My Kit

My Minolta DiMage7 Digital Camera. Essential to any form of digital photography is, of course, a digital camera! The DiMage7 is a very capable beast, with lots of features. You can read what I think about it on the What I Think of the DiMage 7 page.

The camera actually took this picture of itself. "How is that possible?" I hear you asking ... The secret is to use two mirrors, to allow the camera to view itself from off-center (think "haircut"). Because of the brilliant image quality, exposure possibilities, and dynamic range of the DiMage7, I was able to take this picture in a dimly lit bathroom.

I find my laptop is very useful for digital photography, due to its brilliant, crisp Ultrasharp UXGA 15" TFT display. The screen is bright enough to use in full sunlight (and I mean full), and gives good color representation in virtually any shaded setting.

The processor runs at 1.7 or 1.2GHz, which is plenty for image processing. I have 512MB of RAM, which is also more than adequate for manipulating full size DiMage 7 photos.

I run both Microsoft Windows XP (Home Edition), and RedHat Linux with lots of extra stuff installed. For image manipulation, I mostly use The Gimp under Linux.

A tripod borrowed from my parents. A tripod is essential for stabilising the camera in conditions when the shutter speed is too long to allow it to be held by hand. Without using a tripod under these conditions, pictures can become blurry due to camera shake.

I don't know what kind of tripod this is. I have borrowed it from my parents, and they in turn have had it for a long time. It's quite heavy, and not too stable since it's difficult to tell whether or not the legs have fully unfolded. However, it does a good job for my purposes.

This is a hard-shelled aluminium case for my laptop. It didn't come with the laptop, but instead was bought from a local electronics store called "Jaycar" in a sale. It has simple padding inside, and has proven quite durable in the 6 months or so that I have owned it so far.

Eventually, I aim to buy a backpack which has specially reinforced pockets designed for laptops and digital cameras. So far, I haven't found one.

A camera bag borrowed from my girlfriend's SLR. Surprisingly, this bag fits the asymmetric DiMage 7 quite well, and has a very convenient pocket for storing extra batteries. However, one day I'll get around to buying my own!

Spare batteries? Yep!!! Every DiMage 7 owner knows the reality of this: the camera just eats them! I use Ni-MH (Nickel Metal Hydride) rechargable batteries with a capacity of 1600mAh or more. People have complained about how much battery power this camera uses, but it's really not a problem - just make sure you always have extra batteries.

Thankfully, the batteries are only standard AA size, rather than some rarer or custom type. This makes acquiring new batteries very easy and cheap.

For use with the rechargable batteries. Any charger for Ni-MH batteries would be suitable, but this one recharges in 3 hours. I keep thinking that perhaps a charger with a deep drain cycle would be good, but all the online information about Ni-MH batteries says that they don't suffer from a memory effect, so perhaps it's not such a good idea?