and not at least someone who uses photography but better still there as someone who thinks about using photography, thought it was time to assess my feelings about the Sony.

While it is doing what i expected and had wanted it to do i pretty much hate the camera. i bought it for the photographing of the people i meet along the way here and for that it has worked better than Ziquinho or Ubaldo but that has to do with the waist level type finder meaning that the camera isn’t constantly at my eye to frame the image. this means i can take more snaps with less inconvenience to the person which means more chance of success.

i find that with Ubaldo and the like, i would make one image then put them away, now with the Sony i make the standard introductory image then put it down to chat and make more from the waist level position. this seems to make them more heroic but also wistful as it seems that they are looking off into the distance. it also means that the snaps can be e-mailed to the recipient as it seems that most people don’t care about a hard copy anymore. I also make more images as there is no film involved so what the hell.

It has also taken over the role of the point and shoot for the photographing of things but with less success. with the Nikon 5400 i could get within inches of the subject. The Sony is much more stand-offish. The difference in distance changes the photograph considerably.

The Sony has been used for the snapshot camera, the one when i want to remember a place but not use the photograph in my “work’. i’d be more specific if i knew what my work was. They are mainly scenes, snaps made as scouting images to show my mother sitting in the machine. I thought about clogging up sights like Everywhere and JPG with them as they seem to be the places which embrace digital work as uploads are easier than making prints or scans.

It will make this year’s Clarke’s Beach very easy to produce.

They are also fine for posting to weblogs so that those readers who think the sky is falling because of my use of one can see what is going on.

But as i said, i hate the Sony and most digital cameras for the reasons i stated. i cannot simply turn it on and have it at the setting i want, the lens seems to move from the widest angle to some neutral point with the slightest provocation. water - or anything on the lens shows up in the snap something that doesn’t happen with film. The lens feels cheap - the build of a Diana is more substantial. I have to have features that i don’t want - a zoom lens when all i want is a wide angle - admittedly i have used it for the scouting snaps but i would prefer a more compact wider apertured fixes lens. the constant searching for power at the end of the day to recharge the battery and the time it takes to download images on the laptop.

it doesn’t seem well made, and while the Canons and more expensive cameras seem more solid there still seems to be a cynicism in their manufacture to simply let things pass.

And there is the size, i know that this is one of the lightest cameras around i have hefted the advanced amateur models like the Canon D30’s and they are truly back braking - Ubaldo weighs less - but it is the clunkiness of the lens again it really doesn’t fit into my courier bag well it is constantly jabbing me and turning on. Where is the Olympus OM-1 of the digital world?

The Sony will continue to be used during the rest of the Navegatio but will be put to rest at the end. One would think it good for notetaking while marling about but cannot wait to be re-united with the leiquinhas and their compactness, those who want to see snaps will just have to wait.