- Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 29 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
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3 out of 5 people found this review helpful
3.5 stars
"Good, but NOT really Mac compatible -- and NO macro."
Pros: Wide angle (31mm) lens, quick and good with flash off. Optical viewfinder.
Cons: Tedious menus, software doesn't work with Mac. Low sound volume.
Summary: It's a good camera for the price. Would have preferred to see some more intuitive controls and functions. PROS: Has 32Mb internal memory which is 4 times the usual on compacts. Takes handy AA batteries. Onscreen readout of F-stops and shutter speed is a plus. Very good for low-light quick shots without flash. Flash strength is somewhat adjustable +/-. 31mm lens provides wider coverage with little distortion. "Read This First" basic instruction manual lets you begin easily. CONS: Little Mac compatability -- supplied SOFTWARE DOESN'T WORK with Mac at all -- not noted until page 57 of (not clearly written) directions: we were fortunate that our HP software from a previous camera worked for this one on our MacBookPro. As I have Photoshop, it's OK, but COULD FIND NO DOWNLOADABLE SOFTWARE ONLINE. Casual Mac-based buyers should probably abstain. Lower-Res movies appear on camera screen in small size. Movie playback is not loud enough for me. Accepts only Sony DUO memory -- not SD or Compact Flash. No Macro setting. As usual, NO PC Flash sync. -- WHY does only Casio have this in compact cameras???Updated
Do not be deceived by plasticky look and feel, un-chic thickness, and low (85,000) screen. First and most important, this camera has an optical viewfinder, and it uses AA batteries -- impossible in a thinner size. Both these are real advantages, particularly when traveling. It still fits nicely in bag-pockets designed for cell-phones! Note: This camera contains a unique trimming feature that only SONY digital has -- the ability to take low-resolution snaps, and then copying them, cropping as desired, to a HIGHER resolution in the camera! I've shot pictures at lowest VGA settign, and then copied them using this internal program up to 3 megapixels. Looking at the results close-up in Photoshop shows quite decent results -- zig-zag edges smoothed! I have bought and returned several "more advanced" others: Olympus sp350 (Too slow! Unwieldy menus.), Fuji E900 (no movie editing at all: goodbye memory!) and ended up with two of these for everyday shooting. The Sony s600 also features a 31mm wider-angle-than-most coverage: and that extra makes all the difference in so many shots. Excellent and fast when flash is off, although 400ASA is about as high as you want to go. 800 and 1000 give too much grain for my taste. Also great is the flash coverage. Turned to LOW setting, it has very even and nice lighting portraiture. I have shot beauty fro ELITE Models with this -- and the results compare favorably to my Nikon SLR with pro flash and diffuser. I'm convinced that the short lens barrel, relatively large lens, and the fact that the lens does not extend when zooming all contribute to sharper pictures. The non- moving lens and compact design makes it good for shooting "on the sly" -- as per super-slim cameras: but NONE of them use AA batteries. Negatives? No macro setting is a little shortcoming, and the design of the camera-review-movie slider is fragile. In all, the closest digital equivalent to the film Pro's secret weapon: the Yashica T4, with it's Zeiss optics. In my opinion, the best pocket camera.Updated
Having bought two "more advanced" compacts -- the Olympus sp350 (far slower) and the Fuji E600 (no movie editing at all -- goodbye memory!) I now have bought another of these and think it is the closest equvalent to the film-pros' secret weapon -- the famous Yashica T4. Several important advantages over competitors: AA batteries, optical viewfinder inparticular, both of which can be crucial when traveling. Slimmer new models lack these essential pluses in almost all cases. But also there is the sensational trimming program, unique to SONY, which allows in-camera cropping and copying to a HIGHER resolution than the original. Photoshop comparison full-screen of details shows images shot at VGA refined at 3 megapixel to quite acceptable standard. And although the disc furnished is not Mac compatible, the camera does work fine with iPhoto. Also can make low-res movies that fit in emails, unlike competitors, as well as the usual full-size ones and even 60fps high-res. I underestimated this camera -- and you should buy one while you still can!
- 2 replies to this review
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This camera has auto - macro. You would know this if you had read the manual.
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I use iPhoto on my Mac and I had a question... I am thinking of getting this camera and was just wondering if when you say it doesn't work with Macs ... are you just talking about the useless-anyway software, or are you saying it doesn't work at all? I know a lot of the bundled software doesn't work on Macs, but I'm OK with that because i think iPhoto is great. Please let me know if you've tried to use it with iPhoto... and did it work?
