I have finally entered the digital photography age and bought a digital camera — a Sony DSC-P73. I’ve been playing around with it for a few days, but today was the first time I hooked it up to my computer. I must say, it is the coolest thing I’ve experienced since burning my own CDs. About an hour ago I went hiking around the nature center near my house and took the camera along for its first “in-the-field” tests. I just got home 15 minutes ago and here I am uploading pictures for my blog.

So far I am impressed with the camera. Power-up time is fast as is shutter lag time. It’s got an automatic point and shoot mode in addition to a lot of manual settings you can change and adjust. This includes a complete manual mode where you can adjust even the shutter speed and aperture. The only one of those I’ve seriously tried so far is the macro for close-ups.

I am slightly disappointed in the LCD screen, specifically the size. It’s 1.5 inches and could be a little bigger for my taste. Viewing the screen in bright sunlight can be a little tough, although I suppose that’s a problem for all LCD monitors like that.

After shooting quite a few pictures on my hike today and calling them up immediately on my computer when I returned home, I wondered if I will ever use a film camera again. The convenience of having the images available, right after they were taken, is enough for me to think I’ll never go back.