Rating: Summary: Almost a great camera Review: Overall a very good camera. Outside photos look great. Indoor photos just ok. My biggest complaint is that too many indoor shots come out blurry. Sometimes I take 2 or 3 of the same shots with same settings and yet one will come out blurry.
Rating: Summary: Couple of tricks Review: Can't say much that hasn't been said about the camera itself so I will mostly just mention a few tricks for dealing with some of the issues many people have brought up regarding this camera. One note.. the video with sound capability is underated if anything. While it is deffinatly not a replacement for a cam corder, its portability makes it far more practical and less obtrusive for capturing 'moments'. With 256mb you have about 12 minutes of recording. Quality is around 15-22fps at 640x480 ( think webcam ). Additionally if you drop it to the lower quality you have more than 2 hours of recording time. However, while the sound quality will be the same, the image will be pretty pixilated. Many have complained about the slow shutter speed ( as in the time between pushing the button and the picture being taken ) but there is at least one way to get around it in certain circumstances. Provided you have enough light to forgoe the flash you can hold the button partially down and it will spot autofocus, then once it locks in it will immediately take the picture when you fully depress the button. Practice by trying to capture shots on the TV... sporting events are geat for this, especially when they do replays. It will give you a good feel for the timing of the camera. It sounds tricky but the button sensitivity actually makes this very easy, To engage the spot autofocus you basically just need to rest your finger on the button, then actually pushing it requires a deffinate increase in effort. Additionally, using both single point AF and spot metering will make the process even faster. Not perfect but an improovement over the general performance if you are trying to catch fleeting moments. In low light indoor shooting you can up the ISO to 400 and increase the exposure to attempt some flashless shots using this technique. Taking the time to steady the camera in some way will help immensely. If you think tripods are expensive try some of the table top versions, there is one at Bestbuy that goes for a whopping $11 and does a great job. When the flash is being used I have yet to find a way around the delay completely, however if you turn off the red eye feature the amount of pre flash will be decreased which will lessen the delay. Red eye can be manipulated on the computer with a little effort. I would never bother using the digital portion of the zoom. Just keep your image setting at the highest quality and you will have all of the same information anyway and more freedom in choosing how you want to crop the image later as there will be more image to work with. Even if you use lower quality to preserve memory I would suggest switching to the high quality to take any shots where you start zooming beyond the optical 3x max. Again you will have all the information you would have had using the 'smart' zoom and will have more options when editing later or even on the camera itself... the same goes for the solarize,bw, and sepia functions. All of those effects can be done later from the full color picture, full color pictures however can not be regenrated from pictures taken with these effects selected on the camera. A negative can be turned into a normal shot by filtering it using a negative image editing effect to get the negative of the negative.
Rating: Summary: Broke within 100 days Review: A terrible product. It broke -- would not turn on -- about three months after receiving it and about a week after seriously using it. Repair cost (Because after 90 days parts warranty expired): $150.00 -- over half the cost of the camera.
Rating: Summary: a solid good buy Review: I have this camera for close to a year now and never regretted this buy. It's a hardy camera that works well, the buttons are well-placed and easy to learn, making stuff like deleting and viewing photos, adjusting image size, using the timer a piece of cake. I especially love that you can take good quality movies with this camera, it doesn't restrict the movies to 30 second short films like some other cameras, the only limit is the storage space in your memory stick. The movies have good sound and picture quality. Another good pt is that it uses rechargable AA-size batteries, making it easy and cheap to replace the batteries when it dies. I bought a pair of spare AA batts and use them alternately. The batteries are dying now that it's been a year but considering the usage, I think it's reasonable to replace the battaries once a year. the only complain I have is that the LCD screen tends to black out whenever I use the flash. In fact, the flash seems to eat up alot of the batteries, a couple of shots using flash kind of clean up most remaining battery life. But if you switch the camera off for a few moments, it might return to normal. As I rarely use the flash, its never been much of a problem for me. All in all, its a good camera for people like me that uses it for touring and family events. It's a good camera size too. I originally liked the Canon Ixus and thought that size was perfect. But after trying my friends' Ixus, I find that such a small size is not suitable for me, as I have weak hands and my photos with such a small camera tend to come out blurred. No such problem with this camera though, the weight is just right to steady my hands. However, it's a compact camera that's easy to bring around. In one line, I really like this camera. It took alot of good photos for me and helped me preserve many precious memories.
