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Sony DSCU30/H Cyber-shot 2MP Digital Camera (Dark Gray)

Sony DSCU30/H Cyber-shot 2MP Digital Camera (Dark Gray)

List Price: $299.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Neat camera
Review: As you know this camera is tiny, with well-thought-out ergonomics, and just enough features to ensure decent picture quality. I bought it so my parents can have a simple digital camera to use that wouldn't require them to fiddle with the pictures on a computer afterwards. With resulting picture sizes ranging from 200K to 500K, they can just attach pictures on a e-mail and send them to me without resizing them. I bought a 128MB memory stick along with the camera so they can shoot over 250 pictures without ever having to change memory cards. Simple, easy to use, decent picture quality, it was a perfect choice.

Of course I just couldn't resist playing with this camera before handing it over to my parents.

Ergonomics: A-
With such a small camera, the buttons are necessarily small. But they are well placed and intuitive to use. I was able to figure out about 90% of the camera's capabilities on my own, referring to the manual only for the shooting modes. The camera becomes ready for taking pictures quickly, and the lag between taking pictures is very short due to small file sizes. I've accidentally left the sliding lense cover not fully closed on a few occasions, but this is probably just me. About the only major wish I have is for a larger LCD.

Quality: B+
Lable on the bottom says this thing is made in Japan and it certainly looks and feels like it. Why the B+ rating? Well, the sliding lense cover on my camera feels a loose and floppy. I can rock it back and forth like a see-saw by about 1mm, which is quite a bit of play. I can't help but wonder if my camera is defective, but I can't confirm until I get my hands on another DSCU30. Other than that, everything else is A+ quality.

Picture Quality: C, B+ with consideration
My digital camera is an Olympus C-50Z, a 5.0 megapixle powerhouse packed into a compact body. I am obviously not expecting the DSCU30 to provide similar levels of detail, but I did expect it to provide a decent picture quality otherwise. With pictures taken by both cameras in full automatic mode and resized down to 800x600, the DSCU30's picture was noticeably more washed out with less vibrant colors. Also, strong light sources, such as flash glare on eye glasses, produced large X-star patterns. The pictures were also noticeably grainy in all situations. In all this is very average performance from a 2 megapixle camera. However, given the intended use for this camera, the picture quality is adequate. So for my parents, this camera would probably be more like a B+.

All in all not a bad camera. I would strongly recommend it for anyone who wants a camera that is easy to use at a moments notice. I am sure my parents will love it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Sony DSC U-30
Review: Bought it for its portability/size since I take most of the pictures when I ride my motorcycle. I do not take a backpack with me (on local canyon roads), and the camera is small enough to fit in the pocket of my riding suit. Have to be careful and not to open the cover accidentally in the pocket. Ok, here they are:

The positives: 1. size 2. well finished 3. fast start up 4. short intervals between pictures 5. create multiple folders for different occasions 6. controls are easy to use 7. option to turn off/on the "beeps" 8. 2.0 MegaPixels is good enough

The negatives: 1. no zoom (except afterwards) 2. LCD could be bigger (re-arrange the buttons) 3. Infolithium Battery?

Size is the main feature, and very satisfied with its performance and picture quality. Worth my $200.00... =)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great camera for your money
Review: Compact, light, easy to use. Great for trips and it's small enough to fit in my shirt pocket

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: No more "Left the camera at home" excuses !
Review: DSC-U30 camera fits into your pocket or purse, ready to snap when photo opportunities present themselves.
PROS: Convenient size, faithful color, sharp image, decent macro (we use it handheld to capture a pageful of text anywhere -- secret agent style), accepts high-capacity MemoryStick Pro cards, intuitive and easy to use controls, circular mirror to align self&friend portraits, 5x zoom playback for quick focus check.
CONS: Eats AAA batteries quite quickly, so get a second pair of NiMH rechargables and keep a pack of regular AAAs in your other pocket as just-in-case backups.

PS: You can indeed turn off the U30's flash, and you can also turn off the LCD screen in bright light to conserve batteries. Camera available in silver, blue, or charcoal. ///

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: No more "Left the camera at home" excuses !
Review: DSC-U30 camera fits into your pocket or purse, ready to snap when photo opportunities present themselves.
PROS: Convenient size, faithful color, sharp image, decent macro (we use it handheld to capture a pageful of text anywhere -- secret agent style), accepts high-capacity MemoryStick Pro cards, intuitive and easy to use controls, circular mirror to align self&friend portraits, 5x zoom playback for quick focus check.
CONS: Eats AAA batteries quite quickly, so get a second pair of NiMH rechargables and keep a pack of regular AAAs in your other pocket as just-in-case backups.

PS: You can indeed turn off the U30's flash, and you can also turn off the LCD screen in bright light to conserve batteries. Camera available in silver, blue, or charcoal. ///

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: great camera
Review: great product for the price. a few things i wish i could change include adding a zoom function, moving the lens from the corner of the camera (i have a bad habit of covering it w/my fingers), and providing an audio feature for the movie clips. however, you give and take when you choose which camera you want, and i think this one in particular is worth the money.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Nice!!!
Review: I bought it for my wife as a mother's day gift, and she went crazy about it. The thruth is that now i'm the one who really uses it and I just love it.

It's so compact that you almost forget that you have it with you until you need it, and then, is almost instantly ready to be used. Never miss one of those candid moments with your kids or friends again.

The only thing I think could be improved is the speed when you need to take pictures with the flash, and that it doesn't has a zoom. Other than this two details, it's great.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Nice!!!
Review: I bought it for my wife as a mother's day gift, and she went crazy about it. The thruth is that now i'm the one who really uses it and I just love it.

It's so compact that you almost forget that you have it with you until you need it, and then, is almost instantly ready to be used. Never miss one of those candid moments with your kids or friends again.

The only thing I think could be improved is the speed when you need to take pictures with the flash, and that it doesn't has a zoom. Other than this two details, it's great.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good camera for the money, but uses batteries up fast
Review: I bought this camera and used it for 10 days. I was very happy with it's compactness and its picture quality. However I found myself replacing the AAA batteries often, so I returned it.

One feature I would like to see on this camera is a pan function while viewing a zoomed in picture. You can zoom in on a picture but you cannot scroll up, down, left or right. This means you only zoom in on the dead center of the photo. This is quite annoying when you are trying to verify you took a good picture.

Also I could not figure out how to disable the flash. I'm am unsure if it is even possible.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not quite what I wanted
Review: I bought this camera because I just had a baby and I wanted to be able to just throw it in the diaper bag and not miss any cute little thing my new baby did. It's good for that. My two problems are why I only rated this 3 stars. One-it eats up batteries FAST! It's just not convienent to have more batters rolling around a diaper bag. And two-the red eye is horrible. I end up with demon baby every time her eyes are open. Even after I turn the red-eye reduction on. Maybe it's just my camera, I don't know. Most people seem to love this camera. I wish it didn't have that red eye problem. I'd be much happier with it.


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