Customer Reviews

Sony Cybershot DSCP41 4MP Digital Camera

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I got this camera because I find on the "Cybershot DSCP41 4MP" a very good balance between Product & Price, some good things are that doesn't need a software to connect it to my computer, has a very good resolution, and the videos have good sound, also is one of the smallest of the Sony Cybershot family, but something you need to know is that this camera has a USB cable to connect it to the computer, but doesn't have a A/V cable to connect it to your TV as many cameras, not even if you have already this cable you will be able to do it, not a problem for me but think about it for you, besides the Memory Stick that cames with the product It's only 16 Mb (only about 12 pics on Max resolution, wich is the idea to use all resolution, If is not, what is the point to get a 4 Mega pixel camera??) I suggest you to buy also a "Sony MSA128A 128 MB Memory Stick" for about $50 and the "SanDisk SDDR-97-A15 MS reader" for $15, and you'll see that you have a good camera team for a very good price, I already buy here on amazon all the things than on my review suggest for every one, and I'm happy with them

For one reason or another I have owned an aiptek, a mustek, and now a sony and I must say the sony blows them all away. The picture quality is amazing. It does pretty good in low light conditions, but don't expect any small digital camera to do as well as a regular video camera. I think it has to do with aperture, or the amount of light that such a small lens can let it. Anyway it does better then the others. It's nice and small, the batteries seem to last a long time, you can learn to use it's basic functions in just a few minutes. The video quality is very impressive.

My only criticism (besides all small digital camera low light capabilities) is the file size of the video. You can choose 640x480 fine or standard, and then all the way down to 160x something with nothing in between. Almost every other camera on the market does the 320x240 setting. The reason it would be so crucial for this camera is because with a 512MB memory stick (the most expensive type) you can only take 6 minutes of video on 640fine and 22 minutes on standard, while you can take almost 6 hours of video on the 160 setting. Why the gap? I think the smart sony people don't want these little cameras crashing the camcorder market but that's just speculation. The quality between the 160 and 640 are not comparable. On my Mustek DV 4000 512 MB got you almost two hours of video at 640, though notably not as crisp as the sony. Now the one thing that every darn manufacturer should do is post actual pics and video of the camera. Here's a 640 standard video that would take up 512MB in 22 minutes. www.achadwick.com/media/sonysample.mpg , incase that is bleeped that it is achadwick dot com slash media slash sonysample dot mpg no spaces.

I bought the Sony DSC-P41, and I love everything about it. SUPER fast turn-on and off, switching from camera to viewing pictures, and from picture to picture. I just love that in a camera. Also, there are so many features that I can turn on and off with the press of a button.
There have been many concerns about battery usage. Yes, the camera comes with 2 "sony stamina" alkaline batteries, and these will last about 45 minutes USING the LCD monitor (which I don't recommend too much), but it will last 2 hours (switching on and off) without the monitor. I have ordered 4 NiMH batteries (2350 mAH) from ebay, and I have heard that these will last MUCH longer..."hours on end". I am looking forward to those.
Also, the camera comes with the 16 MB card...which will NOT do. I guess sony needs more money, so I bought a 128 MB stick. This holds about 74 pictures at 4.1 MP. it cost about $45.
don't get this camera unless you are willing to spend an extra $60 (or more) on accessories to make this camera more fantastic. GREAT DIGITAL CAMERA!!!

My husband just bought this for me and I'm very, very pleased! The only thing I would have liked is optical zoom, but this camera is still worth it as I don't plan on obsessively using the zoom. It powers on and off very fast (~1 second?). There isn't a very noticeable delay when you take a picture. The delay is more obvious when you use the flash. Downloading on to your PC should be a breeze. The USB is very fast, even on my ol' Windows 98. The instruction booklet is pretty straight forward.

There are two negatives but don't let these dissuade you from buying the camera, especially for under $200!

1. You MUST buy a decent sized memomy stick (pro) if you want to take continuous high resolution pics. 128MB and higher. The supplied 16MB just won't cut it if you are a high resolution junkie.

