Rating: 
Summary: Great Camera!!!
Review: I have always loved taking snapshots of my kids. I've always used 35 mm film camera's and wasted so much money. Now I just point and shoot, delete anything I don't like and most of the time don't even develop the pictures. I just carry them around with me on my laptop and pull up a slide show when I want to show people the pictures. I've had loads of fun. I have also taken pictures to sell as a fund raiser for our church. The church members are so pleased with the results, they have absolutely said that I take better pictures than going to a photography studio. Of course, I went and purchased black velvet material for a background and also grey background paper from a camera shop. The pictures really do look professional. I've learned that printing at [another location] is much quicker, easier and maybe less expensive than printing on my home photo printer. Everyone agrees that the quality is better. Photo printer pictures smear with even accidentally spitting on the picture while talking. (I've seen this happen a couple of times already). Unlike [other] matte prints, I've even purposely spilt water on one and no damage to the picture. COOL! Cons: Slow shutter speed.
I have to turn on and off when connecting to computer by usb cable.
Pictures look in focus on LCD screen when in reality they are blurry. The only way to find out if they are blurry before printing is to view them on a computer monitor. TV is not helpful. The pictures are not clear like on a computer monitor. I absolutely love my camera and would recommend it to anyone who is not a professional photographer. I am not a professional photographer and am not sure what one would require in a camera.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent camera for the non-expert (and up)
Review: I've never owned a digital camera, nor am I anything but an extremely amateur photographer, but our first grandchild was coming, so I began doing a lot of research in consumer's magazines and at technical review websites. I narrowed the choice down to three cameras: The Sony S85, the Olympus C4000, and the Nikon CoolPix 4300, all of them 4 megapixels. After playing around with all three models, I finally went with the Sony S85 -- and I have not been disappointed. It's both simple enough for a camera novice like me to be able to take good pictures almost right out of the box, yet flexible enough (with the full manual control option, etc) to allow me to learn and to work up to a more advanced level. The controls are pretty intuitive -- for anyone with computer experience, anyway -- and the viewscreen is large and bright. It's also "camera-shaped," not a radical new design, which feels more at home when I hold it, and it's large enough to allow my rather large hands to wrap around it. (The Canon Elph is a nice little camera, but for me it's like trying to type on a cell phone keypad.) After six months and some hundred of images, I can recommend this camera unreservedly.
Rating:
Summary: Sony DSC S-85 - A Keeper
Review: This camera has made me a better photographer. It is easy to use and has an on-screen menu for changing options quickly. You can set this camera to automatic, or you can use it in aperture-priority, shutter priority, or manual mode. The truth is that this camera has so many options that I haven't explored all of them yet, though I've owned it almost a year. It is a real keeper.
Rating:
Summary: rock.
Review: i searched around for weeks before finally deciding on the sony dsc-s85 as my 21st birthday present and first digital camera. i've had the camera for a little under four months now, and i am almost up to photo number 2,000. needless to say, i couldn't be happier with it. the battery life is great, and since sony includes both a rechargeable battery *and* an adapter, there is never a problem. the 16 mb memory stick is wonderful to start out with, and i think if anything at all, the only problem is the expense of the sony memory sticks over regular memory cards. but lexar just came out with their own memory sticks, which i've seen for $ cheaper than sony's. woo! i had a photography class this semester at college, and i decided to try to use my digital for some of the photos, to see how they would come out when printed [i just burn them to cd and drop them at wal-mart!]--with my 4 megapixel sony, i ended up with some of the best photos i've ever taken, with really high quality both on screen and on paper. this is true for both color and black and white shots, too. in both cases, you cannot tell that the photos are digital. they look amazing. i took a lot of photos in black and white with no flash, during theatre performances and such at my school, and those were just great. this cam lets you really play with existing light and shadow, and lets you know right away if a shot just isn't working. i love the instant gratification aspect of digital--i've taken many a shot that i thought would be wonderful and just...well, wasn't. but it's okay, because i just deleted those shots and knew for next time, instead of having to pay to get them developed and being disappointed. the camera is everything from fully automatic to fully manual, which is so cool. i'm still learning all of the manual functions, and i'm really glad to have that kind of option. as i get better at the technical stuff, i can use it to enhance the artistic stuff. one small thing: the motion picture option is fun and looks cool on the display, but doesn't look that great on the computer. but, as someone else said, this camera isn't made for that sort of thing anyways. so it's not such a big deal. apart from the really high-end $1000+ digital slr cameras and stuff like that, i think the sony dsc-s85 is the best of its kind right now. tons of cool features, great battery life, easy to use, and usb transfer is simple and fast. really, i can't say enough. it rocks.
