Image Size / Quality
The DSC-P1, as with most Sony digital cameras offers just one JPEG and one B&W GIF mode at a variety of resolutions and a TIFF mode at 1856 x 1392. It's a shame Sony don't consider adding a second or even third JPEG mode gradually higher compression ratios, the offered JPEG mode produces 1.3 MB files, with the supplied 8MB Memory Stick this adds up to about 6 images for the Stick is full... Then again, maybe they're trying to sell more Memory Stick's.... Sony, please, next time, offer a "JPEG HIGH" (ratio 1:4), "JPEG MEDIUM" (ratio 1:8) and "JPEG LOW" (ratio 1:16).
 Standard Test Scene |
To give an impression of what each combination of image
size and quality produces the table below is a cross reference of image
size against quality with an original image available for each, all images
were shot within seconds of each other of the same subject. Please note
that the TIFF images are VERY large (5.4 MB zipped) please only download
these images if (a) you really need to and (b) you have the bandwidth
and intend to fully download the image, otherwise you're wasting bandwidth.
Crops below are of a 200% zoomed 240 x 100 area of the image.
| 2048 x 1536 | |
| TIFF |  Original TIFF 9,219 KB (Zipped TIFF 7,285 KB) or re-saved as high quality JPEG 2,144 KB |
| JPEG |  1,136KB |
| 1600 x 1200 | |
| JPEG |  858 KB |
| 1280 x 960 | |
| JPEG |  587 KB |
| 640 x 480 | |
| JPEG |  60 KB |
As you can see from the top two samples that JPEG mode is almost indistinguishable from TIFF, certainly with the storage limitations of Memory Stick (and certainly the one supplied) you'd be hard pressed to find the occasion or good reason to shoot TIFF.
Picture Effects
The P1 features the same set of aftereffects found on the S70 (and previously F505), samples of which are shown below. I've included TEXT mode here as it is also (really) an aftereffect, reducing the image down to a 2 colour "bitmap", which can be useful for taking snapshots of print.
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| Day / Time overlay | Negative |
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| Sepia | Black & White |
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| Solarize | |
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| Text mode (2 colour GIF) | |
Clip Motion
The DSC-P1 has a new feature called "Clip Motion", simply it allows you to shoot individual frames which will be built into a single animated GIF file (a bit like stop motion animation). You can create Clip files at either 160 x 120 (up to 10 frames) or 80 x 72 (2 frames). Note that because Clips are saved as GIF they're reduced to 256 colours. Below is an example of a 160 x 120 Clip.
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