Customer Reviews

Sony DSCP71 Cyber-shot 3MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Summary - the most camera I could find for [the price] in a small hanld held size. Lots of useful features. I am very satisfied with it as an artist tool. For landscapes less lens would be too far away, for blow up pics, less mega-pixels would be to grainy.

The Good.

Unlike film cameras, this camera produces all hues of the color wheel correctly. It also records a larger range of darks and lights. As an artist I have paid for professional studio shots of my watercolor paintings that are not as good as this camera. These qualities are mostly a function of digital vs. film camera. All camera films have color bias and less value range than what a painting can have. However, even among digital cameras there can be some color bias, this one has perfect balance. Also it can see into shadow areas revealing details better than most film cameras. With 3 meg Pixels it produces 4x6 inch pictures at 340 pdi on a printer, very sharp. Posters and magazine are printed at 150 dpi for this camera that would be about a 8x10 print, they still look better.

It has an amazing macro lens with a tulip icon. I took very close and very sharp pictures of tulips with it. Other subjests may work well, I don't know yet. It is packed with lots options like White Balance for cloudy days, very helpfull in Seatle. Other good features are manual focus, noise reduction, and in low contrst situations when the autofocus feature is confused it sends out a a flash to see the subject and get a fix, all cameras should have this feature.

The not so good.

Some low contrast areas have speckles in them at about the grainness level of ISO 400 film. This is very slight and most people will not notice. It also may be a factor of the "PaintShop Pro" software translation to the HP 1220 printer, because this graininess does not show up on the monitor.

Even with 3x optical zoom distant objects like Mt. Rainier show up at about 90 percent of their actual size, though this is pretty good at this price. Note 3x optical zoom cameras are not all alike. I depends on 3 times what size you start with. A Kodak 3x camera gives a much shaller or distant picture.

It comes with out a camera case and a slow battery charger, 13 hrs. But Sony gives you a $20 coupon towards buying a kit with a case, batteries and a fast charger 2hrs. for $40. You really want to have spare battieries and a charger that recharge them as fast as you can use them up.

After much extensive research, I finally narrowed it down to 2 potential cameras. The P71 from Sony and the Kodak DX4900. Both selling for the same price, so it was a matter of which was the better camera/deal. The Kodak had slightly better resolution and 1 more Megapixel than the Sony, but here's why I chose the Sony:

Batteries: The Sony comes with rechargeable batteries and a charger. Kodak comes with alkalines (no charger)

The Feel: The Kodak felt cheap. The body is cheap plastic and the buttons and compartments seem easily breakable and far from durable while the Sony had a nice sleek look and a professional quality feel to it.

The Features: The Sony comes with a mpeg movie mode (no sound) where the Kodak doesn't have a movie mode at all.

So, how do I feel about my choice? Pretty Damn Good.
The Sony P71 is a quality camera. There is no question. The design is very similar to the other models from Sony but a little bit slimmer and lighter. The LCD on the back is bright and vivid and the colors look crisp and nice. The pictures I took came out very good. I took the camera into the woods and took some wilderness shots in the middle of the day and the pics came out beautifully. The trees and water, everything looked great. The movie mode is also a very cool feature. While it would have been much better with audio, it is still a very cool feature and can be used for various different things. Also, the movie size is only limited to the size of your memory. (Get a 128mb card!!! I did and it is so worth it)

The camera is very easy to use. I didn't even have to read the manual. After monkeying around with the features for about 30-45 minutes, I learned pretty much everything. It has a nice, simple interface. Kudos to Sony for that. There are various different picture effects you can use, such as black and white, Sepia etc. and you, of course, have the option of choosing your prefered resolution.

The camera also comes with red-eye reduction and a special feature found only on Sony Cameras, called the AF Illuminator. This feature is very cool because it helps you take pictures in the dark a lot better.

Overall, this is a wonderful camera that is easy to use, durable, nice looking and takes quality pictures at high resolution and megapixels with the option of several effects and features. The only reasons I gave this camera 4 stars instead of 5 is because I thought the pictures I took in very low light could have been a little brighter, no audio with the movie mode and I've only had the camera for a week, so I don't know about the test of time. But I am very pleased so far.

If you're like me, and want a dig cam to have some fun with and take some great pics, but don't want to get a second mortgage on your house to buy it...then look no further than the Sony P71. A quality camera at a quality price.

