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Sony DSCU50 CyberShot 2MP Digital Still Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Silver)

Sony DSCU50 CyberShot 2MP Digital Still Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Silver)

List Price: $399.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good Camera
Review: This camera is actually a good camera for the price, the major complaint was that it didn't come w/ a lithium battery. But you can order a "Value-Pack" from Sony that includes a battery, charger and a nice case. So that wasn't much of a problem, I also recommend getting a 32 or 64 MB Memory stick, my 64 mb stick can hold about 66 high quality (1600x1200), and about 160 (1024 X 768), and of course about 370 (640X480) Which is a alot of pictures, and about 11 min of video (mpeg)w/o sound. I would strongly recommend buying the "Info-lithium battery" from Sony (comes in Value-pack), because it displays how many minutes of battery life you have remaining, which comes in handy. Normal AA batteries could die on you without warning! One other thing that bothered me, was the lag time of the camera after it took a picture, but all "digital" cameras that I've seen seem to do this; you take a picture w/ flash and after the picture is recorded the screen goes blank for a couple seconds, but if you take a picture w/o flash, there is no lag time. I guess the price you have to pay for getting a digital camera. Overall a really good camera, the optical zoom is nice too.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent Camera, aside from 2 things
Review: This camera takes very good pictures, the menus are easy to use, it is small, the flash is very powerful and the lens is of good quality.

Two small drawbacks: 1. The camera literally eats batteries, like a ton of customers said before me. I tried to use NiMH rechargeable batteries from RadioShack and after only one flash, the batteries would be dead, very unconvenient. I recommend buying the Lithium-Ion Pack with the AC adapter (if not you can't recharge it), just buy the starter kit it has the Li-Pack, the AC Adapter and a nice case for the camera (can't hold any additional lenses though).

2. And I think no one talked about it so far is the button to OK command in the menus. You have a cross-shaped pad, just like a video console controller, that you have to press straight in the middle to OK functions. Other functions are carried by the up, down, left and right hands of the cross. It is sometimes difficult to press straight down on the cross, and if you don't do that, it makes your selection move in the menu, which is a little bit frustrating. And that happens even after a couple weeks of using the camera... Not a big drawback, but still it's good to know.

All things considered, great choice, probably the best 2 MPixels-range Digital Camera on the market for the first half of 2001.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Another Great Sony Product!
Review: This camera was a christmas gift. So far (about 1 week) I love it! The picture quality is amazing, and the ease of use is even better. Pop in a memory stick take a picture, upload. MPEG EX lets you take 70 minute movies (no audio) on a 128MB memory stick. This camera is very small and has a viewfinder for quick point-and-shoot pictures. The LCD also has the option to turn off, saving battery life. Which brings up another thing. This camera can use 2 AA's. Although they only last 15-20 minutes it is a great life-saver if the big battery dies and you have some AAs. I recommend buying the Info lithium battery. Overall, this camera is a very high quality camera. If your thinking about a high-quality consumer level camera, check this one out.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Camera
Review: This camera was a Father's Day present in June and I loved it right from the start. Unfortunately, the batteries that come with it lasted about as long as it took to set it up. Fortunately, I was in Chicago the next week and bought the Sony Starter kit which includes a charger and case. I think this is a must have for this camera. Also purchased a 32K Memory stick and wide angle lens (the cheaper lens).

The camera itself is great, easily fits in my right hand, and is ruggedly made. We spent two weeks in Europe this summer during which I (stupidly) dropped it twice and no problems. We took hundreds of pictures and I loved the freedom of taking as many pictures as I wanted, downloading them to a Powerbook and then going out for more.

I am still learning to use some of the advanced settings in the camera. One thing I've seen is that it is very important to track the white balance setting.

The charger works fairly rapidly and with a plug adapter can be used on European current. The wide angle lens has been a disappointment. I also purchased a PCMIA card reader for my powerbook which has been a great convenience.

