Customer Reviews

Sony DSCU10 1.3MP Digital Camera

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This camera gets great marks as something you can always carry, and shoot quickly with. (The simplicity of the camera reduces the "shutter lag" that is so frustrating on some digicams - many digicams miss the shot you want because of a delay between when you press the shutter and when it captures the image.) With this tiny Sony, you get the benefit of the several generations of Sony design of compact digicams, and Sony's skill at miniaturizing electronics. For some, this really can be the perfect camera.

But there are some big compromises, so make sure this is what you want. There's no optical zoom, so it's harder to make the most of the limited pixel resolution by zooming in just the part of the scene you want. (1.3MP will give you good 4x6 snapshots, but only if you can use the entire frame to capture your images. For emailing photos, though, that's more than enough pixels - you'll probably trim it down for emailing or for web site photos.) Lack of a viewfinder means you'll drain the battery quicker, and may have trouble seeing what's in the picture in bright sun (which washes out the LCD). And the optics and flash do suffer on a camera this small.

So think about what you need. This camera will be a dream for some. But others can get much better quality and lots of useful features - without much more size or cost - in the Sony DSC-P2 or P7.

I have owned Olympus 400 Z, OlympusRS E100, and when asked by friends about what to look for in a digicam, i always emphasized on the lag time and readiness to shoot.I believe a digicam is for convenience, and not for professional features, which should be left alone to traditional film based camera.So i have been not very happy with what i got, even Olympus RS is a rapid shoot, it still take multiple steps to set it up if the power is turned off, and the size is as big as a traditional SLR.
I just finished the Honolulu Marathon, taking with me in my palm, a brand new Sony DSC U10.The holy grail of digicam is here.
It is so light 4 oz, it is instant ready when i slided the cover to the side.The case is plastic, but the whole camera is solid.
Once reset the resolution, either VGA, or SVGA, then it is ready to shoot.I don't notice any lag time when i press the record button. Since there is no zoom, the lens covers quite a bit of depth.The color came out very nice, comparable to my Olympus RS.
Of course, i couldn't quite capture the front runners when they zoom by, but had i used the burst mode, it might have worked.
There is also a mpeg movie mode, but i haven't tried.The built in flash has several setting, including red eye reduction and back light fill in.So i took 48 pictures during the race, 4 of them were not usable.
I am very happy with this camera .I will pack my Olympus RS now, and put the Sony in my pocket all the time.May be i finally become a photojournalist.

This is my first digital camera. I wanted something simple and dependable--for shooting photos of students, sending shots of the cat to my kids, selling stuff on the internet. The Sony looked like a good bet. What I hadn't counted on was the exquisite smallness of the camera. Scarcely larger than a cigarette lighter, it makes my wife's Canon Elph look like a behemoth by comparison.

Given the size and convenience of the camera, I'm a bit surprised and disappointed at Sony's assumption that its owner might require options like sepia mode and a few other features aimed at the "creative" photographer. Just more potential things to go wrong and detract from the camera's point-and-shoot simplicity. Also puzzling is the feature that allows you to partition the screen into 4 frames containing 4 different images--each about the size of a molecule.

Anyway, I'm getting great shots with everything set on "automatic," and the convenience of the thing is leading me to use it much more than I had planned.

I just got this little gem as my new glovebox cam. I've used it indoors and outdoors, with and without flash, and I'm very pleased with the pictures I've gotten thus far. I took an experimental movie clip (no sound) and it also looks fine. The 1 megapixel resolution (you can also select 640 x 480) for photos is perfect for computer use and for prints up to 5" x 7". The camera uses 2 rechargeable AAAs (the charger is included) and the battery life is very good. The included 8 megabyte Memory Stick is too small, but I put a 128 meg (Lexar) card in there and I get almost 400 pics on its full 1 megapixel setting. Settings and menus are simple and the instruction manual is not needed. The size and weight are of course the big pluses here. I gave it only 4 stars though because I felt the price was a bit high for the specs (obviously, the price is the premium for the size) *and* because without an eyepiece viewfinder, one is forced to frame through the tiny LCD on the camera's rear. That is a nearly impossible task in sunlight, making for a significant drawback. Nonetheless, I'm having fun with it and I'm sure you will too!

Once I got this nifty little camera out of the box, I was very excited to begin taking pictures. The great thing about this package is everything you need to get started is included, so you don't need to go off buying batteries or memory stick.

