I have always been fascinated with photography and I decided that it was time to expand my “photographic horizon” beyond the digital pocket camera. Last year I added a Sony Alpha 100 to my camera-equipment arsenal in addition to several “point and shoot” cameras that I already owned.
No, there is nothing wrong with “point and shoot” cameras and I still cannot imagine being without one for quick shots, but sometimes there are certain situations where you run into limitations with a “point and shoot”.
As a real estate agent, I take a lot of pictures of properties and found that most digital pocket cameras have limitations with wide angles.
As Greg points out on his blog, there are pocket cameras out there like the Kodak Easyshare P880 which have the additional feature, but I did not want to go the route of adding another pocket camera to my collection since I just got my Sony Alpha 100.
Reading Jay’s recent post about Bad Real Estate Photography and on how it is done the right way over on the Bloodhound blog inspired me, and so finally I made the plunge and bought a Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6 wide angle lens for my DLSR. Yes perhaps that’s too wide of an angle for some, however there have been situations where I wished I had that lens. There is still my 18mm to 70mm lens to pick up the slack.
I guess I can now call myself an “amateur photographer”, since it is not “point and shoot” anymore. Or is the correct term “prosumer”? This does not necessarily mean that I will use the Sony Alpha for everything and my digital pocket cameras will certainly not retire any time soon.
