Customer Reviews

Sony DSCU30 Cybershot 2 MP Digital Camera (Silver)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've owned several digital cameras.

I disagree with anything negative anyone has had to say. Mine came with a rechargable battery - it gets AMAZING battery life. The absolute best feature is the super quick shutter speed. They rate it at 0.9 seconds. And unlike most cameras that have a button you press to power on, on the dscu30 you just slide the cover open and its on instantly. Also, people love it - you whip it out and people are amazed at how tiny and cool looking it is. Its smaller than alot of the "flat" design cameras. My favorite feature is the fact that it has the lens slide cover (mine is not wobbly). It is so convienent to be able to carry the camera in your pocket without worry about it powering on , or even worse - scratching the lens.

Downsides:
-2.0 MP - I do webdesign, personal photos for fun, email, etc. It is good for me - If I ever wanted to blow up pics or anything like that - I would want higher resolution. But that is nothing specific to this camera. Standard size pics print just beautifully.

-Comes with a meesly 8mb memory stick, you definitly need a minimum of 64mb - (about $40 and up - shop around). Again, not specific to this model, every digi cam maker throws you a tiny card. Just plan for the expense.

I'm a big fan of Sony digital cameras. They make high quality, solid products. Need convience, portability, and quality - buy this

I own several other digital cameras with 5-7 megapixels, but I have to say this is one sweet little camera that gives excellent pictures (color and clarity). It is so small that I keep it in a cell phone pouch clipped to my belt and found that I use it more than all the other cameras combined. It does not have a zoom or audio with the MPEG video, but the sacrifice of these two features for the size, is well worth it. It is a GREAT second camera to carry on vacation so you never miss those once in a lifetime shots.

This camera is perfect for replacing the 35mm point-and-shoot camera you use on a daily basis. The ease of use is unparalleled, just slide open and take your pictures. Prints look well on 4X6 paper. The Flash is sort of weak, anything beyond point-and-shoot portraits gets somewhat dark but no different than the 35mm camera I used to have. I was originally concerned with the poor battery life associated with alkaline batteries that I first used after I bought the camera. The camera died after about 20-30 minutes of use. After purchasing rechargeable batteries, I was able to use the camera for a whole week in Europe without even getting below the 1/4 mark, so I would recommend rechargeables with the alkaline as a supplement in case you need them. No complaints or regrets with this camera, a 128mb card holds well over 200 pictures.

I just purchased this little gem at my local Target here in Albuquerque NM. I have been impressed with the innovative, quality technology products Target has been carrying. I purchased a Apple iPod for Christmas at Target and absolutely love it. You won't find these types of products at Walmart - Sorry ! Anyway this is one great little camera. It is very small and fits anywhere. The style and design are great. It is very simple to operate. I was taking pictures all around the house right out of the box without even opening the manual, although I did read it cover to cover later on and learned a few shortcuts. That really means something as many digital cameras today are quite cryptic to understand. I connected the camera to my Apple Powerbook and the photos instantly appeared in my iPhoto application. No drivers to load, no fuss, no muss. It just all worked - now that is technology the way it should be. Photo quality was sharp and vivid and just fine for 4X6 prints, emailing, and Web posting. This probably covers 90% of what digital cameras are used for. The other 10% is higher end needs that of course require larger, more feature rich cameras, greater pixels, and bigger wallets. The bottom line - Very small, so you can take it everywhere. Very easy to use. Great Sony quality and nice looking photos instantly. The photos far exceed those that current cameras on cell phones can take. I seriously do not recommend purchasing a camera cell phone at this time as the quality of photos they take is very, very poor. The Sony DSC-U30 is a much better investment. You will love it and take it everywhere.

If you're looking for a compact sized digital camera this is for you! Sony CybershotU30 has good resolution according to its size and pictures taken are very neat at 2MP. The LCD, although small, is completely visible for the average person and you won't have problem taking good pictures. Start-up time is almost none, and time between pictures is very little! It has few drawbacks like its handling : it is so little that people with big hands should be careful of not letting it slip away while taking a picture or viewing them. Another one is the playback mode, the index selection feature is definitely useless because pictures appear too small (4 pictures in a 1" LCD display makes it impossible).
My rating for this camera is perfect because you get more than you can from this size and the price is near fair, it could be cheaper.

I bought this camera in March 2004 with a plan to have the smallest camera available to compliment my Canon Digital Rebel.
This thing is freakin' amazing. The picture quality is ALMOST as good as my old 1999 2.1MP Kodak DC290 that retailed for $1099.

