Rating: 
Summary: This camera is a safe bet.
Review: For one reason or another I have owned an aiptek, a mustek, and now a sony and I must say the sony blows them all away. The picture quality is amazing. It does pretty good in low light conditions, but don't expect any small digital camera to do as well as a regular video camera. I think it has to do with aperture, or the amount of light that such a small lens can let it. Anyway it does better then the others. It's nice and small, the batteries seem to last a long time, you can learn to use it's basic functions in just a few minutes. The video quality is very impressive.My only criticism (besides all small digital camera low light capabilities) is the file size of the video. You can choose 640x480 fine or standard, and then all the way down to 160x something with nothing in between. Almost every other camera on the market does the 320x240 setting. The reason it would be so crucial for this camera is because with a 512MB memory stick (the most expensive type) you can only take 6 minutes of video on 640fine and 22 minutes on standard, while you can take almost 6 hours of video on the 160 setting. Why the gap? I think the smart sony people don't want these little cameras crashing the camcorder market but that's just speculation. The quality between the 160 and 640 are not comparable. On my Mustek DV 4000 512 MB got you almost two hours of video at 640, though notably not as crisp as the sony. Now the one thing that every darn manufacturer should do is post actual pics and video of the camera. Here's a 640 standard video that would take up 512MB in 22 minutes. www.achadwick.com/media/sonysample.mpg , incase that is bleeped that it is achadwick dot com slash media slash sonysample dot mpg no spaces.
Rating: 
Summary: Not that great
Review: I bought this nice little camera hoping to have a nice easy camera with great picture quality. Sorry to say I have had nothing but poor pictures. To be honest I got better pics out a 1.3 megapixal Kodak. I have used it in both good and poor lighting, inside and out and have taken only one fair shot. I will be returning this one and maybe trying something else. I have used other sonys with great sucess, this one is just not worth the money.
Rating:
Summary: Batteries
Review: I don't own this but was thinking about it... it says "The camera is powered by two AA batteries (alkalines included, NiMH rechargeables recommended). It measures 4 x 2.13 x 1.38 inches (W x H x D) and weighs 5.5 ounces without Memory Stick or batteries. "
Realize the word recomended after rechargeables... it says alkline included... so that would be your problem
Rating:
Summary: I absolutely LOVE this camera!!!
Review: I previously owned a 3.1 MP camera by Sony that I honestly thought didn't take such great pics. So, I was wary about buying another Sony. I did some research on this one and found that it got a lot of positive feedback. I love taking pics wherever I go, so size was also a factor in choosing the right camera for me. You will be amazed at how tiny this camera is! The pictures look great and when I print them at home, they look as though I just picked them up at my local photo stop. They have different settings so you can choose just the right lighting and it even has a feature that allows you to take black & white photos. Please note that you need to buy an additional media card because at 4.1MP, the card it comes with only holds 8 pictures! It's very easy to use and definitely makes a great gift idea. Two of my friends have went on to purchase this camera and love it. Oh, as with any digital camera... make sure you invest in rechargeable batteries.
Rating:
Summary: Best Bet
Review: I received this camera for Christmas this morning. I am really pleased for it thus far, especially seeing how it was only $180. It is my first Digital Camera, so to me, the image quality is great. I have nothing to compare it to, but its great for me. The camera is stylish on the design and very small for a camera. It's about the length of your 4 fingers, excluding your thumb, put together. It is very easy to use, I didn't have to use the manual to find out how to do most things. I needed the manual to learn more about some of the photograph settings/options/modifiers, but when it came to just taking/deleting simple pictures, or shooting video clips, it was easy and no manual reading was necessary. Hooking up to my PC was very simple, plug and play into the USB drive and the camera shows up as an external drive, so the software isn't necessary. I installed the software but didn't prefer it over the external drive, but the software was still pretty good when it came to sorting your photos. All the shooting modes are easy, and neat(such as black and white). It's easy to use the self-timer, flash, and zoom. The image viewer is a breeze.