I would unhesitatingly recommend this camera.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Exceeded expectations although don't expect perfect pictures
Review: This is a great digital camera. My comments are relative to what is/was the competition:
Pluses:
Sony memory card
-Cross compatability with other sony products. I hate to be forced into one brand but this is something that the competition really doesn't offer to the same extent and is certainly worth noting. (I can see my camera images on my sony clie by simply pluging the card in).
-Capacity upto 128Mb is huge (equivalent to 5-9 rolls of film) and highly useful/recommended (this upgrade will more than double the usefulness of the camera)
-Although there is a perception its pricey it really isn't. I haven't found a more cost effective media which isn't associated with a much inferior camera (unless you're looking for massive, >500Mb, storage capacity).
Battery
-All digital cameras perform badly in this respect the good thing with the DSC model is that it can use standard battery sizes. I highly recommend buying 4+ AA rechargeable batteries. It'll mean you can not only take more photos but also take them with flash.

minuses
Picture quality. Its actually fantastic although you should be aware of limitations
-Indoors (in fact anywhere where its not bright) you really need to use the flash. I recommend when you first use the camera to experiment with different orientations of the camera, because the flash is quite far from the lense and this will often causes unattractive shadows on walls.
-High zoom and moving subjects. A combination of the digital zoom (only at the high end, x6. At the low end optical zoom does a perfect job) and slow response to changes in focus depth give blurry images.

Overall
The deal I got (camera plus discounted 128Mb extra memory card) would have great camera at twice the price.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Haunted by E:92:00 error
Review: We love / loved this camera until the dreaded E:92:00 error popped up, making the camera unusable. We did buy the extended warranty from Best Buy but their extended warranty policy says that the camera can be out for 4 fixes for same problem, then they can, "at their discretion" replace the item. We have returned it for this problem 4 times, and they still didn't want to replace it. They have replaced all of the internal parts two times. Still they Said there was nothing wrong with the camera even though the E:92:00 error is all over the internet as a problem with this camera. Finally after telling them I had been without my camera for 50 days in the first 5 months of my daughter's life, someone took sympathy on me and we are getting a new camera. Hope Sony has fixed the problem.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: NOT a fan....
Review: Well, let me tell you my story. I had the camera for a good few months, and loved it. It took great pictures, and being a new digital camera user, the size and awkwardness of teh camera wasn't too bad for me. I was happy for it. I'm a college student, and at the time, the price tag was a little big for me, considering I had to spend a weeks paycheck on it. A few months after I had the cmaera, the LCD broke. It was either dropped, or I bumped into something while it was in my pocket (an easy thing to do, considering it's like a brick). Well, to make a long story short, no one on this entire planet was going to help me to fix this thing, unless I wanted to pay Sony something like [price]for repairs. (Just to let you know, the estimate, which cost me money to ship the camera to some foreign land just for them to tell me some lie, was [price] dollars for labor, and [price]for parts). Being the dummy I was at the time, I paid the extra [price] or so dollars for the warranty, which was useless. The fact that the entire support staff at both are a chain of lamebrains, just handing me over to someone else who couldn't solve my problem was so aggravating that I will never ever buy a sony product again. Making someone belive that they are secure if a product breaks is one thing, but not backing it up at all is entirely bad business practices. And let me remind you that the [price] that Iu spent on this entire ordeal was not a small amount. SO if you want to buy this camera, or anything like it, make sure that you read the fine print, and even if it says that you are covered, NEVER believe it...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Still a very good camera
Review: When I first bought this camera I was a bit dissapointed...I encoutered all the problems listed in the other reviews :
1. poor battery life
2. only 4mb memory stick
3. needs good light to take good pictures.
So, I went and bought the infolithium battery with a charger and 64mb... the price went up considerably.
After all this you may wonder why I rated this camera with 5 stars? The reason is that first of all, all of the above problems are found in one way or anoher in all digital cameras (something like a dc trademark) and with the accessories I bought, the camera has transformed into a very powerful device. Although the accesories increased the price a lot, if you compare similarly priced cameras(after the increase), you will find that still this camera outperforms the rest.


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