It’s one
big city with two contrasting faces.
Like the two sides of a coin they
coexist, giving a unique, vibrant
quality to this famous Asian capital.
There’s the modern Tokyo with
its loud, gaudy and oftentimes bawdy
fusion of east and west, its glitzy
streets replete with stoic salary
men, kimono-clad ladies and Gucci-toting
schoolgirls. And then there’s
the Tokyo of old, with its sublime
bonsai gardens and ancient Shinto
shrines reminding us of its earlier
life as Edo, home of the shogunate.
Which of these is the real Tokyo?
With a few days to spare and a digicam
in my hands, I sought to find out.
This time, however, I didn’t
have my usual professional digital
camera with me. Instead, I was carrying
the Sony DSC-S60, a compact 4-megapixel
point-and-shooter that some might
think to be inadequate for this
job. Nevertheless, I knew it had
serious features to boast of –
like Carl Zeiss glass on its 39-117mm
zoom lens, 5-area multi-point auto
focus, and a multi-pattern meter
that gave you spot metering
when you needed it. Despite its
entry-level designation, the DSC-S60
had capabilities that were obviously
meant for advanced users (think
slow-sync flash, manual mode and
its own range of adaptor lenses).
Aside from this, I also brought
along the new Sony HDPS-M10, a hard
disk storage unit, which, when fully
charged, would allow me almost fifty
256mb memory stick downloads (that’s
around twelve gigabytes
of data without having to recharge
– pretty cool!). Pound-for-pound,
this tandem made for a capable travel
photography package with plenty
of room to spare.
First on my shooting list was Akihabara,
Tokyo’s self-proclaimed techno-town
with its neon light-encrusted avenues
and countless electronic shops.
I arrived here just in time to catch
the cool hues of dusk, prompting
me to set the DSC-S60 on night mode
and ISO 100. As the evening got
darker I headed to the equally flashy
Shibuya district for more nighttime
street shooting. Thank heavens for
the bright city lights and DSC-S60’s
F2.8 minimum aperture – with
its ISO set at 200 I was able to
keep shooting sans tripod
well into the night.
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