Rating: 
Summary: Good not great -- focus problems
Review: I've had this camera for a couple of months now and have taken pictures under varying conditions and have found this camera to be an excellent one. Just about all the good things people have to say about it here are true so I won't repeat them. However, I do have one quibble with this camera -- the focus. The focus is slow and under certain conditions doesn't work well at all. There is a pseudo manual focus available but it doesn't always work well and can only be set at certain predetermined settings. There was one photo we tried to take of Christmas dinner where we had the dinner table and plates in the foreground and all the family members in the background. No matter what I did with the auto focus or the manual focus, the picture did not turn out. The people were always fuzzy but the plates in the foreground were always crystal clear. I'm not a professional photographer so maybe I was doing something wrong but I do have extensive experience with varying SLR and digital cameras over 10 years so I truly think it was a camera problem rather than a user problem. Nonetheless, it's still a great camera 99% of the time and you can't beat the value.
Rating:
Summary: excellent
Review: A must buy. I cant say anything bad about it. Love the battery life, uses camcorder battery. I would highly recommend it. Excellent picture quality.
Rating:
Summary: Not perfect, but very good.
Review: I'm a pretty experienced photographer. It was my major in college, and at times I've had to do it for a living. The Sony s85 will yield good, sharp prints up to 8x10". It may go larger, but I've never tried it. As with any digital camera, you'll get better prints by taking them into Photoshop and setting the levels and color balance. Right out of the camera, your photos will look quite a bit better if you use aperture prioity with the one-touch white balance. The Zeiss lens is good and sharp, fast, and has good bokeh (meaning that out of focus areas, like the background, are pleasing to look at). I wish it would stop down farther than f8, but nothing's perfect. The lens seems to perform well throughout its range of apertures and focal lengths. It has a little distortion at the wide end, but I can usually live with it. Construction of the camera is very solid except for the little door on the side of the camera. Mine's about to break off, but I don't care about stuff like that. If you do, be careful not to drop it with the little door open, like I did. The controls on the camera are very intuitive and easy to navigate. I never have read the manual. The battery life on the s85 is amazing. I almost always have the LCD on, yet I never have run out of power. There is one area in which this camera is seriously lacking: speed. It takes a little too long for the camera to boot, and I've missed a few shots that way. Mainly, though, the problem is the shutter lag. If you really know how to use the camera, you can get around it by shooting wide shots in full manual mode. That way it will fire the shutter reasonably quickly upon demand. Still, if I know my subject's is potentially moving, I will put this camera down and grab another. It's also a little noisy in the blue channel at the higher ISO's. That's normal for a consumer digital, though. If you can, shoot with it set to 100.
Rating:
Summary: So good- I bought a 2nd one!!
Review: I had been using a DSC-S70 for close to two years. Sadly, that wonderful camera was stolen just a couple of weeks before Christmas. It nearly broke my heart! There was no doubt in my mind I wanted another Sony. I am not a professional photographer, not even what you'd consider a "buff," just a mom of 4 kids who likes to take lots of pictures! The pictures I took with the S70 were so AMAZING! I would show my photo albums to others and the first thing they'd ask was "what kind of camera do you use?" I have all my pictures developed by OFOTO and have found their services to be great! I've had the S85 for a very short time now, but so far, it appears that the picture quality surpasses even that of the S70. And, the S85 has some improvements in controls, etc. Overall, I'd say the S85 is one of, if not THE, best digital camera on the market. Many others have written to give technical reviews of the camera's features, just wanted to add that I think Sony's digital cameras are so good, that I purchased a second one!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent camera
Review: I just purchased this camera for my parents--they're currently using a 2.0 MPixel camera and it's just time for them to "move up." I've owned six digital cameras (dating back to 1999) and I can say that this camera is as good as any I've owned. Image quality is excellent, battery life is adequate (I imagine that it could be improved by using an external flash). Newer 4 MPixel cameras may be a bit faster and cheaper, but many don't have much in the way of optics. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This is the second digital camera I've owned. I started with a kodak, but about a year and a half ago I was given this camera as a gift as an upgrade. I could not be happier. It has everything that i was looking for, more complexity so i could begin to learn more about digital imaging, but with simplicity so i was not overwhelmed. I personally don't think that this is a good camera for beginners, so if you're looking for simple point and shoot you should go somewhere else.
My Ratings:
Ease of Use: 3.9 out of 5 --> I'm not an expert so I had to learn quite a bit before I could begin. My advice is to test all the settings out on one subject to get a feel for what everything does.
Features: 4.5 out of 5 --> I wish there was a better zoom, and faster shutter speed, but other than that it is great.
Image quality: 4.7 out of 5 --> 4 megapixles is going to get you great pictures. You just need to be able to get all the feature combinations correct to get ideal pictures.
Value for Money: 5 out of 5 --> You're gonna get a great camera. Definitly worth the money.
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