Skiing: A camera for the trip
Until recently I had been using a Sony DSC V1, but for this trip I bought a Sony DSC W70.
Why the change? Well, the Sony DSC V1 is a nice camera and takes some great pictures. However, for skiing it had some short-comings, basically it is too bulky to keep in a pocket and as a result it had to be kept in a ruck-sack. This meant that every time I wanted to take a picture I would have to stop, open the ruck-sac, find the camera, take the picture and then put it away. This all took time. Plus the camera would get cold and this would shorten the working life of the battery.
Plus, there were a few of things in normal operation that were annoying:
- Greens tended to be too green
- The camera would take a long time to get a focus lock, particularly when using the flash.
- Battery life was quite short (or seemed to be).
- Very noticeable shutter lag when taking pictures with the flash.
So, time for a change…
I looked around and found the Sony DSC W70.
The Sony Cyber Shot W70
The Sony DSC W70 is a nice little camera. 7.2 million pixels. Small. Compact. And seems to take great pictures (have a look at some of the pictures in the posts on my recent ski trip to Corvara, Italy – links below).
The Colfosco valley ski area.
The small form factor also meant that it could be kept in a jacket pocket whilst skiing, therefore it was easy to stop and take photos, plus the battery stayed warm and therefore held its charge.
One problem with the camera is that it takes a ‘non-standard’ USB cable, plus it has a ‘small’ Sony-type memory card, therefore I had to remember to either take the non-standard USB cable, or the adapter to use the memory card with with a multi-card reader (so far I have been unable to track down a multi-card reader that will take the small Sony cards).
The new camera also lacks some of the features of the Sony DSC V1. The one I miss the most is the ‘bracket-exposure’ function, and the ability to focus in low-light conditions. However, this is more than made up for by the ability to focus quickly and
Overall, I am very impressed with the Sony DSC W70. It takes great pictures, is easy to use, has a good battery life (it lasted the whole week of the ski trip), does not seem to suffer from ‘shutter-lag’ when taking pictures with the flash, and the small size of the camera meant it could be easily slipped in to a ski jacket pocket.
Links to some posts which contain photos taken with the Sony DSC W70:
Day one: Heathrow –> Venice –> Corvara, Italy
Day two: Skiing Corvara, Italy
Day two: Drive to Bolzano Bozen
Day three: More on skiing around Corvara, Italy
Day four: Skiing the Sellaronda, Corvara, Alta Badia, Italy
Day five: Skiing in Corvara
Corvara – night life
Day six: Corvara
Day seven: Last day skiing at Corvara, Italy
Day eight: Corvara –> Venice –> Heathrow