2. I highly recommend buying NiMH rechargeable batteries. The batteries that are supplied (regular double A's) lasted a couple of hours.

I bought this camera after several of my customers said some very good things about this camera (I am a Sony technician but this did not affect my review.) I have to agree it's a great camera...personally I have never owned a good quality camera over 1 MegaPixel. However I did have a Vivitar 3 MegaPixel once but promptly returned it due to bad pictures. This camera takes SUPERB pictures they are very clear and of high quality. I do however have a few gripes about this camera. One it is quite heavy compared to other digital camersa...another thing is Sony needs to include at LEAST a 64 MB memory stick (however I would perfer a 128 MB stick for a good price ratio). Also for such a nice camera rechargable batteries would have been a good thing to have...and also a charger to charge the batteries while they are still in the camera. I did have some NiMH rechargeable batteries from my previous digital camera so that wasn't an issue. I normally use the VGA (email) mode anyway because most of my pictures are just posted to a public site to share with my friends and family. I do however love having the option to take some great 4 MegaPixel shots of items I sell on ebay...previously the images were dull to say the least. I really love this camera it is the best I've ever owned...and 8x10 prints looks GREAT!

I received this camera for Christmas this morning. I am really pleased for it thus far, especially seeing how it was only $180. It is my first Digital Camera, so to me, the image quality is great. I have nothing to compare it to, but its great for me. The camera is stylish on the design and very small for a camera. It's about the length of your 4 fingers, excluding your thumb, put together. It is very easy to use, I didn't have to use the manual to find out how to do most things. I needed the manual to learn more about some of the photograph settings/options/modifiers, but when it came to just taking/deleting simple pictures, or shooting video clips, it was easy and no manual reading was necessary. Hooking up to my PC was very simple, plug and play into the USB drive and the camera shows up as an external drive, so the software isn't necessary. I installed the software but didn't prefer it over the external drive, but the software was still pretty good when it came to sorting your photos. All the shooting modes are easy, and neat(such as black and white). It's easy to use the self-timer, flash, and zoom. The image viewer is a breeze.

The included batteries it came with ran out after about an hour and a half, that was me taking at least 25 shots and shooting 5 movies, and deleting a lot(who knows if thats good or bad battery life based on all the stuff I did). But luckily, I also got Energizer Rechargable NiMH batteries with the 30 minute charger for Christmas too, so those came in real handy. Those batteries on a single charge lasted about 2 hours(many shots and several movies). It is highly recommended to get NiMH rechargables.

The memory stick inlcuded is only 16 MB, which holds 8 images or about 40 seconds of movie shooting on 640x480(on 160x120, I got about 5 minutes of video, but this made the battery meter go way down). When taking pictures, you can change the resolution from 4 megapixels to 3 megapixels or 1 mega pixel to save size. This doesn't throw off the image quality any, it just makes the image "smaller", in terms of how big it would be on a computer screen. There is absolutley no difference between a 1 megapixel shot and a 4 megapixel shot when viewed on the camera's LCD. A 1 mega pixel shot can take up 1280 x 960 pixels on a computer screen while still retaining its image quality. Most computers have their default screen resolution set to 1024x768 pixels, so a 1 mega pixel shot would cover more than the whole computer screen while still retaining its image quality. A 4 mega pixel shot can take up 2304 x 1704 pixels on a computer screen while still retaining its image quality. If you were to try to blow up the 1 mega pixel shot to fit 2304 x 1704 pixels, it would have to enlarge each picture, blurring the image and making it look bad. So if you are just interested in sharing images with your friends through email and such with small images that take up, for example, about 1/4 of the screen, whether you take a 1 mega pixel shot or 4 mega pixel shot really won't matter since they would be the same. Therefore, you could save space on the memory card by just taking 1 or 3 mega pixel pictures. I got a 128MB Memory Stick PRO for the Camera so I could store more pictures and use the 640x480 FINE mode in movie shooting. With the Memory Stick Pro I can fit over 50 images, most likely over 30 minutes of video(not recommended since this would drain the battery down way before it hit 30 minutes) on 160x120 video, and over 5 minutes probably on 640x480 video setting, so the memory stick upgrade is pretty big.