Rating: Summary: A Good First Camera Review: This is my first digital camera, although I've used others. I've been pleased with my purchase. The price is reasonable for the features compared to the rest of the field. It would be nice if there were more manual features but this is designed more as an entry level camera so the feature set follows that. The image quality is good but it could be improved. The auto mode often takes pictures at ISO levels that result in a lower quality picture so it's best to try a few different settings to get comfortable with how you want the pictures to look. The included software, I feel, is lousy. I tried using it for image transfer but I ended up uninstalling it and just using the included software in Windows XP.
Rating: Summary: Ignore fake review Review: Do not believe what "barbara carroll" says about this breaking when her warranty expired. Sure there could be an occasional "lemon," even from Sony. But if you register the camera you get a one-year warranty, and this is a relative new product. So if what she says is true she only has herself to blame. This camera is a solid buy and the picture quality is amazing. Because I have a large collection of (cheap) SD cards I prefer a camera that uses SD card, but I've used the Sony many times (my good friend has one) and I really like its quality.
Rating: Summary: Happy customer. Review: Overall, I'm very happy with this camera. I shopped around for several weeks for a camera in this price range and I ended up choosing this one. Interface is intuitive and has just enough options to let you experiment, but not so many that you need a degree in photagraphy to understand them all. 3MP seems to me to be a happy medium in the cost/performance category. Obviously, 16MB is not enough memory, you will have to buy more. With 128MB, I can get about 80 pictures or 6 minutes of video at the highest resolution. The only downside is that memory sticks tend to cost more per MB than CF. I love the fact that this camera comes with 2 rechargeable batteries and a charger. In case you haven't heard ... do NOT use standard batteries in digital cameras. Battery life is more than acceptable, but I always carry a spare pair. I only use Linux and open source tools to edit my pictures. I can happily say that my camera worked the second I plugged it into a usb port.
Rating: Summary: Good multi-purpose camera Review: I got my camera in December of 2003 and I've been using it almost every day since. I am a graphic design student with not much cash, so I wanted something around the 300 dollar range that was at least 3 megapixels and could do video. I got my P-72 for 270 bucks, and it was definitely worth it. Cons: -Some low light shots take a while to snap and pics sometimes come out slightly blurred when flash is not used. -Bundled memory stick is only 16mb. I recommend getting a 128mb or 256mb. Pros: -Geat quality images in ample light or when using flash -The software bundled with the camera is useful, and the camera has very high connectivity for easy and quick transfers. -Video mode is very handy and movies transfer easily into computer. -Has many shooting options including macro and multiple shots and frame by frame. -Batteries last for quite a while, I use it every day and only have to recharge once every 2 weeks. -It's VERY durable. I recently fell while skateboarding and had the camera in my hand. When I fell my hand hit the the cement and it basically pounded the camera into the ground. Any other camera would have definitely been smashed to pieces, but the only damage done was one of the hinges on the battery lid broke. The battery compartment still shuts fine even with the broken hinge, and the camera still functions perfectly. All in all the DSCP72 is a solid camera for a decent price.
Rating: Summary: A good camera for starters Review: I purchased my camera about 4 months ago, and most of the time, it doesn't dissapoint me at all. It's built like a tank (made in japan), I dropped it on hard surfaces for a few times, and it still works great, except there are some scratches. For stalkers it may not be a good buy since the pictures come out blurry with the flash turned off, but I get sharp pictures with the flash, which you can adjust the level. I haven't used the software that comes with it, since I use a Mac, and just had to install the USB driver onto my computer, so when I just plug the thing into my computer, the pictures are right in front of you. The menus are very user friendly and easy to understand. You can program the camera in the way you want to take pictures. The pixel quality is also adjustable, ranging from VGA to 3.2 million pixels. The MemoryStick in the box is only 16 MB and can save about 10 pictures in 3.2 million pixels. I would recommed a 128 MB MemoryStick, which you can take about 80 pictures in 3.2 (148 in standard quality, which there is a very small difference between fine quality) It takes about 6 hours to charge the batteries but the battery life is more than satisfactory. The movies I recorded seemed better on the camera's screen than in my computer, but still they look good on the computer.
Rating: Summary: Don't Buy Sony Products. Review: I own this particular model in addition to a DSC-P32. I also own other Sony products including two more digital cameras, a Wega TV, and a Viao computer. I purchased the DSC-P32 for my children at Christmas. After one week it failed to turn on. The reapir estimate to repair it was $ 725.50! That ammount was confirmed by Sony over the phone. Don't buy any Sony products and expect to get repair service. The DSC-P32 is worth $199.95!
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