It is in my pocket anywhere I go. Two weeks after buying this camera, our 2005 Escape was rear ended (with 306 miles on it!, $4200 damage!) and I was able to get pics of the accident scene. Awesome.

I used it on vacation and stuck it out of the sunroof to get scenery pics. The LCD is nice in the sun, you can still see the images.

Seven months after buying it, I have already taken 8,300 pics! You just want to take pics of everything since its so convenient. Mountain biking, home projects, the garden, pets, my partially chopped off index finger last weekend, whatever. It can focus down to about 4", but it has no zoom which can be annoying at times. That is my only complaint.

The casing is metal and mine has several large dents from hitting the ground. It fell in the dirt a few times and the sliding cover trapped some dirt that grinds into the metal when sliding it open/closed.

I see it on Amazon for [$]!! Makes me want to buy a spare at that price. Paid $149 from Sears. There is now a U40 model out. Not much different.

Check out my pics at:
http://mlav.com

I would have to say the best part about this camera is how it looks. The whole camera just gives off a very... sleek look.

Image quality isn't the best out there, but it's a $200, 2.0 MP digital camera that's smaller than most cell phones out there. Keeping all that in mind, I'd say that the quality is excellent for what it's designed for(point-and-shoot).

Haven't been able to really test the battery life, but been playing with it for a while and it's still going strong.

One thing that irks me though. The camera slide is a bit wobbly. Like a previous reviewer said, one is able to rock the slide back and forth, and it makes it feel a bit flimsy. Also there are times when I try to close the slide gently, and it does not close all the way. Small design issues, but nothing too big.

Overall, nice point-and-shoot camera in a very sleek pacakge.

This is my second purchased. I've taken my camera everywhere I go and people notice the size and simplicity of the use from this camera. I have to tell you, when you need a quick shot of a special moment, simply whip it out and snap! That's how easy it is. Battery lifetime is good, just make sure you maintain it well.

Anyhow, I've got two now! One for personal use and the other for work. So if you are looking for something small, light weight, and easy to use, GET this one! Good luck and have fun with it!
DL

This a nice digital camera, it's worth it. The only problem is as well with all the other electronics gadgets, battery life, this itsy bitsy camera eats a lot of them, you will need at least two other sets of rechargable ones. And the red eye option not working very well. I love it

This camera and my U20 is a technological wonder. It is as small as a large pack of stick gum as everyone has stated, but it is also light and pretty tough as it has a completely aluminum shell. I dropped it a few times on industrial carpet (no padding) and its still kicking. All shots I took were razor sharp and the things that I really liked about this little camera were its speed to start up and the shutter lag. It takes about a second to boot up, great for impulse shots. Something happens and you are on it, a one handed operation to pull it out of your coat pocket, slide open the lens cover/power switch and hit the shutter release. It is small enough to just hold out and shoot, the LCD is TINY and is more of a review tool than a frame tool although it works fine for that too if your eyes are good enough. The shutter lag as about 1/2 second counting flash, a little less outside, not really good but deffinately better than some cameras. There are some functions that are useless, like the index function that shows 1/4 inch thumbnails of pictures on the memory stick, that is a small picture, large enough just to make out what the pic might be of. I wear glasses so this may be a little biased. It has a few modes, like sepia, black and white, scenic and close up, dont really see a diference in the scenic and close up, maybe an F-stop difference. All in all, I was REALLY impressed with my 20 dollar Ebay purchase, although they have really gone up in price on the popular auction site. I would imagine the CCD recall from Sony has really made these popular again as it is a VERY popular free service. I had my camera for little over a month when it started to show the signs of the CCD defect, Purple and green images, and the entire LCD image seems to melt befor your eyes like a watercolor picture put under a faucet. Very "trippy" looking image. I power cycled it a few times and it cleared up but it always came back, probably why it was 20 bucks! I stashed it broken for almost 1 year until I heard of the recall and promptly dug it out and sent it away to Sony after filling out the online repair request, they even sent me a pre paid UPS label, very accomidating of SONY as it was a real PR nightmare when over 100 models of cameras from 6 different manufacturers started to hear of the bad SONY made CCD going out. Excellent little impulse camera when it works, probably not the best for a scenic trip, but great at parties and glove box shooting. Zinc batteries last about 4 shots, NiCD are better, NiMH are great and the new Energizer lithium batteries will work for a few days of shooting!