Sony DSC-S70 Cyber-shot 3.2MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

by Sony

Product Details

Product Manual [1.51mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 2.7 x 4.6 x 2.9 inches ; 14.2 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00004UDQ1
• Item model number: DSC-S70
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #17,069 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 12, 2000

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Like all of Sony's Cyber-shots, the DSC-S70 uses a long-life InfoLithium battery for power, and stores images on memory sticks. The camera's CCD sensor has an impressive 3.3-megapixel resolution and produces 2,048 x 1,536 images. To ensure the highest possible image quality, Sony has opted to use lenses made by Carl Zeiss, one of the most highly respected names in optics. Other useful features include a 3x optical/2x digital zoom lens with macro mode, USB image transfer, aperture priority and shutter priority modes, manual focus option, 60- second MPEG movie mode, and video output.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

105 of 110 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great product with great features! but..., July 24, 2000

By 

"no_x" (Redwood City, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony DSC-S70 Cyber-shot 3.2MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

I bought the S70 about two months ago and I shot a lot of pictures with it: its light weight, compact size and ease of use even with one hand (the right of course :) ) make the perfect digital camera for ME. I was really impressed by the quality of its pictures (colors, shades, contrast...) although I've read a pretty bad review about it in a magazine. As many other digital cameras, there are many features such as crop/resize a picture, choose between 6 different resolutions, zoom in a picture (to look for a specific detail for instance), USB connection to your PC (which is a lot faster), optical and digital zoom (even though I don't recommend using the digital one unless you're perfectly still), several effects (sepia, black and white, solarize, negative and two or three others), a viewfinder with a focus ring (very convenient at night, believe me, you can't see anything using the LCD display)... you can even shoot a movie with it! Why only 4 stars ? Simply because it comes with a 8Mo memory stick (come on Sony! we can't do anything with 8Mo unless we use the 640x480 resolution!), there is no carrying case or something to protect it and the menu is not that intuitive... it can get pretty complicated to find what you're looking for when you don't know your camera. However, it's still very easy to use... turn it on, point and shoot... delete if you're not satisfied and try again! Want to have a look at your pictures ? Turn a switch to "play mode" and use the arrows of a small pad to navigate among them, delete, resize... then just plug your USB connector to your PC and with the driver installed, a removable disk appears on your machine, just like a zip drive or a hard drive! Drag and drop your pictures where you want. The stamina rechargeable battery allows you to know exactly how much time you have. In short, I think the S70 is worth the price you pay for it even if you'll have to buy another memory stick (around $140 for a 64Mo but you can go with a 32Mo). It has all the features of the other digital cameras of its range of prices plus others, the quality of the picture is commendable (and again I'm not talking about the 3.3 megapixels resolution which is obviously excellent but the colors, contrast...) and it's easy to use, except for the menu. I've used it in trade shows, parties with friends, during weekends (sceneries...), I've even taken some pictures from a plane! Last but not least, even if I print a lot of pictures with this camera, using a pretty good Epson printer (but not a photo printer, no need for it), I still have a good 35mm when I want to have a professional result. That makes sense, doesn't it?

47 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great all-around digital camera, October 10, 2000

By 

Ernest Kim "An Average Joe" (Hillsboro, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony DSC-S70 Cyber-shot 3.2MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

If you're looking for a digital camera that will give you film level quality (3.3 megapixels of data capture) in an easy to use, compact package, the Sony DSC-S70 is a great choice. Not only does it take wonderful pictures in a variety of settings, but it also comes with a lot of small, easy to forget about features that add up to a great overall usage experience and that make the camera a much better real value than most of its competitors.

Some of these include an internal, rechargeable Lithium Ion battery that shows you, in minutes, how much more time you have left before recharging is required, a built in USB port (no external cradles are required), all required cables, a built in memory stick slot and included memory stick (although the included 8MB stick is too small, you should definitely pick up at least a 32MB stick), and an AC adapter included (believe it or not, a lot of digital cameras don't come with an AC adapter and since digicams eat up batteries this really makes a big difference).

These types of small things are often overlooked in reviews, but in long-term, real-world use, they really do make a difference.

The only negatives that I've experienced are things that other reviewers have mentioned, the included memory stick is too small and the camera does not come with a carrying case, which you should definitely get if you plan on traveling with the camera.

Some quick notes, while the camera works flawlessly with both Windows 98 and MacOS based computers, a Windows 2000 driver does not yet seem to be available.

45 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best digital camera I have owned, October 19, 2000

By 

A. J. Gnoza "polishsumgai" (Pensacola Florida area) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony DSC-S70 Cyber-shot 3.2MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

This is my 3rd digital camera in 5 years ( AGFA e307 and Mavica 7 ) and by far the best of the lot. Every thing good/bad about this camera has already been said here so I would like to cover a couple other features not mentioned - some of these notes are mine, others from WWW sites and newsgroup posts.

The one second shutter delay can be somewhat shortened by half depressing the shutter button. The S-70 will the autofocus, which makes up most of the shutter lag. When you then press down the button all the way you'll find it will almost instantly take the picture. Several other techniques can be used to minimize the delay: 1) go to manual focus, 2) go to AE mode, 3) go to manual WB - the less auto, the faster the camera.

MPEG recording for 60 seconds. I would like to correct one reviewer regarding making videos with this camera - If you switch to the smaller resolution, and hold down the shutter button, you will get a minute of video. This is the max though. The camera has to store the raw video in internal memory, then convert it to mpeg and write it to the memory stick. The camera can only fit 15 seconds of large resolution video, and 60 seconds of small resolution video in the internal memory. There is no way to get more than this much video. OR.. reduce the size to 160 x 120 and get 1 minute per segment.

EXIF information - data is automatically imbedded into the file when saved in the camera. The data includes the time and date the picture was taken, but also all information on the f-stop used, program mode chosen, shutter speed, flash utilisation and more. Much of this information can be seen by opening the image in MGI PhotoSuite (the version that came with your camera--or a later version) and selecting "Image Information" under the Image menu. If you choose to keep the information after downloading to your computer, you must ensure that the original is kept ( if you save the jpg file as something else, you lose the exif information). You can RENAME the file, but opening it and saving or modifying it in any way will lose the info.

I use Photoshop to edit and crop files, but always save as the PSD photoshop native format, which keeps the original jpg file untouched. I also chose the "serial" numbering option on the camera, which allows the memory stick contents to be moved to the PC in the same folder without having the "file exists" problem. (It carries on automatically with DSC00678.jpg etc, rather than going back to DSC0001.jpg every time a new stick is inserted or reused).