Good pictures but many problems:
The best about this camera is its speed. Almost feels like an analog camera. Even with autofocus and other measurements the shutter goes of almost instantly. Very nice.
The other nice thing is the mpeg-movie format. However, the movie size is ridiculous. Movies are quite pixelated at the 640x480 size. Don't expect movies to be anywhere near DVD-like bitrates. they should better do 480x320 or even 320/240 and invest in higher (adjustable??) bitrate. Sound quality of movies is good.
The night shot feature is nice and gives very interesting effects. Pictures are very pixelated, though. The infrared illuminator only illuminates a spot in the center of the image.
Very nice feature is the hotshoe, although the internal flash is ok for the standard flash situations (brighten up shades in strong sunlight or indoor scenes 6-10 feet away)
The image quality is quite good, although I have the impression that images are a little noisy. At higher ISO settings, the images get very noisy quickly. I guess this has to be expected. Does take ok images at ISO 800 though (I mean for the average Joe like me).
The controls are not too complicated and all manual functions are accessed through buttons, so you don't have to dig deep into menues.
Overall I'm quite happy with the camera. The size is perfect, although in the beginning it felt like nothing to the hand.
Problems:
The macro capability is poor as compared to my previous Casio QV-3500. I bought a magnifying glass to hold in front of the lens which gives quite spectacular macro shots.
The lens rattles!!! I've read this quite a number of times in different reviews. This was also the case for the older Olympus C-series cameras. But they were able to improve it. Sony still has some work to do. I bought an adaptor for filters to protect the quite flimsy lens. this thing is in the way of the built-in flash though...
These damn memory sticks are really expensive!!
Since the camera is quite compact, the buttons are acdordingly tiny...
No battery makes you dependent on the charger and an extra battery wich is another 60 bucks.
An update- took me a while to figure that out: The camera has suprisingly no means for taking panorama series. Well- no big deal, set it to manual and take your series...I use tripod anyway--- BUT the pictures with identical settings come out slightly different in terms of color balance!!! That is quite strange. Makes taking panorama pictures (which is one of the BIG features of digital photography) almost impossible. HIGHLY annoying! Hence big drop in my overall rating!!! Bah!
The best about this camera is its speed. Almost feels like an analog camera. Even with autofocus and other measurements the shutter goes of almost instantly. Very nice.
The other nice thing is the mpeg-movie format. However, the movie size is ridiculous. Movies are quite pixelated at the 640x480 size. Don't expect movies to be anywhere near DVD-like bitrates. they should better do 480x320 or even 320/240 and invest in higher (adjustable??) bitrate. Sound quality of movies is good.
The night shot feature is nice and gives very interesting effects. Pictures are very pixelated, though. The infrared illuminator only illuminates a spot in the center of the image.
Very nice feature is the hotshoe, although the internal flash is ok for the standard flash situations (brighten up shades in strong sunlight or indoor scenes 6-10 feet away)
The image quality is quite good, although I have the impression that images are a little noisy. At higher ISO settings, the images get very noisy quickly. I guess this has to be expected. Does take ok images at ISO 800 though (I mean for the average Joe like me).
The controls are not too complicated and all manual functions are accessed through buttons, so you don't have to dig deep into menues.
Overall I'm quite happy with the camera. The size is perfect, although in the beginning it felt like nothing to the hand.
Problems:
The macro capability is poor as compared to my previous Casio QV-3500. I bought a magnifying glass to hold in front of the lens which gives quite spectacular macro shots.
The lens rattles!!! I've read this quite a number of times in different reviews. This was also the case for the older Olympus C-series cameras. But they were able to improve it. Sony still has some work to do. I bought an adaptor for filters to protect the quite flimsy lens. this thing is in the way of the built-in flash though...
These damn memory sticks are really expensive!!
Since the camera is quite compact, the buttons are acdordingly tiny...
No battery makes you dependent on the charger and an extra battery wich is another 60 bucks.
An update- took me a while to figure that out: The camera has suprisingly no means for taking panorama series. Well- no big deal, set it to manual and take your series...I use tripod anyway--- BUT the pictures with identical settings come out slightly different in terms of color balance!!! That is quite strange. Makes taking panorama pictures (which is one of the BIG features of digital photography) almost impossible. HIGHLY annoying! Hence big drop in my overall rating!!! Bah!