This camera is fairly simple to operate. Everything is explained in the included instruction manual. For its small size, some people may easily misplace or lose it.

There are two image sizes this camera offers: 1280x960 and 640x480. I found the 640x480 to be a lower quality than I expected. Many of the pixels are visible, making a not-so-clear photo. However, the 1280x960 size seems to not have that pixel problem. Another cool thing possible on this camera is making a 15 sec movie (no audio). The LCD screen is only about an inch wide, so it may be difficult to preview your photos clearly.

this isn't a great camera to be printing with. However, if all you want is to send e-mail with them or put them up on a website, then by all means, this camera is well suited for those purposes.

The three things I took into consideration when I was shopping for a digital camera was: size, price and picture quality. This camera met all 3 requirements easily.

Size: almost as small as the current crop of cell phones. People couldn't believe how small it was. Personally, it's a little on the thick side so I put it in my pants instead of my shirt pocket.

Price: good value for your money. More features than you'd expect from a sub camera. Comes with its own recharger and NI-MH batteries. About 13 hours to charge it fully.

Picture quality: I was actually quite surprised by the picture quality. Really. It's more than just decent or average, it's good. Movie quality however is terrible. Don't bother with it unless you are outdoors. Also, you cannot record sounds.

Bottom line: you'll be glad you gave this camera a shot. Great conversation piece too. Pop in a 128 MB memory stick and you can take up to 375 pictures at 1280x960! It's just a lot of fun!

I have a better camera than this one. It's a Sony too, and it has 3X zoom, a bigger LCD screen, sound MPG's, more megapixels, and just generally all the bells and whistles that my 2-year-old miniature Sony doesn't have.
And yet I still take most of my pictures on the DSCU10. Why? Because it's always in my jacket pocket and it's always ready. It's a full-feature camera and it's smaller than a Snickers bar. Better still, the design is brilliantly intuitive. Slide open the cover, press the button. That's it! You can even get your Mom to use it. And while the batteries take a while to charge, it will hold the charge for weeks or even months while you carry it around. And oddly enough, it's much easier to download from than my newer, more expensive Sony. Just plug in the USB, the camera turns itself on and it starts downloading.
Unquestionably it has weaknesses. The postage stamp LCD viewscreen is of questionable utility; it's good enough for framing shots but it's impossible to see any detail, especially in daylight. The picture quality is merely adequate (it would be wise to opt for the higher-rez DSCU20 if possible). The autofocus can be unreliable and the flash is weak.
But it's always there for you when your bigger, better camera is at home on the shelf. Anyone who's serious about photography should have one of these (or the DSCU20) as a second camera.
One final note: I don't know if this is a plus or minus, but this camera seems to impress everyone who sees it. It really looks like some sort of spy camera and on one occasion I was actually accused of being a private detective by a woman who wandered into one of my shots. Even now that it's getting a little long in the tooth, people still want to look at it to see if it's a real camera, and they're still impressed when they see that it is.

very small, cute and chic. a little pricey, and lack of a viewfinder eats up batteries, but you get what you pay for. images come out pretty good for a camera this size. great gift. can buy a camera holder, but using the nokia 8260 cell phone holder works just as well.

Once I got this nifty little camera out of the box, I was very excited to begin taking pictures. The great thing about this package is everything you need to get started is included, so you don't need to go off buying batteries or memory stick.

This camera is fairly simple to operate. Everything is explained in the included instruction manual. For its small size, some people may easily misplace or lose it.

There are two image sizes this camera offers: 1280x960 and 640x480. I found the 640x480 to be a lower quality than I expected. Many of the pixels are visible, making a not-so-clear photo. However, the 1280x960 size seems to not have that pixel problem. Another cool thing possible on this camera is making a 15 sec movie (no audio). The LCD screen is only about an inch wide, so it may be difficult to preview your photos clearly.

this isn't a great camera to be printing with. However, if all you want is to send e-mail with them or put them up on a website, then by all means, this camera is well suited for those purposes.

I've had my U10 for for 5 years or more and it's always with me - always! The pic quality is excellent and I have printed (at Walmart, etc.) many 4x5 and 8x10 (yes 8x10) pics and no one believes they were taken using a 1.3 MP camera. My only real complaint is the shutter lag which is significant when trying to shoot my fast-moving grandson. I wish SONY would make a similar size camera with a super short shutter lag and maybe a decent movie mode - even if it were only 2-3 MP.