The included batteries it came with ran out after about an hour and a half, that was me taking at least 25 shots and shooting 5 movies, and deleting a lot(who knows if thats good or bad battery life based on all the stuff I did). But luckily, I also got Energizer Rechargable NiMH batteries with the 30 minute charger for Christmas too, so those came in real handy. Those batteries on a single charge lasted about 2 hours(many shots and several movies). It is highly recommended to get NiMH rechargables.
The memory stick inlcuded is only 16 MB, which holds 8 images or about 40 seconds of movie shooting on 640x480(on 160x120, I got about 5 minutes of video, but this made the battery meter go way down). When taking pictures, you can change the resolution from 4 megapixels to 3 megapixels or 1 mega pixel to save size. This doesn't throw off the image quality any, it just makes the image "smaller", in terms of how big it would be on a computer screen. There is absolutley no difference between a 1 megapixel shot and a 4 megapixel shot when viewed on the camera's LCD. A 1 mega pixel shot can take up 1280 x 960 pixels on a computer screen while still retaining its image quality. Most computers have their default screen resolution set to 1024x768 pixels, so a 1 mega pixel shot would cover more than the whole computer screen while still retaining its image quality. A 4 mega pixel shot can take up 2304 x 1704 pixels on a computer screen while still retaining its image quality. If you were to try to blow up the 1 mega pixel shot to fit 2304 x 1704 pixels, it would have to enlarge each picture, blurring the image and making it look bad. So if you are just interested in sharing images with your friends through email and such with small images that take up, for example, about 1/4 of the screen, whether you take a 1 mega pixel shot or 4 mega pixel shot really won't matter since they would be the same. Therefore, you could save space on the memory card by just taking 1 or 3 mega pixel pictures. I got a 128MB Memory Stick PRO for the Camera so I could store more pictures and use the 640x480 FINE mode in movie shooting. With the Memory Stick Pro I can fit over 50 images, most likely over 30 minutes of video(not recommended since this would drain the battery down way before it hit 30 minutes) on 160x120 video, and over 5 minutes probably on 640x480 video setting, so the memory stick upgrade is pretty big.
The movie shooting should have a 320x240 setting in between 160x120 and 640x480, but it doesn't. This isn't too big of a hassle, because the movie quality isn't AMAZING, its just for quick little clips on spur of the moment events. The 160x120 mode is fine for most things, especially for me, so I don't plan on using the 640x480 anyway.
The "cons" aren't big deals(remedied by getting rechargable batteries and a bigger memory stick, which nullifies any cons) and certainly don't weigh down the camera's greatness at all.
Value, intuitiveness, ease of use, design, size, quality, and fun are all bundled into this camera and I recommend it to anyone who just wants an easy to use camera with a high resolution to take pictures of anything that could happen in the future that they would want to capture and save to enjoy for years to come.
Rating:
Summary: WOW!! $200 For a good looking 4MP Sony Digital Camera??!!
Review: I should have bought this camera on Amazon instead of Circuit City's online site. Amazon doesn't tax you and will also give you a $25 coupon on some digital camera accessory purchases, and also if you buy $250 or more of electronics at Amazon, they'll give you a $50 certificate on your next purchase. So, if you buy this camera and then buy the SanDisk Memory Stick Pro (256MB for ~$60), you'll get that $50 certificate (act FAST!! offer ends AUGUST 1). With that $50 certificate, you can purchase those much needed rechargables on your next purchase, or go to Costco like me and buy that $20 Panasonic charger with 6 AA and 2AAA batteries in the package. Those batteries are good for digital cameras (2100 mAH). Not to bad for $20. I've used this camera for about a month, and its going great. Decided to buy screen protectors for it (saw some at Radioshack for ~6.00), and also just purchased that SanDisk 256MB Memory Stick Pro. That'll store about 100+ pictures on 4MP. The camera does eat up a lot of batteries, so rechargables are a must. Quality is excellent, but the zoom is only pretty good. But hey, it's only $200 and what do you expect? My girlfriend has an Aiptek, and although their price on their products are ~100, the aiptek digital cameras can't shoot in low to no light conditions at all. This sony definitely can. I also found a Minolta 4MP camera with opt. zoom for $220 at Amazon, but the appearance and size of it is not comparable to this Sony DSCP41. I'd pick this one even though it lacks the opt. zoom. Also, to the person that wrote about how this Sony digicam's lens is not protected, yah it isn't really that protected. Luckily the shutter comes on when it is not in use for about a min. or when you turn it off. Just not smudge the lens and clean it once in a while and it will be fine.
