Customer Reviews

Sony DSCP51 Cyber-shot 2MP Digital Camera w/ 2x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

First of all - the information that...is showing is incorrect. I have my Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P51 sitting in front of me - it DOES have a 2x optical zoom as well as a 6x digital zoom.

We bought this camera mostly to take pictures of our kids to e-mail to family overseas. Something it does very well. The pictures look great - the features the camera offers are even better!

The features - (as listed on the box)
2.0 mega pixels
6x digital zoom
2x optical zoom
mpeg movies (without sound)
multi burst

Also in the box are the following -
battery charger
size AA nickel metal hydride rechargable batteries
video cable (to connect and view on TV)
memory stick (16mb)
USB cable
CD-Rom

Overall this is a great camera - at a good price. I would recommend going to a store to look over your options though!

To begin, I'd just like to say that I am very happy with this camera. It's suits my needs as a beginning photographer very well -but it is by no means a 'pro-consumer camera.' I believe that the camera is solidly constructed (even though it is a plastic body). It feels very sturdy and well constructed. An aluminum body like the P9 would obviously be more appealing, but I can't expect much more than high-grade plastic from a sub-300 dollar camera.
I'd rate the feature set of the camera as its weakest attribute -keep in mind that i rated the features as 'good.' This is clearly a point and shoot camera with enough options to produce excellent pictures in nearly every situation. Keep in mind, to attain excellent pictures in difficult lighting conditions, you must learn the menus and how the features like Twilight mode. The only features I would like to see on this camera is the ability to manually adjust the aperture and shutter speed. I think the camera does an excellent job of automatically choosing, but the option of manually choosing would be nice. Also, the 2x optical zoom is a little paltry... 3x optical zoom would be nice. I guess I'd have to spend an extra $100 dollars for the P71 to get those features and 3Mp resolution. Oh, and the lack of sound while recoding videos is a little annoying, but I think that shooting videos with digital camera's is rather gimmicky and useless. This feature, or lack there of, means little to me.
I felt the image quality was very good...excellent for 4x6 pictures and perhaps slightly larger, but you can always have a higher resolution:) I really am very please with the picture quality and I'm rather amazed at the clarity for such a low budget camera.
The menus are very intuitive and I have only glowing praise for the user interface of the camera. I felt all of the menus were well designed. Please take the time to learn the menus...it might really help your picture quality. Overall, an excellent user interface.
Lastly, I felt without a doubt, that this camera was an excellent value. It comes with everything you need to get started. You can fit 30 pictures at the highest resolution (standard compression) on the bundled 16MB memory stick. This may seem a little small, but it's equivalent to one roll of film (and of course reusable). Also, I've seen prices for 128MB memory sticks for around $60-$70 so the prices are very comparable to SmartMedia and other types of camera memory. I'm very please with the included recharable batteries and charger. Sure it takes 13hrs to charge the batteries, but I still think it's an excellent value for the money. There are no additional costs with this camera -unless you want a faster charger or more memory. Oh, and the batteries last an exceptionally long time. Mine haven't even come close to running out yet, so I don't know quantitatively how long they last, but I already pleased with the battery life.

Overall, this a good buy for consumers looking for a point-and-shoot camera for 4x6 prints (and occasionally larger). I think this also good for someone just beginning to learn photography because it does offer some primitive manual adjusts, like adjustment of the film speed, and of course all the benefits of digital photography. Namely, instant feed-back of pictures and no film development costs.

I'm pleased with this camera....a good buy.

I've owned 35mm SLR and point-and-shoot cameras for almost 30 years and have to say I'm very pleased with this camera. The high points:
-- 30 flash pictures so far and no red eye
-- Size. The DSC-P51 slips easily into a jacket pocket but feels substantial in your hand.
-- Image quality. I've used online photo services to have my images printed professionally with excellent results for 4"x6" prints. The pictures are acceptably sharp and the color is very good.
-- Flexibility. I can easily set-up the camera so my wife and son (who don't like messing with the control menus) can simply grab it, turn it on, and shoot. On the other hand, I appreciate the simplicity of the controls and the range of available features (including the ability to raise or lower the intensity of the flash)
-- LCD viewfinder. Clear and sharp--even outdoors.
-- Extras. A charger, 2 rechargeable AA batteries, a carrying strap, a 16 mb memory stick (enough to get you started) and a USB cable come with the camera.

