My New Toy Part 2

My first camera was a foldable. It wasn't mine really but belonged to my half brother. It was made in Germany so you can be assured of its quality, especially the lens. Unfortunately upon my returning it to my brother, he let his son played with it and it was damaged beyond repair.

I bought my own camera from a photographer friend in Kulai. It was a Pentax SLR with screw mount lens. For RM850 he threw in a 200 mm lens with it. It was in 1979 and RM850 was alot of money. Later I bought another Pentax SLR Spotmatic from an antique dealer in Kota Bharu. I bought it for a song at RM140 with a flash thrown in 1981. Both cameras went underwater in Besut and the Spotmatic didn't recover from the ordeal despite being sent for repair in Kuala Lumpur.

A few instamatic cameras followed due to the ease of use when we travelled.

My first digital camera was a GP camera that came free with the signing up with a credit card comany. It got damaged and had to be sent back to Taiwan for repair since it was under warranty. It took a long time to come back. I bought an Olympus AZ1 which is a fixed focus camera and I had a great time using it. It will become my backup camera.

Seeing Mat Salo and Zabs with DSLR at the book signing ceremony with Awang Goneng at Kunikuniya KLCC in late November 2007 set me afire to own one someday. Since I had just bought the notebook then that set me poorer by some RM3400 inclusive of peripherals, I had to keep the thoughts just in my mind. Well the rest as they say it is history when the 15th of May 2008, I collected my dream DSLR, a Sony Alpha 350.

I didn't take any picture with the camera on the first day as the whole lot of them were repacked in the box with the memory card not in the slot yet. As with any new delicte equipment, I prefer to read the manual first before attempting to do anything with it. Step by step I will explore the camera until I was sure that at the press of any button, it won't damage my precious toy.

As an example of the product of the Alpha 350, lets view some pictures, all taken with the automatic mode hehehehe.
My grand daughter Az. Ain't she cute?

The clown at the school sports day near home.

The adorable Balqiss

A close look at a lily.

My impression of the Alpha 350 is superb for someone who hasn't use another DSLR before. That goes to show that I can't be relied upon to make any appraisal of such a camera. Digital Camera magazine reviewed the entry level Alpha 200 in their May 2007 issue and they will review the 350 most probably in their next issue. So please wait for their professional review OK?

Svllee commented on my previous post that now with the DSLR I may need to procure a bigger external harddisk and my survey at Monaliza Mastura Computers KB Mall shows that a 160 GB external Hard Disk is available at below RM250. Hey thats big enough and affordable and I am going to get one soon. The 80 GB Hard Disk that I gave to my son in law cost me almost that much and it was bought in Xian China where such things were supposed to be cheaper. That is how much price of storage tools has gone down.

I will be uploading more pictures into my flickr photostream soon. Meantime you can view more pictures here.

Read the detailed review here .