Rating:
Summary: Best Camera Ever!!!!
Review: No wonder its the best selling digital camera of the year. Sure you need a larger memory card and different batteries but all I did was buy some lithium batteries and they are still full powered and they arent that expensive! Its not like the memory cards are a million dollars so whats to complain? A great camera for under 200 dollars! Bonus: it is so hott!!
Rating:
Summary: Best Value in Entry Level Digital Cameras ?
Review: Once properly set up I find the P41 to be an excellent point and shoot camera, similar to a Yashica T4 that we also own as it too has a fixed focal length lens and produces very good images. I started off with a 128M memory stick and NiMH batteries as I considered them required instead of optional items, and so far find that battery life and image storage are not a problem. Another item to consider buying is a case, maybe with room for a couple of extra batteries. The small size, ease of use, and low cost make for a great buy.
We initially had a lot of soft images which were due to the default 'auto' settings. The 'frame' autofocus didn't work well at all in what seemed like a majority of cases and per more technical reviews the noise increases with the effective film speed, which probably explains most of the complaints about soft images. I set it up in a 'program' mode with the 'center' autofocus, left the 'multi-pattern' exposure on and fixed the effective film speed at ISO 100, and now it behaves pretty much like a good 35mm point and shoot film camera.
Using an effective ISO 100 film means that in low light you have a shallow depth of field, the effective shutter speed will be low and the flash won't have much reach, so you need to focus carefully, recompose your shot and carefully press the shutter, just like with a film camera. I find that close up shots aren't a problem although for a scene with a lot of detail you might need to provide an object to focus on, remove it, and finish the shot. 'Jaggies' that you see when looking at the images will be due low computer screen resolution, so you'll either need to increase it or increase the image size.
I bought it for the kids but will probably pick up another if they end up on sale.
Rating:
Summary: be careful where you buy
Review: Sony's cameras are great. I made a dumb mistake though. I found a lower price at Broadway Photo and bought from them. They then had a salesman call me at home to sell me more, told me the Sony battery was no good (this is very untrue, provided you don't keep them charging all the time), and sent me a shipment with an un-itemized total bill plus a surprising and whopping $40 shipping charge. I should've checked them out at http://www.resellerratings.com/seller1995.html I was shocked when I read the reviews from their customers, too late. Now I have to go to my credit card company and try to undo their game.
Rating:
Summary: The best kept secret in tapeless digital video
Review: This camera is a great point and shoot 4 MP digital camera. But there's a lot of those out there, and buying Sony quality needs to be weighed against needing to buy higher priced Memory Stick media (as compared to Compact Flash).
However, where this camera really shines is as the smallest 640x480 30 fps digital video camera out there. Even though you'll need a 1GB Memory Stick Pro card to record 12 minutes of video at the highest setting, it still works out cheaper than buying the closest tapeless digital video competitor from less known and less reliable brands like Mustek. And the quality is definitely better than most of the old VHS camcorders out there that you could pick up for the same price as this camera and a 1GB card. And there's the ability to edit and cut video right on the camera. Which means that you can save memory space by doing a quick edit after your shot.
So if you need a video camera that you know you'll always have with you, and you don't mind doing frequent transfers to your PC, and need a camera that doesn't scream "I am now filming you with my camcorder" to your subject, this might be a good bet.
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