Things I'm less crazy about:

-- Lag time. Call me old-fashioned, but when I click the shutter button I want the camera to take a picture immediately. Like most digital cameras, this one has to think it over for a second or so before it actually takes a picture--an eternity if you're shooting candids. While this is annoying and it's easy to blame the camera, the fact is that only 1 in 4 of the candid shots that most people (including me)take on film cameras pan out anyway. In practice I find that I can still get good shots if I just stick with the shot and don't freak out when the camera goes through its gyrations. If I don't get a good shot, I delete it and snap another.
-- Recharging the supplied AA rechargeables. How does 13 hours sound?
-- Using regular alkaline batteries. While having the ability to use off-the-shelf alkaline batteries sounds great and can work in a pinch, I've found that the camera draws a lot of juice quickly--especially when taking flash photos. Sometimes this can cause the camera to shut down after I take a shot--a problem I've never had with the supplied rechargeables.

Re. accessories, consider buying a Lexar memory stick reader. I have Windows XP on my PC and no additional software was required to use it. Also consider a 128mb memory stick and the optional Sony accessories kit (with fast charger, 2 extra batteries, and case).

This camera is truly amazing! I'd been using it for weeks, taking hundreds of amazing quality images before I even knew it had so many advanced features. That's one of the things that makes this camera so great... It's so easy to use out of the box. The advanced features never get in your way like they do with other cameras. When you want them, however, they are really very cool.

My favorite feature I've found so far is the low-light outdoor portrait. My friends and I took a trip to DC a couple years ago, and took some pictures in front of different attractions at twighlight with a film-based camera. When we got them developed, all you could see was us... there wasn't enough light for the camera to caputre the background. With the Sony, however, that's a thing of the past! Simply put the camera on a solid object or tripod, and turn on low-light portrait mode (very easy to do). The flash on the camera goes off twice really fast,and then continues capturing in low light mode. What it does is uses the first flash to find what is close enough to get with the flash, the second flash captures that image, and then the lens stays open for up to two seconds longer capturing the low light background! The pictures taken in this mode at twighlight look amazing! Everything is nice and sharp... beautiful.

Another great feature is the ability to use the camera's zoom controls to zoom in on pictures you've already taken when viewing them on the LCD. Reviewing your pictures is great, but it's hard to tell if someone has their eyes closed in a shot, etc. when you're viewing on a 2" screen. Well, with this camera, you can zoom right into their face to see. Very useful!

This doesn't even begin to describe what this camera can do... excellent quality, perfect color - truly the best digital camera I've ever owned.

This was my second digital camera I've ever used. My first was a Samsung SDC-80, which was a bit of a disspointment, yet there were still some good uses for if used correctly. Almost the same applies to the DSC-P51 in my opinion. The first 10 shots I took appeared fuzzy, mainly because I couldn't feel the "half-clicks" as there are in most other Point-and-Shoot cameras. Later, I found out where the "half-click" point was, and from then on, I got amazingly good focus.

The twilight mode is ok. It requires a second or two's worth of time to acquire and capture the images though, so you better have a tripod or really steady hands if you don't want blurry pictures. The camera seems excessively sensitive to light sources than most other cameras I've used, and the entire picture will go dark if there's any "sunny spot" or other bright spots on the picture. In general, if done right, you get perfect pictures. If there's a slight error, you might end up with a dark or blurry picture.

The worst thing about the camera is the JPEG compression. Of course I don't expect it to save in TIFF or uncompressed mode (1600x1200x24bit = 5.49MB/shot) on ... Memory Sticks, but none of the pictures look "picture perfect" at 100% view due to the artifacts from JPEG compression. Hence why I have to either resize my pictures to 1024x768 or crop to 1500x1200 and reduce to 1280x1024 for my 17" monitor. A pain that I will always have to put up with, but ok for those who just want to print on photo media.

