As I continue to grow up in life, for some reason, I always crave for different things at each stage. Well, living in the 21st century…I’ve grown up with having the luxury of Digital products around me. Even my first camera was a digital camera. And back in the high school days when I wanted a digital camera…I wanted the smallest in the world!

So, this is my first digital camera. A Sony DSC-U20.

It’s one of the smallest camera in the world back in those days with a whopping 2MegaPixels and using 2AAA alkaline batteries. It’s got a really small screen that you gotta squint your eyes to see what’s inside. So, this is definately for the latest in fashion.

Aside from that, this camera was very light. But, wasn’t reliable at all. This thing lasted me not more than a year when there was something wrong with the chip and had to be taken back to Sony, but after fixing, it only lasted me a few short months and gone down to drain.  It was around $1500HK when I bought this camera from memory.

My next camera was a Casio EX-S770:
This camera was another SLIM one in its class. With a high 7.2MegaPixel, which was the highest at the time. I loved this camera for its slimness and ease of navigation. Casio had put in a very nice menu for its users with 3 clicks and you are where you want to go. One of the strengths of this camera was its 2.7″ screen, which was bigger than the rest back then.Noticed how I went from small screen to huge screen.

The video recording feature was a plus on this camera, as the recoridng button is just one click away. After a fatal drop by @anothersamchan, this camera was still working at its capacity. Amazing!

This was a gift from my aunt in HK, I think the price value back then was about $3000HK. Nevertheless, a solid one from Casio.

My 3rd camera was back to Sony, a gorgeous Sony DSC-T200:
This was the newest touch screen display with a 3.5″ screen, the biggest I’ve used so far. This is another solid camera form Sony, the switch back to Sony is because it had capturing design. It is slim! It’s got a 5x optical zoom which is pretty good for how small the lense are. The controls are mostly alll touch screen on the back. And there is 1080P photo playback with this camera. Just plug it into any HDTV and you have photos playing on your tv as slideshow.

Video recording is not bad either, even though it lacks HD recording, still wasn’t so popular at the time, but definately not poor quality at all. The camera however feels heavier than other cameras in its class but this is probably due to the hardware of the screen that makes it so heavy. Battery life is mediocre, again because of the large screen.

And now finally I’m ready to move on! I was motivated to get a Nikon D90 before Christmas, but that was before. Instead I spent the money on a trip to Vegas with a group of friends. So, now being jobless … I’ve got to keep my budget tight. And why all of a sudden rant about cameras, it’s cause my friend @anothersamchan got his new Panasonic FZ-28K last week. This is what it looks like:
This camera is half-way between a “Point-and-shoot” and a state of the art D-SLR. One of the advantages of these long range cameras are is that it is light. And it is capable of doing what a D-SLR does. Well, most of the manual functions can be played around with using this thing.  This thing zoom’s far…upto 18x optical zoom and it’s got an intelligant Auto mode that helps the unprofessional to take professional pictures. One of the major advantages of this camera was that it has 720P HD video recording. Even though, it was not tested, but HD is better than no HD.

The camera was very comfortable to hand and really only required one-hand to life this baby up. It’s got an internal flash that really was not needed under well-lighted areas. And best of all, this thing is a Panasonic, known for its lens. However, reviews have said that this camera had funny problems with focus. I did not noticed it at all, after playing with it once.

So, during this week, which I should be concentrating on my exams. (Well, one done…one to go.) I’ve did some searching for my new camera. I realized maybe it was a bit too early for a D-SLR…taking into consideration I probably can’t afford it now. And probably one of those long range camera would probably be capable of serving me for a year or two. So, instead of looking at the Nikon D90, I looked at the Nikon P90:

I was so excited to find out this was THE camera for me because I don’t take video’s as much. So, HD vs No-HD video recording for me ain’t going to matter much. This camera offers a 24x optical zoom that’s a 8x more than the Panasonic. It’s got a 12.1MegaPixel compared to 10.1MegaPixels from the Panasonic and its predecessor, the Nikon P80. This thing weights pretty much the same as the Panasonic but it also has some cool features. It’s got a 3.0″ big LCD screen compared to only 2.7″ on the Panasonic model. But, it also has a two-way tilting screen (up/down) for the angle and the shot! This was added on the P90 and was not a feature on the P80. I was captured by this camera when I first did my research. But, because this is a 2009 model, it is still quite pricy standing at $350-400US.

From the external to the internal, this was a solid camera. Even though lacking HD video recording, but it’s not a biggie for me. While I’m at it, I was also thinking of the Nikon P80, this was last year’s model.
Its predecessor was not bad either, it has comparable specs to the Pansonic FZ28K. Let me quickly compare, this camera has a 18x optical zoom taking only 13fps, whereas the P90 can take 15fps upto 45 frames. This camera, only having 10.1MP and a 2.7″ LCD screen…other than that…it is still a solid camera. Sitting at $100 less than the P90.

Now the big question, the P80 or the P90? Is it worth spending $100 more?