New Camera

16/03/08 22:35 Filed in: Photos

Six years ago, I purchased my first digital camera. It was an Olympus C-200 Zoom, which I bought in Jersey for £200 (about €330 at the time.) It was the size of a sod of turf, had 2.1 megapixels and ran on AA batteries.

I remember feeling smug, seeing it in a camera store in Dublin soon after my purchase, with a price tag of €500 on it. It served me very well over three years, and once I upgraded, I gave it to my Dad, who made good use of it for another while. It finally packed in last summer. I took some very good pictures with it, including this one, which I have framed on my wall at home.

The next camera in my life was a Nikon Coolpix 5200, a very compact point-and-shoot job. At 5.1 megapixels, it was a significant step up from the Olympus. I paid €259 for it, buying it from the Apple Store online.

I realised soon after buying it that it had some serious shortcomings. It was hopeless for use in dark indoor settings, as I discovered at my sister's wedding. Even though it had a red-eye-reduction feature, it still plagued the photos I took, especially those of children. Kids tend to look straight at a camera when a photo is being taken, which leads to red-eye. Last years at a family event, I took a photo of my parents with all of their grandchildren. Nearly everyone of the kids had red-eye. Still, it served us well for three years, recording about 3,500 photos, including many our little darling Aoife.

I had been thinking about upgrading for a while, and for a good while had more or less made up my mind to take the step up to DSLR. It was going to be a Canon EOS400D or a Nikon D40x. Not being able to afford either, the decision was left on the long finger. Over the last few months, the Coolpix was starting to bug us badly, so the issue came to the fore again. The more I thought about it, I realised that a DSLR wouldn't be the right choice this time around. Apart from the money factor, the other main reason was the way that we use our camera. We tend to have it at the ready and take photos on the fly. It slips into the pocket when we're going to Emo for a walk. Neither my wife nor I is serious enough about photography as a hobby to warrant buying a DSLR.

So then, what to buy? In the three years since the last purchase, digital compact cameras have moved on a lot. There is a huge increase in the megapixel count, with compacts available now boasting 12 MP. However, some experts have stated that this doesn't necessarily lead to better photos, as the form factor of a compact negates the benefit of the extra pixels.

Reading many online reviews, one name kept cropping up - Ricoh, and in particular the Ricoh Caplio R7. It has 8.2 MP, and a really good lens.

It has a good few of the features that you see in modern compacts like face recognition, but it's not packed with unnecessary, gimicky features. It has a good 2.7" screen, and the controls are laid out well. Retail in Ireland is about €220-€250. I was in London last week and spotted one in a camera shop in the West End for £154, including a free 1GB SD card. Sold.

It's a nice camera and a definite improvement on the Nikon. I'm still getting used to the various modes and settings, and am having some minor problems with under-exposure, but overall it's taking some really nice shots. Here's a small selection that I have taken in the last couple of days. Click on them to go see full resolution versions.