I really like this camera, though I think there is some room for improvement. It takes very nice still photos, which according to my linux box are 19.9 MP. Weird, but nothing to complain about.
My personal rationale: Things seem to be hit or miss, but for my general purpose it is not bad. I was going to buy a new phone, e.g. LG g4, to record my exploits into the mountains. The HTC one m8 camera is pretty weak. But I got this instead. Two devices is less than one in this case, but it's not so bad and saving $500 never hurts. So I bought my first dedicated camera.
Ergonomics: The size is quite nice as it easily fits in my pocket for long hikes and other outdoor activities. I love the inclusion of a USB standardized charging port, as it makes things a lot easier. I don't know why Sony didn't make it a micro usb like most other mobile products these days, but whatever. One extra cable, but having the device be chargeable via a portable battery bank is very nice. Also includes a standard SD card slot, which I would strongly recommend adding to your cart. Internal storage is not sufficient unless you take 3 photos and visit a computer. The size of the maximum quality photos are about 7.5 MB.
Screen: Essentially worthless. There is no way to measure the quality of the photos through the built in display, aside from tremendous blurriness. Take to your nearest HD monitor to gain better appreciation...
Photos: I went on a small hike to test this out before a much larger one and attached a few photos. My opinions are that outdoor photos come out quite nice, but zooming in on regions makes them quite grainy. I analyzed merely with my eyes and a 4k monitor, which may lack professionalism for some. Nevertheless, I don't really see much reason to complain. A minor gripe is that they shoot in 4:3 aspect ratio vs 16:9.
Indoor photos are much more variable. I have taken a few good ones, with flash and mildly close range necessary to achieve this goal. Others look very washed out. View finder doesn't help so be wary.
Panorama is a pretty bad feature in my opinion. It captures more, but with less. What I mean by that is the vertical height of my resulting photos is 1080 pixels, whereas standard photos are over 3800. Thus they looked washed out.
You can also adjust brightness in the menu, but I usually default to 0 unless in exceptional circumstances.
Video: I don't use this much, as 720p is quite low by today's standards. Even my bad phone camera does 1080p, so it's not for me. Maybe for some this will apply.
Cost: Excellent. For $80, I am happy with my decision. Sony is the king of camera sensors, so I thought this was a good buy for my purposes. Just be wary of the above comments.
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Decent camera
First off, I'm not a photographer nor am I trying to be one. Second, the primary reason I bought this was to use as a primary camera for use with eBay to replace my Samsung Galaxy S5 which doesn't have the best close-up focus abilities and image stabilization. In short, I needed better focus. The reason I only give it 3 stars is because it's not up to my expectations for my use. As for general use, I might give it 4. If it were around $50, I would give it 4.So I will start with my most critical aspect: The focus and clarity. As for focus, when it works, it works well. However, I have had some trouble getting it to focus well. The pictures I added are of my mouse, some using flash, some not, some with different exposure levels. Very basic tweaks for this is a basic camera. As you can see, when it works, you can see very well. However, these were mostly in succession and it didn't focus enough most of the time. I assure my hands were stable and I kept it still until it showed the photo for review. These were on the highest 20MP setting. I am not pleased with that. The reliability is not higher than my phone camera. But if I learn it's tricks, I will definitely like it.The body is small. Much smaller than I expected. At 3.75" x 2.25" x 0.75", it is small. The display is fine but nothing super-high res so it's hard to tell the difference if pictures came out good, great, or excellent. Navigation is simple and settings are very basic: flash, zoom, and exposure are the ones I can think of. Most other settings are auto. The USB-UC-E6 port is very inconvenient. If I lose it or leave it elsewhere, I am screwed or I have to buy another one, which I have no other devices which use one. It is convenient for charging though, that the batteries are rechargeable via USB and not some proprietary charger.Another note, it doesn't seem to perform particularly well in poorly-lit areas without flash. If with flash, it makes it obvious that it was poorly lit and flash was used. Well lit areas are great. I haven't used it in large, open areas yet or fast moving objects.It takes a proprietary Li-Ion battery and fits SD Cards. I'm currently using a 64GB Samsung Class 10 Micro-SD card with adapter.
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Top reviews from other countries
Maria B.
Take great pictures
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 11, 2023Color: BlackVerified Purchase
Patricia Woodall
Good little camera.
Reviewed in Canada on December 22, 2019Color: BlackVerified Purchase
Buster-Spiegel
Fabulosa y Compacta
Reviewed in Mexico on April 12, 2018Color: BlackVerified Purchase
