My Cameras

My fascination with cameras goes back to my childhood days. I used to haggle Dad to let me use his Yashica film camera. One day at a wedding he let my elder cousin use the camera and refused to let me take even a single shot. I was 12. Mom felt bad for me and within a coupla days bought me a new Kodak KB10 beginner camera. It cost around Rs1000 then. I was elated and spent hours playing with it. It had no features at all- no autofocus, no automatic rewinding, nothing at all. But I was more than content. All my memorable pictures from school upto inter are from this cam. I still keep it safe in my trunk as a sweet souvenir from childhood.

Then as time went on Digital cameras burst onto the scene. Sales surged in India only after 2004. Although I was aware of all the new cameras appearing in the market, I couldn't get my hands on one until late 2006! Dad just wouldn't hear about it. He was more than content with his old Yashica. I decided to get one myself and ordered a Benq DC1500, a discontinued camera from rediff shopping. A 1.3mp shooter with the smallest screen I'd ever seen, the photo quality was just about average and I used it for about a month before ordering Benq DC2300 a 2mp camera from the same online site. This camera proved to be a real gem. I already knew it had a CCD sensor(charge coupled device) instead of a CMOS sensor. The photo quality was top notch although quite a few people ridiculed it for the low MP count. The standard then was atleast 6mp. Most of photos on my orkut account are from this camera. Some even commented that it outdid cameras with much larger sensors.



Dad has caught on with the Digital wave now(at last!) and is now using dc2300 while I've moved on to a new camera- the Panasonic Lumix LZ8...

This is an old camera too. Launched in 2007 I think but is more than enough for me in terms of features. 8mp sensor, 5x optical zoom, full manual mode.


If I had the money what camera would I go for? Well, if I were rich I'd go for this: The best Point n shoot camera out there.