I bought the Sony DSC-P1 Cybershot digital camera on 1 Nov 2000. It came only with 8MB so I purchased another 64MB. The retail price was RM3198 (camera) and RM650 (memory) but I managed to get both at only RM3050!
	This special discount was because two was purchased, one for my brother Yusof, and one for me.

The Sony digicam beside my older Minolta 7xi monster SLR.

 

	The main things that attracted both Yusof and I to this marvelous piece of technology were: Compact in size High resolution - 3.3 megapixel CCD High quality 3x optical zoom lens with 6x digital zoom Exquisite design Feature packed MPEG movie and audio recording Superb LCD display Animated GIF, Text, and Email image modes Smart InfoLithium battery USB support Excellent ratings by independant reports So easy to use
	I've only been using it for a few days, so I haven't tested it fully. So far so good. I'm impressed.
	However, since I am so used to operating an SLR, there are a few things that I need to get used to when taking pictures with a digital camera:- Holding the camera - yup, even holding it is different. For a start, you now rarely use the viewfinder because it was designed to be seen from the rear LCD display. This makes a lot of sense, because you are seeing the image as it will end up to be; for example, if you were to change the exposure settings, the display will react accordingly (like if you underexposed the scene.) You can't get that kind of feedback from a normal SLR. But this means that your eye is not pressed against the viewfinder anymore, and you're holding the camera away from your face. So, keeping the camera steady is more tricky. You have to grasp the sides of the camera properly to get a steady shot. The strap that comes with package looks pretty flimsy too, so I daren't dangle the camera from it. Composing the picture - Firstly, somehow, when your eyes are not pressed against the viewfinder, the mental connection feels a little distant. I used to feel closer to the subject when composing through the viewfinder. Secondly, the LCD display, although realtime and crystal clear, can exhibit slight jerky or slower updates. This normally happens when you press the shutter button halfway; the system re-analyses the scene (focusing, exposure) and this causes a slight lag.
	Apart from that, this is a giant leap from my older Minolta 7xi SLR. The resultant pictures are so sharp with colours rich yet natural, and the exposures are consistently top class yielding a very dynamic tonal range and overall high fidelity in image quality. Plus I never need to go to the shop to buy film or batteries, and send the film for processing. I'll need to buy a colour photo printer though...

 

	Mind you, my 7xi is in tip-top condition and works perfectly. I must say, I really liked the 7xi, and just playing around with it made me realise that it was a wise purchase. A few areas the DSC-P1 cannot challenge the 7xi would be in flash power, exposure control (you can't select aperture or shutter values in the DSC-P1), interchangeable lens, night shots (the DSC-P1 can go down to 2 secs only) and motor-drive operation (the 7xi shoots upto 3fps.)
	Another consequence of using a digital camera is learning to be proficient in "digital darkroom" techniques. These are photo enhancements done mainly using Adobe Photoshop and includes: Cropping, Rotating, and sometimes Retouching (although rarely) Resizing (resampling) the image (this causes the most deterioration but is essential for putting up images for the web) Colour and exposure correction (using "Auto Levels" or "Auto Contrast" or "Variations") Sharpness improvements (using "Unsharp Mask") Resaving for optimised Web output
	Well, that's all for now. I hope to show you some more photographic output with the DSC-P1, and I have a feeling my homepage will be updated more often.