The movie shooting should have a 320x240 setting in between 160x120 and 640x480, but it doesn't. This isn't too big of a hassle, because the movie quality isn't AMAZING, its just for quick little clips on spur of the moment events. The 160x120 mode is fine for most things, especially for me, so I don't plan on using the 640x480 anyway.

The "cons" aren't big deals(remedied by getting rechargable batteries and a bigger memory stick, which nullifies any cons) and certainly don't weigh down the camera's greatness at all.
Value, intuitiveness, ease of use, design, size, quality, and fun are all bundled into this camera and I recommend it to anyone who just wants an easy to use camera with a high resolution to take pictures of anything that could happen in the future that they would want to capture and save to enjoy for years to come.

I should have bought this camera on Amazon instead of Circuit City's online site. Amazon doesn't tax you and will also give you a $25 coupon on some digital camera accessory purchases, and also if you buy $250 or more of electronics at Amazon, they'll give you a $50 certificate on your next purchase. So, if you buy this camera and then buy the SanDisk Memory Stick Pro (256MB for ~$60), you'll get that $50 certificate (act FAST!! offer ends AUGUST 1). With that $50 certificate, you can purchase those much needed rechargables on your next purchase, or go to Costco like me and buy that $20 Panasonic charger with 6 AA and 2AAA batteries in the package. Those batteries are good for digital cameras (2100 mAH). Not to bad for $20.

I've used this camera for about a month, and its going great. Decided to buy screen protectors for it (saw some at Radioshack for ~6.00), and also just purchased that SanDisk 256MB Memory Stick Pro. That'll store about 100+ pictures on 4MP. The camera does eat up a lot of batteries, so rechargables are a must. Quality is excellent, but the zoom is only pretty good. But hey, it's only $200 and what do you expect? My girlfriend has an Aiptek, and although their price on their products are ~100, the aiptek digital cameras can't shoot in low to no light conditions at all. This sony definitely can.

I also found a Minolta 4MP camera with opt. zoom for $220 at Amazon, but the appearance and size of it is not comparable to this Sony DSCP41. I'd pick this one even though it lacks the opt. zoom. Also, to the person that wrote about how this Sony digicam's lens is not protected, yah it isn't really that protected. Luckily the shutter comes on when it is not in use for about a min. or when you turn it off. Just not smudge the lens and clean it once in a while and it will be fine.

I was looking for a compact, good quality pictures and low cost and guess what..! Sony DSCP41 has all that. It is the smallest of all Sony Cybertshots and it's a powerfull 4.1 megapixel camera. I rated this Digital camera 5 stars because it is the best deal you can get. One of the things I like the most is the fact that you can take your picture in a 4.1MP quality for printing and then you can change it in your memory stick for e-mail quality which take much less memory space when sending your photos to friends or family and still keep your 4MP original picture.

If you need a camera to see your pictures directly from the camera to your TV, or need lots of zoom power, this is not the camera you need and instead you need to paid about 150 dollars more for these two combine feasures. Can't complaint for this camera because is really a great deal.

I love this camera!!! I got it for my boyfriend for Christmas and now I am either going to keep it or buy one for myself. It was an extra bonus for me because I did not know that the video clip feature was included. I gave this product 5 stars but the only negative is that the batteries do go quickly but that is not such a big deal...You definately need more memory however. You will not be disapointed with this product.

This camera is one of the best deals that I have found on the internet for a camera with over 4 megapixles, thus the reason for me purchasing the DSCP41. The camera has amazing picture quality and has plenty of image filters for those who look to take breathtaking pictures. The camera can be used as an easy point an shoot camera with amazing quality for somebody who is looking for something simple, but can also be a favorite for experts as it allows for indepth customization with plenty of extra features. This camera is the top in its class and I reccomend it to anybody no matter what skill level or image quality you are looking for.