Customer Reviews

Sony DSCP31 Cyber-shot 2MP Digital Still Camera

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

For the money, this is the best camera for a person who wants to get their feet wet in the world of Digital Photos. It is ready to shoot out of the box with no settings to mess with, but also has many adjustible settings to help make great pictures. It comes with all the accesories you need, but you should plan on getting at least a 32mb Memory Stick. Also, right now Sony is giving a $[money] instant credit for an accessory from their webiste when you register the camera. I used this to buy the Quick charger kit. This comes with an extra pair of NiMH batteries, Quick Charger, and custom camera case. with the discount, it is about [money]. The quick charger will charge 2 batteries in about an hour and a half, or 4 batteries in about 4 hours. The charger included with the camera takes 13 hours to charge 2 batteries, so this is a good investment. The camera is small and easy to hold in your hand. The LCD screen is not big but good enough to size up your photos. The movie mode is OK, no sound but cool for taking little clips. The Twlight modes are great, I have got some great dusk and night pictures using the twlight modes. Overall, After buying a Memory Stick and the Charger kit, I feel I got a great camera for under [money] total.

I have read all the previous reviews ... about cameras and decide to get this babe. I am very happy with the price and [an] extra 128 MB memory stick ...

The only bad thing which nobody mentioned previously is the charging time. Sony includes a charger but not a fast charger. It means 2 NiMH batteries should charge approx 13 hours! While you can get chargers from Kodak and Olympus which charge 4 NiMH batteries in 4 hours.

Even in the manual it says Camera Starter Kit Model # ACC-CSNQ has a Super Quick Charger which charge the batteries faster, but it hasn't mentioned how much faster. Even in sony web site there is no information about charging time of Super Quick Charger unit. So, if anyone know the charging time of ACC-CSNQ Charger please write a review for others because it may be the second purchased after Sony P31. :)

Anyway, everything about this camera is fine except the batteries charging time which if you do normal shooting it won't be a problem for you because you may need to charge batteries rarely (once a week or in two weeks).

But if you want to take more than 150 photos non-stop every 3 hours, you probabely need to get a faster charger just in case. I suggest Kodak K2000, Olympus B-50SU, Lenmar Pro711, Lenmar Pro744 or Millenium CH4 Chargers which I have not used any of them but there are many kind people who wrote some reviews on them.

Thanks to all people who write reviews, God Bless You All ;)

The P31 is a great camera but I have three complaints.

1) I am used to my old Canon AE1-P, in wich the camera body is made of metal. My AE1-P camera is 17 years old, I doubt that the plastic body of the P31 will last that long. Of course, it is much, much lighter. You can carry it in a shirt pocket.
2) It has these two plastic tabs, one covering the AC input and the other covering the USB/Video Out connectors. I am almost sure that before two years those fragile tabs will break.
3) Another contra is that it doesn't bring a camera case. Sony includes the Ni-Mh batteries and charger but doesn't include even a...case?

Aside from that, as I said, this is a great snapshot camera. If you keep the LCD turned off and don't use the flash frequently, the batteries should last long. The included 8Mb memory stick is not enough, so buy a 128Mb stick with the camera. I got a Lexar, and that is the one I use. The 8Mb stick is gathering dust in a drawer. I will buy another 128Mb stick when I go on vacations in the future. The 2Megapixels images take about 800K each, so you can store about 150 to 160 images.

The manual says that the batteries take 13 hours to fully charge. I don't know why they take that long, but I clocked them, and I was surprised to see that in fact, I took exactly 13 hours to charge them. No less, no more. If you take a lot of pictures, be prepared to buy 2 extra batteries also.

I was forgetting about my fourth complaint, the manual. There's a mention that you have two USB modes, Normal and PTP. They only say, you should use Normal. No further explanation of what PTP is.

I did some research and found that PTP stands for Picture Transfer Protocol. Windows XP understands it (I don't know if other versions do), and basically instead of showing the camera as an external drive in the windows explorer, it activates a Wizard that makes it simpler for non technical users to transfer the images to a PC.

I prefer the "Normal USB" mode, but it would be nice if the manual explained all the features of the camera.

I bought the SONY DSC-P31 on the recommendation of a friend. I knew nothing about digital cameras before starting to look, and the SONY DSC-P31 turned out to be perfect. The instruction manual and software are easy to understand, even for a novice. The camera is lightweight,2 megapixels and has an 8 MB Memory Stick.The 2 AA rechargeable batteries and rechargeable unit are included. What it does not contain is a power cord for putting the pictures into the computer and I purchased a card reader and am very happy with it. The quality of the pictures is very good and quite sharp---even the autofocus feature is good with 2 choices for setting point of focus. There is absolutely nothing I dislike about this camera, and I couldn't have made a better choice.

Not disappointed by this camera at all. I was talked into buying it, as I normally run away from Sony products, especially those using Memory Stick.

It takes great pictures and connects nicely to my laptop computer.

