- Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 50 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
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15 out of 19 people found this review helpful
2.5 stars
"The first priority is supposed to be given to image quality! I've returned it."
Pros: Many stylish features (touch screen, huge LCD, music, album, nice menu system, etc.)
Cons: Poor image quality; poor resolution; extraordinarily yellow images; especially low quality indoor images
Summary: Before I got this Sony DSC-N1, I had been tracking it for months, even much earlier than its marketing date (Mid. November). I kept checking relevant websites to find any news about this product. My eyes were shining with eager anticipation. The reason is simple: this Sony DSC-N1 has a lot of fancy features, large LCD (High resolution 3" LCD screen is actually a very rare eye catcher on cameras), touch screen, built-in album, very few buttons to press, all metal compact body, high megabytes (NOT high resolution!), etc.
The price is not a cheap one in P&S cameras. I ran to a local electronic store in the morning to buy this Sony DSC-N1. However, after I came home, my heart was broken when I saw the images I shot. I tried numerous combinations of various specs this camera offers. The only pictures without massive yellow area were shot using AUTO preset under no flash light, but they come with a very low resolution. If you look at the actual size image of 8M (around 3.4M actual JPG file size), you will notice that all edges are extraordinarily fuzzy. If you use other preset shooting modes, resolution might be somewhat improved but at an expense of serious large yellow area appearing on images. I could not figure out why this happended. I tried to adjust every different setting, the yellow images just persist. Situation becomes better only when sunny days are coming. I found many excellent photos of Sony DSC-N1 on Internet which were all taken outdoors in sunny days. The problem drove me nuts when I was using this camera indoors. Huge LCD, touch screen, music, built-in album, etc., so what? I buy camera to take photos, not to enjoy touch screen and huge LCD or whatever. If image quality is not acceptable, all these fancy stuff become piddling gadgets.
I believe the rate of 6.6 by Editor is reasonable (especially the rate of 6 for image quality of this Sony DSC-N1), although it surprised me very much until I tried this camera myself. I've returned this camera.
- 5 replies to this review
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Please i do not agree with the 6.6!!!! and your vision, i bought one after doing some research and trying out! Beatifull pictures, great options, very easy to operate menu, large screen, 8.1 Mpix!!!!!! ISO 800!!!! The flash is great, long range!! Metal housing, and very low!! distortion in pictures, really i think you had a bad N1 bought! Bad luck, should have tryed another one! Totally dissagree with he note read the review at steves digicams as well! Good luck with your other camera!
with kind regards,
Harald -
I recently got this camera for my birthday. And yes I am one who likes things that are a little out of the ordinary, and this is just it. I love the touch screen and don't mind the smudges. Yes it is next to impposible to take a night shot with this camera, but it makes me feel all the more unique when I'm the only person that knows how. Plus, it's digital, if the shot is a little off center, then I can delete and shoot again. Plus a little trick to that is when you taking the picture, hold the button down half way, the red eye light will provide a small amount of light to use when finding the shot. When I use that method, my pictures come out nice all the time.
I recently took over 200 pictures in 2 days with my camera. Some were indoor and some were outside, the majority were night pics. I will say this, the picture quality is good IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING. If you can only do the basics on a digital camera, then this isn't the camera for you. You do have to know a few things about taking pictures to use this camera.
For now my camera is still new, and I love it. I can't complain about the picture quality, because it meets my expectations. If it takes good quality pictures for the next two years, then I am satisfied. I'm a new every 2 type of person. But I wish I could post pictures I've taken with it to show of the quality of the shots I took. I was even able to take a beautiful nature shot of a butterfly landing on a flower in my yard. It looks like a professional print. I had to play around with how I took the picture before I got it just right (angle, focusing, etc) but I love the pictures it took and I am happy with the camera. -
I have experienced none of the problems with my Sony DSC-N1 you described with yours. You should have suspected something was wrong, taken it back and had it replaced. It was obviously broken. Too bad because you are missing out on the best P&S camera on the market!
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I've been using this camera for a few months now, while I do agree with what you said about the yellowish color, this only happes when using flsh, and is caused by the poor quality of the flash.These images can be fixed in seconds with photoshop, and I guarantee that you'll get the same problem from almost all compact cameras with built in flash.
As for the poor resolution...I totally dissagree.I've had various posters printed from photos I've taken, and the quality is incredible!All the photos are crisp and clear (mostly due to the Carl Zeiss lens).
I think you're camera may have been faulty, it does happen unfrtunately. -
Not sure what you're shooting but i've been getting consistent color reproduction and no fuzz around edges at 8mp default setting.
