Athens to Atlanta GA Roadskate 2008 87-Mile A2A Road Inline Skate Photos, Thumbnail Route Map, Speed Route Map

My new (to me) little Sony DSC-W120 is a step down from the DSC-W170 I tried out for a week or so. The eBay seller of the DSC-W170 had a money back guarantee and stood by that nicely, so I went for a camera I would worry less about scratching or damaging. Aside from the shift from red to powder pink, the lens in the W120 is a bit faster, megapixels are a bit less, burst mode is a bit faster (still slow by burst standards), videos about the same, lens quality similar (there's some barrel effect I think in the wides), and the options and menus are a bit different. I think I still like the photos of the old DSC-S50 (the third or fourth I've owned after being stolen or dropped) better in some ways (color perhaps warmer), but I did EXTENSIVE comparison tests as the days closed at Country Park simulsnapping and studying the results, and the new cams are a bit better and stopping the blur when in the right mode and such. But then again, the tiny size of the DSC-W170 means I can carry this camera almost all day in my palm-slider covered hand and miss fewer shots. It fits more easily in the jersey pocket, and boots up much faster than the DSC-S50. I find I can get lots of angles shooting upside down using the ring finger for zoom and middle finger for shutter. I'm still getting used to aligning the camera with the horizon and holding it still...it seems harder to hold the smaller device still. The only real annoyance is that some modes don't let you specifically control the flash and I'm still learning which ones force it on or off or decide for me. I was getting some good results in the twilight portrait mode which flashes the subject then reads exposure from the scene not including the flash, or something like that. It helps to freeze the subject or at least highlight it while letting other things whir by. There's lots to learn but this was a demo unit from a big box electronics chain that I bought on eBay so the first scratch won't hurt so badly and if I drop it the exposure (ha) to financial ruin is more limited. I miss the red W170 only for the color of the outside, the very slightly larger but definitely sharper display (not a big deal), and the extra pixels. I wouldn't use the pixels for bigger photos much at all, but would use them for the "smart zoom" which is a cooler digital zoom mode that lets you zoom in without losing quality like the other digital zoom mode does. The 170 had a 5X lens and the 120 has a 4X, but really, I can hardly hope to hold those steady on skates even with steady-shot going. I'm still learning as I say, but I bought extra batteries that last longer so I can use the continuous focus monitor mode and the steady-shot all the time. I'm still figuring out when they're on and off in various modes. The batteries are tiny, and I needed all three for the full day of A2A from sunrise to sunset and beyond, but three were enough. Having 4M of memory when shooting at 3MP is nice (the DSC-W120 does 7.2 I think it is, but 3MP is the most I would want, and I may even use a smaller 16:9 ratio size). The S50 had a 15 second limit on 320x240 video, but the W120 has something like a 10-minute limit if at all, with two 640x480 modes. The only BIG beefs are I would like to have a finer compression option as the pixels don't look as clean as those on the S50, and I'd like to have a sports mode that insists on a fast shutter speed. I think the W series is intended to be point and shoot and pray and it is good at that. I could have bought something else, but I wanted Sony, Zeiss and tiny, so we'll have a go with it. It has been superfun so far. The blur is annoying but by my tests, I was already dealing with that before with the S50. Thanks for the kudos. I know you looked at every single photo, and have examined thousands of skateypics on my site and lots more. Glad you liked them after putting up with the slowing and distraction the camera inserts into skating...sometimes quite happily.