Just Brilliant (Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P200)

Member Name: isellapples

Product:	Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P200
Date:	13/07/05 (825 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: small, light, battery life, speed, ease of use,

Disadvantages: the 8 - step zoom . . . maybe?

I bought the Black limited edition version. Although the designs are essentially identical, the contrast of the controls on the back make them MUCH clearer. The shiny black finish is also "V" cool!

Firstly the Battery life - 3hr 20mins for a Completely Dead to Full charge. Then theres a battery moniter on the LCD that tells you exactly how many minutes of use are left! Apparently a full charge gives ~200mins of usage - thats 1 min for every 1 min charge. in picture review mode, it says ~350mins - pretty good!

Second - Ease of use. Theres what can only be described as a "simple mode" - depicted by a green camera on the mode dial. Basically it defaults to full quality, and makes everything fully automatic. So simply, a well trained chimp with an attitude problem could use the camera in this mode ;-) Then in "P" (for program), "M" (Manual) and "SCN" (Scene) you get given the more advanced options such as exposure correction, Colour/B&W/Sepia, Quality, Focusing, Macro, sharpness, contrast, colour saturation, flash level, Scene Selection, ISO and metering mode (spot, centre and multi segment). All are amazingly quick and easy to access, even with the limited number of buttons

Third - Zoom. The camera has an optical and digital zoom. The optical - 3x, and the Digital up to 14x depending on the photo quality selected. As the digital zoom can be configured to grade across the qualities - increasing in availibility as quality decreases, it has very little effect on the overall quality of the picture. The optical zoom is divided into 8 options - 1x, 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, 1.7, 1.9, 2.1, 2.4, and 3x - which might cause some people frustration but i hardly notice (and im a fairly keyed up photographer)

Fourth - Picture quality. Some artefacts are noticable if you zoom right in, from the jpeg compression used, but the overall quality is excellent and i recon you could easily print up to A3/A2 (maybe larger with the correct editing?)

(Im not interested in the video functions, but it can record and playback sound)

Fifth - Size/Weight - Small and light...very light

Sixth - Look/Design - I looked at both the silver and black versions before opting for the black. The silver version has a silver matt plasticy finish, which i personally found to seem a bit cheap. The symbols on the back were also quite difficult to make out without angling the camera, as they appear on both the black and silver versions, as a light grey colour. The black version - as i said - is shiny, clear, and makes the whole thing feel much more expensive!

Seventh (and last important factor) - Shutter lag/delay. The autofocus is very fast, and once focused, there is next to no shutter lag - something that i found particuarly annoying on my last digital camera.

The manual is excellent for everything. it even has a chart that says how many pictures of each quality can fit onto the different sized memory cards 32mb -> 2gb

Recommended/Value for money? I paid £299 on the highstreet (extra battery, camera case and memory case for 8 sticks included), and though its available a lot cheaper on the internet, i wouldnt hesitate to go out and spend it again - and im a poor student! Just remember, its supplied with a 32mb memory stick, which will NEVER be large enough. I recommend investing in at least one 512mb card to go alongside (~£50)

Summary: Paid £299, later Saw it at £229 but I'd spend it again!

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