All that aside, this is a really good 2MP camera for the price it goes for. It's loaded with features that I haven't even gotten around to using yet, and with 3 hours of battery time, I'm loving it. I'd recommend the camera to anyone who is a veteran of digital photography and know how digital cameras work. Even if you're not, it's an ok camera to start out with, but don't expect to get good pictures first try - takes a lot of practice. But after you get the hang of it, the camera is definitely worth the money.

I Just got this camera as I'm now stepping into the digital world. I did some research and this camera has some of the best features you can get for under $300. The 2.0 MP is nice even though I never need that high a resolution. The 2x optical, 3x digital is what seperates this camera from p31 but the extra 50 bucks is worth the extra zoom. Very easy navigational menu.Very compact camera. The only 2 things I wish the camera had are:
1) capable of recording mpeg audio and 2) bigger LCD screen.

To get these features you would need to spend another $150 for the Mavica and I can't afford it.
W/ the 16 mb memory stick, i can take 200 pictures before i go to my computer. Also, SOny is having a deal where you get $20 off sonystyle.com if you purchase this camera so i got another 16 mb stick for $5 in case i need a backup.

Overall, Great deal. If you can afford it, get a Mavica cd or floppy camera but if you don't need the extra features i mentioned, this camera is for you.

I recently bought a complete computer system, and also a digital camera to try it out. I had heard that digital cameras are so versatile and easy to use...no more fumbling with film at crucial moments. The main feature that attracted me to this particular camera was the fact that you can record a 5 min video (without sound of course) on here. The video will be able to be displayed at about 3/4 the size of the computer screen when you play it back. You can change that feature to be about 50 something minutes at a pretty small size on playback. I was thrilled with this prospect as I would be able to record my best friend walking down the aisle at her wedding...priceless. So far I have found this camera VERY easy to use and the features are great. You can opt for black and white prints, sepia, or even reverse black and white (which is basically like a negative). The pictures are incredibly crisp when you view them on you computer and when you print them. You can also choose to turn off the LCD screen on the camera to save A LOT of battery life and just use the view finder. Overall, this is a WONDERFUL compact, versatile camera for anyone looking to get into the digital age.

This camera is the best in its class. Sony includes many features that set it apart from other brands, including easy to use menus, power saving feature, and size. The battery life is excellent; I was able to take just under 200 pictures on one charge. Normal batties can be used, but won't last longer than 15 or 20 minutes. At highest quality, you can get 30 pictures on the supplied 16MB memory stick. Pictures come out very well, although a macro setting would be nice to have. Multi burst and video are also handy features to have. Overall, this camera is a very good value for the money. You can get by with the included accessories, but other camera accessories can be expensive.

Pros:
* Comes with battery
* Comes with charger
* Comes with 16 MB memory stick
* Menus are simple and easy to use
* Includes USB cable
* Effects and camera settings (shutter time, white balance, etc) should satisfy the average person

Cons:
* Batteries must be charged to retrieve data from camera with USB cable
* 13 hour charge time with included battery charger
* NiMH batterys, while cheaper than LiIon batteries, have memory effect (They're only $...though and are supposed to last at least a year under normal conditions)

Note: Don't leave the the batteries in below freezing temperatures, as it will shorten the battery life.

Very easy to use, takes great pictures and has a nice quality feel.I found battery life to be very good,I have heard of other cameras only capable of 20-30 shots before batteries were gone.I just used this camera on vacation ,took 50+ shots in 1 day {I was using a 128mb memerory stick,highly recommend} and the batteries never got below the 50 % range.I would also recommend the acc. kit for this camera , you get a very nice case and 2 extra batteries and a charger that charges in 2 hours instead of 14 hours.Over all, very impressed with this camera.You can't go wrong with this quality Sony product.

In short, if you are looking for a well made, reliable digital camera that does not cost too much for the basic needs you are looking for in a camera, this is a great camera to look into getting. Like most people, I didn't need the [amount] mega model camera because my needs are very basic. I wanted something that i could take basic pictures, and that had the basic digital camera advantages like being able to view pictures after they are taken and delete any that are just wasted space. Sony has a great system and if you happen to have a sony desktop, this camera is even more for you due to the added ease of transfering pictures. This camera covers all the basics everyone wants from a digital camera and also has some advanced features. The quality is good and the product is well made. Sony is a name people have learned to trust and the DSC-P51 is no exception.