Welcome to Sony's smallest digital camera to date, sporting
a 3 megapixel imager and a 3 x optical zoom it's just 18 cm3
larger (by volume) than its nearest rival the Canon S20 at 252 cm3
compared to the P1's 270 cm3. Of course the S20 only has a
2 x zoom lens, weighs in 70 g heavier and the long / thin design of the
DSC-P1 is somehow more appealing which makes it appear smaller than the
S20. It has the head turning "ooh.. ahh.." factor.
Sony, with their incredible resources have the ability
to react to the market extremely quickly, they saw that people wanted
smaller digital cameras and produced the P1. Its sleek rounded lines,
metallic case, high resolution, good zoom lens, crisp 1.5" LCD and
excellent InfoLithium battery appear to place it in the market as an extremely
desirable digital camera.. But how does it fair in real life? Read on...
Baby S70?
Probably the most common comparison people will make
with the P1 is to its bigger brother the S70,
as the P1 shares the same 3.34 megapixel imager, a 3 x optical zoom (although
not Carl Zeiss) and very similar onboard software it really does look
like a baby S70. However, there are some important differences:
| |
Sony
DSC-P1 |
Sony DSC-S70 |
| |
 |
|
| MSRP |
US$ 799 |
US$ 999 |
| Imager |
3.34
megapixel 1/1.8" CCD (3.14 megapixel effective) |
| Lens |
3x Sony
F2.8 - F5.3 |
3x Carl
Zeiss F2.0 - F2.5 |
| Lens thread |
No |
Yes, via
adapter |
| Auto lens cover |
Yes |
No |
| Normal focus |
50 cm |
25 cm |
| Macro focus |
10 cm |
4 cm |
| Image sizes |
2048 x
1536, 2048 x 1360, 1600 x 1200, 1280 x 960, 640 x 480 |
| Image modes |
JPEG,
TIFF, GIF (B&W) |
| A/D Converter |
12-bit |
| ISO |
Auto (100-300) |
| White balance |
Auto,
Indoor, Outdoor, Hold |
| Auto Focus |
Contrast
detection |
| Manual Focus |
No |
Yes |
| Exposure modes |
Auto,
Twilight, Twilight+, Landscape, Portrait |
Auto,
Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Twilight, Twilight+, Landscape,
Portrait |
| Metering |
Center-weighted,
Spot |
| Flash modes |
Auto,
Anti-red-eye, Fill-in, Off |
| Flash range |
2.3 m |
2.5 m |
| External Flash |
No |
Yes (Sony
connector) |
| Movie |
MPEG1:
320 x 240 (HQ), 320 x 240, 160 x 112 |
| Animated GIF |
Yes, 160
x 120 or 80 x 72 |
No |
| LCD |
1.5"
TFT 123,200 pixel |
2.0"
TFT 123,200 pixel |
| Viewfinder |
Yes,
optical |
| Playback zoom |
Yes,
1.1x to 5.0x |
| Storage |
MemoryStick
(8 MB supplied) |
| Connectivity |
USB,
AV output |
| Power |
Sony NP-FS11
InfoLithium 3.6V 4.1Wh
(1140 mAh) ~ 70 mins recording |
Sony NP-FM50
InfoLithium 7.2V 8.5Wh
(1180 mAh) ~ 110 mins recording |
| Charger |
AC
Adapter & Charger supplied (battery charges in-camera) |
| Voice recording |
Yes |
| Dimensions |
114 x
54 x 44 mm
(4.5 x 2.1 x 1.7 ") |
117 x
70 x 65 mm
(4.6" x 2.8" x 2.6") |
| Weight (inc.) |
250 g
(8.8 oz) |
420 g
(14.8 oz) |
|
|
|
|
|
Sep 4, 2003
|
Aug 13, 2003
|
Sep 12, 2000
|
Oct 16, 2000
|
|
Sony
today announced their tiny DSC-P1. Althought not as small as their prototype
"spy camera" it's still small, about the same height as Canon's
Digital IXUS (S100) and a little bit longer, the big deal here is that
the P1 has the same 3 megapixel CCD seen in the S70 & F505V AND
a 3x optical zoom lens with an automatic lens cover (how did they ever
fit it in there??). Other improvements seem to have been made, auto focus
is said to be much faster as is zoom speed, and start up times of just
3 seconds. We have exclusive images of the camera, full specifications
and a press release. |
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