The first problem I noticed after buying the camera, was its hunger for battery power; I used up my batteries in less than 10 minutes (LCD screen turned on). Later on I realized that the reason for this, was the quality of the batteries I used (cheap ones). Finally, I charged up the included Ni-MH AA batteries, and was able to shoot pictures for much longer, even with the LCD screen.
As for the resolution, it is very satisfactory for a camera of that price, with that many functions. In fact, I dont even use the maximum size too often, the smaller sizes of the pics are enough for a good quality shot.
A good thing about this camera, is that you can use it as both a manual-settings, and an "idiot-machine". It has good auto-focus, even in dark areas (with the AF-Illuminator turned on). If you're using autofocus, all you need to do is press the shooting button half way, and in about 2 seconds, the lens will adjust itself, to form clear, sharp pictures. If you want to play around with the settings, you can define the distance between the camera and the object you're photographing.
The camera also offers ISO, EV, WHITE BALANCE, FLASH LEVEL, and SHARPNESS settings. So as you can see, you can get many different results with all these settings available.
Transfering the pictures to the computer is rather easy. I have WinXP pro, so as soon as I plugged in the included USB cable, the computer recognized it, and automatically installed it. I didn't even have to use the included Driver CD. I also tested it using Win98SE, works good as well, but you will need to use the drivers on the CD. In WinXP, you will be able to use a special wizard which will automatically rename the pictures for you, and put them in a certain folder. In Win98, the camera will appear as a removable-drive (it will also appear in XP) and you will have to copy the pictures manually.
One of the reasons I bought this camera, is its size. Sure there are other cameras even smaller, but this one offers great picture quality, and many manual settings (even effects like B&W, Solarize, Sepia, Invert). I often carry it in my pocket, but you might want to get the carrying case, especially if you want to avoid scratches.
A great option available in this camera, is the ability to shoot movies. It offers three resolutions: 160x112, 320x240, and 320(HQX). I dont know what HQX stands for, but it sure improves the quality of the movie. The one thing that really bothers me, is the lack of sound recording while shooting a movie. It's a big minus, but the main reason I bought it was shooting PICTURES, not MOVIES, so I won't complain much.
Sony didn't include an AC cable, but instead you will get a battery charger (the batteries they included are rechargeable, so you'll save lots of money). You will also get a cable that will let you view the pictures on a regular TV.
Another big minus, is the use of MemoryStick. The reason? It's less popular than other cards, and it's more expensive. Sony includes a 16mb card, just as most other companies. With the lowest picture quality, you will be able to get 240 pictures on this card. Using the highest quality, you will get about 15 shots.
Overall, I am very satisfied with this camera, and I recommend it to anyone else interested in more advanced photography.

The Sony cyber-shot P71 is an exelent camera. It is extremly easy to use, and yet the things it does is endles. The camera comes with rechargable batteries and charger, an 18 mb card, a wrist strap, and software. There is one thing else that you need. A bigger memory card. There is no backing down from it. I got a 64 mb card, and it is great. I can do movies for about 30 minutes! Although it is not a camcorder, it is so much fun to make movies.I was worried about the picture quality. It turned out that I worried for nothing. 3.2 megapixels is great.All of the controls are in the right place. The zoom is better then I thaught. Since the picture quality goes down when you use digital zoom. the camera tells you when you zoom in over optical zoom, and are now using digital zoom as well. Putting pictures on your computer is easy. I have windows XP home edition, and I find that XP makes it even eaiser to se your pictures. A lot of cameras also need an expensive USB driver for the computer to read yor memory card. But the USB driver is built right into the camera, so you can just hook up tour camera to the computer. Overall, this camera is a great camera, with great pictures as well as many cool features. Its great!

This is my first digital camera. I bought this to 'test the waters', before plunging into Nikon D/Canon EOS D series. Sony DSC P71 is a fabulous camera when it comes to color accuracy, clarity of pictures,ease of use, and good features at this price level. It comes with an international charger and NiMH batteries. Noise at ISO 400 is noticable, yet the indoor night time pics are very warm..

Now over to the undesirables..!
1. The digital zoom is practically useless. Picture looses clarity. I have disabled this feature. 3x Optical zoom is great.

2. 16mb is a joke - suggest you purchase a 64/128 mb.

