Sony Cyber-shot DSC-G3 user reviews

Pros WIFI is a good idea, Nice Design, 4GB of internal Memory, Takes reliable photos.

Cons Battery drains really fast, Fingerprint hog, Cant upload more than 10 files at once, Uploading ten 10MP photos takes 22 mins over WIFI (at 15mb download, 5mb upload speeds).

Summary A brief background of me: I am a 4th year medical student, and purchased the DSC-G3 to replace my current DSC-M1 camera that i've owned for about 4 years. I have been a loyal customer of the Sony Cyber-shot series for the past 9 years.

Here is a detailed review of what I have discovered with this camera so far:

(1) DIMENSIONS:

Everyone is probably trying to find the dimensions of this camera, but as of January 16th, they have not been posted anywhere.. not even Sony's website. Now that I personally own the camera, I was able to measure it myself. The dimensions are: 3.8 x 2.4 inches. It's also 0.75 inches thick. The thickness was provided in the specs, but the length and width were not. The camera doesn't feel or look as thin as I had imagined, especially since Sony describes it as having a "slim" form factor. Its not excessively thick though either.

(2) PHYSICAL APPEARANCE:

The camera has a nice stealth black appearance. I love the slide-out design. The outer coating is actually identical to my old DSC-M1, so not much has changed in that respect. You will see fingerprints on the outer case. However, the part hiding under the slide out-case (where the lens is attached & it says "10.1 Megapixels") is much much more fingerprint prone. And of course, I expected the touchscreen to be a fingerprint hog..but I pre-purchased Boxwave's Cleartouch Anti-Glare screen protector to prevent fingerprints and scratches. If you are interested in that, it fits on perfectly.. they sell them for the Sony T700 which is the exact same screen size as the G3.

(3) BATTERY LIFE:

Battery life is advertised as "200 shots" or 100 minutes. One hour and forty minutes is somewhat disappointing, and using the WIFI will just make it drain even quicker. You'll definitely need a spare battery. And on a sidenote, I can't believe Sony includes only a NP-BD1 battery. That's the same battery as the NP-FD1, except the NP-FD1 actually tells you how many minutes you have left till your battery drains. The NP-BD1 does not provide this information. They had the nerves to advertise on the side of the camera's box that you can purchase the NP-FD1 as an optional accessory. Assuming both batteries have the same duration, I think they should have included the NP-FD1 considering we paid $500 + tax for the camera.

(4) UPLOADING

Setting up your photo, video, and WIFI accounts was very easy. It remembers all your info (if you want it to) so you don't have to type it again. However, uploading was again disappointing. You can only select one file at a time, and a maximum of 10 files per upload. There is no button like "select all" to upload all the photos from the folder of pictures you just took with your camera. I figure that most people will want to upload all their photos from the day. I tried uploading 10 of my 10.1 megapixel photos on Picasa, which took 22 minutes to upload & confirm they'd been posted! For the record, my WIFI connection was tested to have 15MB download speeds & 5MB upload speeds. Obviously you're going to have to take pictures with a smaller megapixel size if you want them to be uploaded quicker.

(5) PICTURE QUALITY:

I had no complaints with the auto-picture settings. They came out very clear, the flash seems much sharper than my previous camera as well. I even tried moving the camera around when trying to take pictures, but they came out very stabilized.

(6) TOUCH SCREEN;

Aside from the fingerprint issue, the touch screen boasts a 921K pixel screen. Unfortunately, the icons seem a bit blurry on the touchscreen. The photos look good on it but you can see some 'grainy-ness'. The touch screen is not easy to use with your fingers.. I don't think its meant for fingers because you have to apply so much pressure and you still can't use it smoothly. It does work flawlessly with the included "paint pen" though. Being an iPhone 3G owner, I certainly prefer using my fingers, but i'll have to keep the included pen attached to the wrist strap to go through all the touchscreen menus. I don't have a big problem with it though.

(7) CHARGER:

Its nice they included a charger that does not have any wires. It has the metal prongs that can be folded in for storage. I did read in the manual that if you are an international purchaser, it will require a cable to charge the camera.

(8) SOFTWARE:

I could not test the Picture Motion Browser software because I have the Macbook Pro and MAC OSX (and its not compatible with it). Honestly, I did not plan to use the software anyways so I won't try it on my Windows Virtualization program via VMWARE Fusion 2.0 on my MAC. You could just plug it in via USB and drag the photos over. I was hoping that I could just transfer all the pics to Picasa wirelessly and just get them on my computer that way... but obviously it will be tedious when you can only upload 10 photos at a time and they take 22 mins!!

Overall, you can see the G3 is not nearly worth the $500! :-(