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Sony DSC-S75 Digital Camera - Easy To Use Yet Very Powerful !
by brettw | May 27 \'02
Pros: Simple yet advanced, high quality, many options and features.
Cons: Small included memory stick, can take some time to get used.
The Bottom Line: With a long list of features, high quality pictures, and ease of use for both advanced and novice users, the Sony DSC-S75 digital camera will please most all users.
Recommended: Yes
Introduction Sony has been a leading digital camera manufacturer in recent memory, and this camera certainly adds to a long line of quality digital cameras. Instead of listing confusing features, which can easily be found on the manufactures website (
http://www.sonystyle.com/digitalimaging/P_Feature_S75.shtml), this review will encompass and outline several features of the camera and how well they works. With a more then satisfactory resolution of 3.3 mega pixels (a resolution of 2048 by 1536 pixels in comparison to the average internet surfing resolution of 800 by 600), the DSC-S75 digital camera will provide the purchaser with high quality pictures more then capable of being printed out in considerable sizes.
Camera Overview The DSC-S75 has been designed with both the advanced photographer and the average consumer in mind. With a slew of automatic features, and a vast collection of manual settings, the DSC-S75 will baffle the mind. Turning the camera on proves to be a simple task that can be easily performed with your right thumb. Similarly, the right thumb in association with the index finger can also easily control the camera mode, 8 in total, by just turning a ridged dial. The button used to take the picture is easy to access, regardless of the size of the user’s hands. The back of the camera has 2 displays, one which summarizes data the camera is using (focus point, time on battery, pictures remaining, etc) and primary display which will show the picture at which you are taking. The display itself is very easy to see, and has a very nice adjustment feature in the setup menu which allows you do increase or decrease the brightness. This allows the camera to be used in bright sunlight much easier then without the brightness adjustment. Furthermore, there is a viewfinder like a standard camera, which will allow to camera to be used in virtually all conditions, dark or light. The navigation selection button (the large round button) while easy to use to navigate the menus, can be difficult to use because of the odd nature of pushing the button in to select. Additionally, users with big hands may become frustrated because of the placement of the flash, which can inadvertently be covered by the fingers of the user. However, with practice, such problems can be overcome.
Taking Pictures Taking pictures with the DSC-S75 takes some getting used to. The slight delay of starting the camera will require the user to preplan shots to more of an extent then taking pictures with a standard camera. The button you take the pictures with (for lack of a better word) requires that you push the button in slightly before you take a picture. The camera uses this time to calculate focus and other pre-picture activities. This is certainly vastly different from standard picture taking and takes some getting used to. The flash can be set on automatic, or can be forced and contains 3 levels of flash brightness. The camera includes an AF Illuminator (the red light projected before a flash) which is used in dark conditions; this allows the camera to focus on a very dark object more efficiently. Once you have filled your memory stick, you can transfer the pictures to any computer that has a USB port. Pictures in their largest size take up about 1.3mb, or fit about 40 pictures on a 64mb card, depending on how much detail was required for the picture. The DSC-S75, however, only comes packaged a 4MB memory stick which is virtually useless to take advantage of the great resolution of the camera. The camera can be set at a lower resolution, however once a picture has been taken at a lower resolution it can not be upsized to a higher resolution without losing dramatic amounts of quality. The zoom is located right below the mode selection dial, and can zoom 3 times closer to an image. The camera includes a digital zoom (6x), however digital zoom does not increase the picture detail and is nothing more then taking a picture at 3x and zooming in a section to 6x. The zoom has 8 levels not including the digital zoom, this allows for enough sensitivity for most users. Conversely, the zoom range is somewhat small and some users may require more.
SummaryUsers looking for a camera, which will allow them to take very high quality pictures, which will want to be printed out later, will want to purchase or consider this camera. It is easy to use, yet provides extra options to advanced users. I just finished taking a one-week cruise in Caribbean. The camera excelled in the outdoor sunlight pictures, and once I got the hang of using the flash I was able to take very decent indoor pictures. Its relatively small size made it easy to transport from location to location and it never seemed to get in the way. Be sure to buy a high-end 64mb or higher memory stick with the camera to take full advantage of the resolution. Once you take a picture, there is no way to make the resolution higher. The small problems I found were easy to overlook and most could be dealt with a little practice. With a long list of features, high quality pictures/resolution, and ease of use for both advanced and novice users, the Sony DSC-S75 digital camera will please most all users.
Sample The best way to judge a camera is on seeing the final result.
Copy and paste the links below into a browser to view it. (remove the extra / if it still does not work)
This first image is an image I took in St. Thomas in the Caribbean and highlights the nice contrast the camera provides in an outdoor shot.
http://www.xoing.com/member/brettw//Reviewimages/dscs75-1.jpg The second shot is an indoor shot with the flash in use.
http://www.xoing.com/member/brettw//Reviewimages/dscs75-2.jpg I like to call this one my Postcard or Webshots picture..
http://www.swflragdolls.com/brettw/DSC00424.JPG You can just click on this one
Beware, both images are at full resolution and are quite large. If you are on a slower non-broadband connection, it may take several minutes to download.
Amount Paid (US$): 550
EDIT: Note that you can now buy the camera for 400 instead of 550
Topic: Advise on Digital Cameras (Read 886 times)