Sony Cybershot DSC-V1 Review, Phil Askey, July 2003

Review based on a production DSC-V1

The Cybershot DSC-V1 was introduced by Sony just before the Photo Marketing Association (PMA 2003) trade show this year. Despite its compact proportions the five megapixel, four times optical zoom DSC-V1 is squarely aimed at the 'Prosumer' market and will have to compete with the likes of the recently announced Nikon Coolpix 5400 (5 mp, 4x zoom) and Canon PowerShot G5 (5 mp, 4x zoom). Other interesting features of the V1 are Sony's first hot-shoe for external flash (they have introduced complementary the HVL-F32X flash too), support for Memory Stick Pro (up to 1 GB), 'Hologram AF' laser based low-light AF assist, five-area auto focus, Night Shot and Night Framing, USB 2.0 connectivity and full control of sharpening, tone and color saturation (at long last).

Like previous high-end Sony digital cameras the DSC-V1 has a 'Carl Zeiss' branded lens system, although not as fast (large maximum aperture) as previous 'Carl Zeiss' lenses we certainly hope that this crucial element of image quality will give the DSC-V1 an edge over the competition.

If you're new to digital photography you may wish to read the Digital Photography Glossary before diving into this review (it may help you understand some of the terms used).

Conclusion / Recommendation / Ratings are based on the opinion of the reviewer, you should read the ENTIRE review before coming to your own conclusions. Images which can be viewed at a larger size have a small magnifying glass icon in the bottom right corner of the image, clicking on the image will display a larger (normally 960 x 720 or smaller if cropped) image in a new window. To navigate the review simply use the next / previous page buttons, to jump to a particular section either pick the section from the drop down or select it from the navigation bar at the top. DPReview calibrate their monitors using Color Vision OptiCal at the (fairly well accepted) PC normal gamma 2.2, this means that on our monitors we can see the difference between all of the grayscale blocks below. We recommend to make the most of this review you should be able to see the difference (at least) between X,Y and Z and ideally A,B and C.

This review is Copyright 2003 Phil Askey and the review in part or in whole may NOT be reproduced in any electronic or printed medium without prior permission from the author. For information on reproducing any part of this review (or any images) please contact: Phil Askey.