Experiences from 8 generations of digital cameras

After 5 years of digital camera experience I felt it was time to stop and summarize some design drivers or purchase criteria for a good digital camera used for snapping.

I have allways been a keen photographer. Being the son of one, it must comes with the genes. I jumped on the digital photography bandwagon in the spring of 1999. It was remarkable taking digital pictures. No more cost associated with developing and buying film. I remember that I really liked to experience the pictures right away, I still think this moving, it is like capturing the moment and reliving it the next.
I am still searching for the perfect camera. I have bought new ones always when I found a better one.
Hence I tried, compact ones with rotating lenses, ones with powerful optical zooms, compact cameras with limited optical zoom and even tiny without any frills. Of course I have had three generations of Nokia cameraphones, but this is a separate genre and topic.

From six digital cameras in five years I learned what I need and value in digital cameras.
The following general remarks are criteria for selecting a digital camera, this applies to the behaviour of snapping, not art or serious photography. It could of course be applied as design drivers for digital cameras for snapping.

1. A camera for snapping has to be small enough to be operatable with one hand

I think one-hand photography is very cool, the pictures are often taken from angles the eye cannot see, and there is often vivid life in the pictures. I am ofcourse aware that using one-hand snapping makes a lot of the pictures more blurred, but since there is no cost associated one should just snap and delete later.

2. A camera for snapping should have an optical zoom, 3x seems acceptable

A 3x Optical zoom found on several compact cameras seems to be adequate for snapping. Again the zoom should be accessible with one hand.

3. A camera for snapping should have a battery lasting well over than 100 snapshots

A primary problem with digital cameras has been the lack of battry power. Once I had a camera like the Minotla Xt I learned the value of this. I understand that this is not really a sales argument, due to lacking standard terminology. I have had numerous ocasions where I came somewhere to snap with a flat or almost flat battery.

4. A camera for snapping should have a big screen in the back, this may not be in conflict with the battery life.

This is emergeing as one of the new trends and one I am fond of. Experiencing the pictures right after they have been shot is a lot of fun. Karen always wants to see a picture after it has been taken. I think traditional photography will be really akward for her.

The camera I am using now is the Minolta Xt. I am generally pleased with it, but it is again time to upgrade and at the moment the Sony T1 looks like a strong candidate. Unfortunately I have not been able to get my hand on one yet.

I bought the Sony T1 and after 4 weeks it entered the sediment, of abandoned electronics. I was very dissapointed in its low light capability and its general usability, not nearly as good as earlier SONY cameras. Like someone said not all SW bugs can be fixed with HW.

My new camera is the first life recorder, the Sanyo Xacti, my initial impression is very positive it has a very good UI, the best I have seen on any camera and having 5.8x optical Zoom, 3.2mega pixels and 30fps VGA video is a package hard to beat.