Sure, the 13-hour charge is a drag, but part of that is due to the 1750 mah capacity of the batteries. That's a powerful battery for NIMH AA-size. I've had the camera 2 weeks, shooting all over the place, and am still on the first charge of the battery, filling up my 64 Mb card twice.

Maybe the next version will have a built in MP3 player to take advantage of the new 512 Mb memory sticks that will soon be out???

I bought this after having used low end digital cameras. Just a couple of months before I bought my Sony, I bought a 1 megapixel camera and was thrilled with the pictures I was getting, so I moved up to the Sony. My first set of pictures were on a cloudy day. They were sharp but nothing special. Later I took pictures on a clear day and was blown away by the color. Absolutely stunning. There is no comparison between this camera and the others I was using. I am still trying different buttons and learning what my camera is capable of but was up and taking pictures right away. My only regret is that I didn't get an optical zoom. I can tell the difference, but I don't use that feature much and am able to crop away any distracting objects and still have crisp photos. I would recommend this camera to anyone who has been disappointed with the colors of their current photos.

I sympathize with the W2K buyer, since I had similar meltdown with an HP printer & XP. But no problems with XP and this little baby. No software to install. Just plug in USB, XP installs, you re-boot, and just as others say, your camera is a disk drive. Don't buy a PCMCIA adapter! Having used CF etc, I beg to differ with the motorcyle guy--memory stick is better (as most Sony storage devices are). Works as expected. Very light. Fast (no optical zoom to wait for--or bump into). Wish it had ISO800 equivalent and 1 cm thinner, but it fits in my pocket. Also, will not turn on accidentally as my Canon S10 did. And it does not have a proprietary battery that sells for US$100 like my Canon has. The NiMH's seem to go a lot farther, too. If you want a camera you will actually take along, this should be high on your list.

Overall this is an excellent camera. It is small, and lightweight, but very well built and feels sturdy to the touch.

The camera features 1600x800 resolution (2 mega pixel)and a digital zoom. Surprisingly the pictures taken with the digital zoom turn out acceptable. They are not nearly as nice as if there was an optical zoom, but for images that don't require a lot of detail they are ok. Even so, if you plan on using the zoom feature a lot you'd be better off buying a camera with optical zoom instead of only digital zoom.

The camera comes with an 8mb card, enough to hold about 20 pictures. It also comes with 2 rechargeable AA batteries and a charger. Finally, contrary to the other review I read it does come with a USB cable for connection to your computer.

The camera has a lot of nice features including the ability to record motion mpeg's. Unfortunately it does not include a microphone so you can't record sound with your "movies".

The only thing that I do not like about this camera is the flash. The camera has red eye reduction, but the way it is implement is annoying. The camera flashes several times before taking the photo, almost like strobe. The effect is very disconcerting for people and all too often the photo that is taken is of people grimacing because of the multiple flashes. Even with red eye turned off the flash fires twice, again causing people to blink when the picture is actually taken.

But other than the flash I've been very happy with the camera and happily recommend it to others.

Pros:
Excellent value. Intuitive user interface. Laden with useful features without becoming confusing. Relatively light and compact. Decent image quality. Respectable battery life. Good display. Quick response time. Durable. No time limit for movie shots. Low noise for low light situations. Fixed lens has a slightly wider angle than most zoom lenses. Overall quality is excellent.

Cons:
Lens distortions makes portraits its weakness. The lens is on the soft side. Lack of zoom may be trouble for some, then there are those who can appreciate a fixed wide angle. Low light focusing can be a tad slow or inaccurate even with the focus assist light. No extra long shutters (only up to 2"). For those who care, no sound with movie clips.

Conslusion:
This is a great snapshot camera. The simplicity and speed of its interface makes it a joy to use. Useful features at the touch of a button that both novice and advanced photographers will appreciate. Respectable battery life reduces the inhibition to joyfully snapping away, and the quality of its images did not disappoint. The robust body is durable and allows its use in less friendly conditions. I have used quite a few digital cameras from Nikon, Minolta, Sony, Canon and Olympus, yet none feels as "willing" as this camera to shoot pictures. The speed, quality, battery longevity, simplicity and durability of the camera allowed me personally to concentrate more on the photographs than on the gewgaws, delays or battery exhaustion. I have indeed shot an incredible amount of pictures with this camera, more than with all the other much more expensive cameras. The P31 is build for quick snapshots, with features that inspires creativity, and at a price that I can only love. A wonderfully balanced combination, if you can only overlook the lack of zoom.

Recommended:
128mb Memory Stick, Extra NiMH batteries. A quick charger.

I absolutely love this camera! I decided to buy a digital because I hated developing film and not being able to delete or change my pictures. The camera comes with software, an 8mb memory stick, and batteries! I also love the fact that I can use regular alkaline batteries as well. I can shoot in black/white or make movies. This feature will be awesome with my two toddlers. Almost everything they do is worth filming! My major concern however, was red eye! Both my girls have blonde hair & blue eyes, and almost every picture I take of them has red eye, and I have a film camera with red eye reduction. This camera had all the features that I wanted, and more.
p.s. My sister bought a Nikon last year, and was with me when I bought this one...she's so jealous of the features...