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Sony DSCP31 Cyber-shot 2MP Digital Still Camera

Sony DSCP31 Cyber-shot 2MP Digital Still Camera

List Price: $319.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An excellent camera.
Review: Overall this is an excellent camera. It is small, and lightweight, but very well built and feels sturdy to the touch.

The camera features 1600x800 resolution (2 mega pixel)and a digital zoom. Surprisingly the pictures taken with the digital zoom turn out acceptable. They are not nearly as nice as if there was an optical zoom, but for images that don't require a lot of detail they are ok. Even so, if you plan on using the zoom feature a lot you'd be better off buying a camera with optical zoom instead of only digital zoom.

The camera comes with an 8mb card, enough to hold about 20 pictures. It also comes with 2 rechargeable AA batteries and a charger. Finally, contrary to the other review I read it does come with a USB cable for connection to your computer.

The camera has a lot of nice features including the ability to record motion mpeg's. Unfortunately it does not include a microphone so you can't record sound with your "movies".

The only thing that I do not like about this camera is the flash. The camera has red eye reduction, but the way it is implement is annoying. The camera flashes several times before taking the photo, almost like strobe. The effect is very disconcerting for people and all too often the photo that is taken is of people grimacing because of the multiple flashes. Even with red eye turned off the flash fires twice, again causing people to blink when the picture is actually taken.

But other than the flash I've been very happy with the camera and happily recommend it to others.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Broke after 8 months
Review: Overall, this is an excellant camera as far as quality of pictures, features, ease of use. I loved it until it just quit taking pictures. After speaking to 3 sony tech support representitives and answering the same questions, they finally came to the conclusion that it was broke. Duh! I didnt drop, mis-use or abuse it. It just quit taking pictures. Sony's 90 day warrenty made matters worse as it will cost $148.00 to fix the camera. I was a big buyer of Sony products until this happened. You would think after spending $289.00 on the camera, it would come with a longer warrenty. Lesson learned! My rating for Sony is a 0 but the camera is a 4 star.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The little go-get-it camera
Review: Pros:
Excellent value. Intuitive user interface. Laden with useful features without becoming confusing. Relatively light and compact. Decent image quality. Respectable battery life. Good display. Quick response time. Durable. No time limit for movie shots. Low noise for low light situations. Fixed lens has a slightly wider angle than most zoom lenses. Overall quality is excellent.

Cons:
Lens distortions makes portraits its weakness. The lens is on the soft side. Lack of zoom may be trouble for some, then there are those who can appreciate a fixed wide angle. Low light focusing can be a tad slow or inaccurate even with the focus assist light. No extra long shutters (only up to 2"). For those who care, no sound with movie clips.

Conslusion:
This is a great snapshot camera. The simplicity and speed of its interface makes it a joy to use. Useful features at the touch of a button that both novice and advanced photographers will appreciate. Respectable battery life reduces the inhibition to joyfully snapping away, and the quality of its images did not disappoint. The robust body is durable and allows its use in less friendly conditions. I have used quite a few digital cameras from Nikon, Minolta, Sony, Canon and Olympus, yet none feels as "willing" as this camera to shoot pictures. The speed, quality, battery longevity, simplicity and durability of the camera allowed me personally to concentrate more on the photographs than on the gewgaws, delays or battery exhaustion. I have indeed shot an incredible amount of pictures with this camera, more than with all the other much more expensive cameras. The P31 is build for quick snapshots, with features that inspires creativity, and at a price that I can only love. A wonderfully balanced combination, if you can only overlook the lack of zoom.

Recommended:
128mb Memory Stick, Extra NiMH batteries. A quick charger.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great digital camera for the price
Review: Sony DSC-P31 digital camera is pretty simple to use. It comes with a 8Mb memory stick.I bought a 128Mb memory stick from Sandisk(much cheaper than Sony's memory sticks)and it works fine. Had no problem connecting it to the Computer or TV.The Flash is pretty powerful.I am quite happy that I bought this camera for [the price I paid]. I highly recommend this camera.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A great camera, but made of plastic.
Review: The P31 is a great camera but I have three complaints.

1) I am used to my old Canon AE1-P, in wich the camera body is made of metal. My AE1-P camera is 17 years old, I doubt that the plastic body of the P31 will last that long. Of course, it is much, much lighter. You can carry it in a shirt pocket.
2) It has these two plastic tabs, one covering the AC input and the other covering the USB/Video Out connectors. I am almost sure that before two years those fragile tabs will break.
3) Another contra is that it doesn't bring a camera case. Sony includes the Ni-Mh batteries and charger but doesn't include even a...case?

Aside from that, as I said, this is a great snapshot camera. If you keep the LCD turned off and don't use the flash frequently, the batteries should last long. The included 8Mb memory stick is not enough, so buy a 128Mb stick with the camera. I got a Lexar, and that is the one I use. The 8Mb stick is gathering dust in a drawer. I will buy another 128Mb stick when I go on vacations in the future. The 2Megapixels images take about 800K each, so you can store about 150 to 160 images.

The manual says that the batteries take 13 hours to fully charge. I don't know why they take that long, but I clocked them, and I was surprised to see that in fact, I took exactly 13 hours to charge them. No less, no more. If you take a lot of pictures, be prepared to buy 2 extra batteries also.

I was forgetting about my fourth complaint, the manual. There's a mention that you have two USB modes, Normal and PTP. They only say, you should use Normal. No further explanation of what PTP is.

I did some research and found that PTP stands for Picture Transfer Protocol. Windows XP understands it (I don't know if other versions do), and basically instead of showing the camera as an external drive in the windows explorer, it activates a Wizard that makes it simpler for non technical users to transfer the images to a PC.

I prefer the "Normal USB" mode, but it would be nice if the manual explained all the features of the camera.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: My review has no title.
Review: This is a cool camera for the bucks man, I have put mine through it's paces, and it works like it is still new, only thing, watch out for the cheap memory stick door, mine is still intact, but it feels so weak...ill bet one good drop or pull and it comes off in your hand, other than that, killer digital cam, it also makes a mean MPEG video if ya got a big memory stick.. good for sporting events,illegal street races,or whatever you can imagine:)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great
Review: this is a great camera... if you are not a professional and are looking to buy some camera only for fun.. well this is your camera, just buy more memory, and aditional batteries (not necesary because it use a common alkaline AA batteries), it have a lot of funtions, and the only don't have a lot of diferences with the P71 is great for fun and travels i extremenly recomend tu buy this superior camera

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Sony: A Really Great Camera!
Review: This Sony digital camera is a really good camera! It is really small, so it can fit in my purse or pocket, but it takes really good quality pictures and movies. It is also a great buy compared to other cameras in its price range.
The only drawback to this camera is it does not come with a camera carrier. I believe if we are spending this much money, Sony should at least extend the courtesy of including a camera case so we do not damage our camera. Also, the batteries wear out really fast even when I do not turn on the camera for long amounts of time.
Sony is a great brand and that is the only brand of electronics I ever buy; this is one of their really good products!


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