3. The most frustrating thing about this camera is the shutter delay. i.e the time it takes the camera to record the scene after you click. That one+ second seems like an eternity. If you have a two year old, forget taking a good picture in one shot. I usually end up taking up 10 pics to get a couple right. The other 'delay' is between pictures. I am not sure if this problem is isolated to Sony or all digital cameras in general. Just this annoyance has convinced me to put off buying a more expensive digital camera for a while. I switch back to my SLR when this 'delay' gets to me!

If delay would not bother you, go for it! It is one impeccable camera.

I've had my Sony P71 for about 2 weeks now, and couldn't be happier. I really struggled between getting the Sony and the Canon S200, but went with Sony because for only more than the Canon I got 3.2 megapixels and the 3.0 zoom I was looking for. Plus, this camera uses batteries that aren't made by Sony, so I can save money. So far the picture quality is excellent - the colors are very sharp, the pictures are in focus, and my friends and family have been seriously impressed by the quality. I've been using the LCD screen and the viewfinder (the LCD screen is much more accurate), and my batteries don't drain fast; the battery life has amazed me, especially based on what I read about digital cameras and batteries. The computer/USB hookup was easy on my Windows 98 system. I haven't used the movie mode yet, but am really looking forward to movies that can be 30 minutes long with a larger memory stick. This is my first digi cam and I am definitely impressed and looking forward to taking my Sony on holiday very soon!

As mentioned above, I love this camara. I don't know anything about the technical aspects of digital camaras, but a friend of mine who does said he was suprised to see how much the camara has for the low price. The pictures are incredible, I've had it for a month now and haven't noticed a single problem with any of the pics. Sometimes when using the scene mode, the photos come out a little fuzzy. The manual says it's because the exposure is longer and you should use a tripod. It'll be fine if you just find a stable surface to put it on. This camara also rules because it so sturdy. I dropped it onto a marble floor from about five feet. Just snapped the lens barrel back into place and it worked perfectly. If you don't have a USB port on your computer like me (I have a really old computer), you can by the Sony floppy disc adapter, insert the memory stick, and use it just like a regular floppy disk. I previously owned a HP 215 digital camara and this is in no comparison a much better camara.

I have had my DSC-P71 for about a month now and couldn't be happier. After upgrading the memory stick to 128 MB and buying a couple of sets of batteries I was ready to go.

I have been taking hundreds of photos of my new baby as well as outdoor photos. Close, indoor, outdoor, etc. most have turned out great. The only issue I have had is with the flash... sometimes "firing" when it shouldn't.

After installing the drivers, I simply use Windows Explorer to "cut" the photos from my cameras memory stick and "paste" them to my hard drive... no need to mess with the "packaged" software, etc. to move the photos.

Battery life has been suprizingly good. I thought that I would need to charge the batteries more often, but I don't need to.

I have had past experience with the Canon S series at work, but find this camera much easier to use and takes better pictures. The mpg video only capture feature is also a nice perk.

Overall, it's compact, easy-to-use and takes great photos.

We went from our old, bulky, slow digital camera to this camera and couldn't be happier.

We used it today for pictures while we were hiking. Some pics under redwoods were a bit dark, but a little adjusting in Photoshop worked wonders. Almost all of the pics are perfect the way they are.

The controls are easy to use. The batteries seem to last quite a while. We haven't run out of battery power yet, so I don't know how long they will last. I took about a hundred pics while testing it over several hours, the battery display was still at a half. The included charger is slow, so we're going to get the starter kit. ASIN: B000066HU8 The tripod mount is metal, our old camera had a plastic one...which got stripped easily. The eyepiece helps save battery power , and also helps with taking pics in poor lighting conditions when we can't see the screen too well. The time it takes the camera to be ready after turning it on is only about the same as most point and shoot cameras. It is very quick between pics also.

I have used several digital cameras in the past couple years... The DSC-P71 is not the most expensive, but is by far the best I have used yet. This is my second Sony digital camera, and Sony has always impressed me with their digital imaging. The lighting and color interpretation and contrast really make the pictures spring to life! Often the pictures look far better than reality. Pictures on overcast days actually look like it's sunny out. In the same price range is the Canon S330. It is a great camera as well, and VERY small and easy to use. A real nifty package! But it only has 2.0MP resolution, whereas the Sony as 3.2MP. The optical zoom is the same, both have rechargeable batteries, and both come with 16MB memory cards. Sony is at least as good a brand in my mind as Canon, especially for electronic products. Hands down, my vote goes to the Sony.