Digital Camera: Sony CyberShot DSC-P10

by MaxPower

I’ve entered the world of digital photography! Oh I know what you’re thinking, how could the chic and incredibly trendy Nixon only getting a digicam now? What can I say, I was a first mover with the whole CD burning craze but have been slow on the digital photography revolution. Actually, I have a confession; I’m reviewing a product which was lent to me. Anyway with the advent of internet based services that allow you to send the photos to a photo-processing shop and get them printed out on ‘real’ picture paper I am much more likely to adopt. The whole idea of being able to take pictures and then view them on the spot will save a lot in film costs. Additionally, the thing is super-user friendly, even my mother who is not exactly a technically inclined individuals has no problem using it. But enough of this on to the specs:

Brand:
Sony (It’s a Sony and as such you can expect quality but also price. I have had it recommended to me to have a non-Sony bag to disguise the value of the camera, but then again they don’t even include a camera case in the purchase price!)

Weight:
0.59 pounds (Don’t loose it, it’s a cell phone-type weight)

Accessories:
Rechargeable AA NiMH Batteries, Battery Charger, AV Cable, USB Cable, Wrist Strap, 16 MB Memory Stick, Software CD-ROM

Key Features:
Sony Memory Stick – 16 MB (What the hell good is that, go an buy a big honking stick which can take 100 pictures; sadly you’ll have to pay more since it’s Sony memory)
LCD Size – 1.5 in. (Yeah it’s small but the whole thing is small)
Optical Zoom – 3X
Resolution – 5 Meg pixels (Wouldn’t have it any other way)

Photos can be one of five resolutions:

2,592 x 1,944 pixels
2,592 x 1,728 pixels (3:4)
2,048 x 1,536 pixels
1,280 x 960 pixels
640 x 480 pixels (VGA)

Best Feature: Night time non-flash images that end up looking like what you see when you are looking at something in the dark. Very impressive.

Feature that you don’t really need: The fact that it can do ‘Megamovie VX’ movies. I have a digital movie camera and I don’t really need my digital camera to take movies too.

The transferring of pictures onto computer is a snap too, I plug the USB cable into the camera and then the other end into the computer, turn the camera on and then boom, can swap the pictures from the memory stick to my hard drive. The pictures I took were in the range of 1 – 2 megs in size so you may need a program such as Adobe in order to cut down the file size before you email your pictures to friends and relatives.

While a non-technical person can easily use this camera, there are features for the more adventurous. Features like the ‘three-shot burst’ mode which will allow you to, just as the name implies, take three shots in close succession.

Plus I love the ability to just plug the camera into the front of my TV, I find that I need to see the picture on the big screen in order to see if I should keep it or not.

It’s a pricey camera but I know that it’s on my Christmas list!

MaxPower