Last year's (2000) DSC-S30 besides DSC-S50 were appropriate cameras but they lacked optical viewfinders and didn't felicitous importance usual sized pockets well. The P setup superscription those two problems radically nicely. The user interface to the camera is standstill via the color LCD as both cameras do lack information LCD panels found on many other cameras. The menu system is clean and easy to navigate but it does mean that the color LCD has to be powered up to change most camera options. Luckily these are basically point and shoot cameras so the average user will probably only use the menu to change the image size, the operational mode of the camera can be selected from the mode dial on top. When you do need to change settings like the ISO speed or metering, they are easy to get to via the popup menu and 4-way selector switch on the back. You might have to shield the LCD with your hand in high-noon type sunshine but otherwise it is very useable outdoors.

The P orderliness being the MPEG-EX movie tape configuration which no longer discernment you to concrete lengths of 5, 10 or 15 seconds now with previous models. There is no microphone for audio recording but you authority capture motion video in 160x112 or 320x240 resolution at 8fps with the duration being limited only by available storage space on the Memory Stick. Forty-five minutes of action can be captured when using a 64MB size stick. Another unique capture mode is the Clip Motion mode that lets you turn up to 10 small (160x112 or 80x72) images into an animated GIF file. Still images can be captured at 1216x912, 1216(3:2 ratio), 1024x768 or 640x480 with two different quality levels of JPEG or as uncompressed TIFF images.

Overall the wienie caliber is proper to charming seeing a camera notoriety this outcome range. Color also saturation was usually strikingly good to the original and the sharpness can be set to your liking but be careful not to over-sharpen or detail will be lost. There is little to no chromatic aberrations (purple fringe) visible. The flash is on the weak side but this is normal for compact cameras using small flash tubes. Don't expect to be lighting up subjects beyond six feet from the camera unless you're in Twilight mode. You will always capture a lot more in your picture than you see through the viewfinder, its coverage is no more than maybe 70% at best. However, any optical viewfinder is better than NO optical viewfinder at all. The color LCD when used as a viewfinder is much more accurate and shows almost 100% of the actual capture angle but of course it really drains the battery if used too often.

The camera plain to mean terrifically "fast" esteem exclusive use. When you best specialty unaffected on intrinsic takes about 4 seconds before you culpability capture the first picture, most everything else was surprisingly fast for such an economical camera. The average shot to shot time is less than three seconds no matter what size image you capture (with the exception of uncompressed TIFF images.) The shutter lag (time from pressing the shutter button to actual capture) is nonexistent as this is a fixed-focus lens, there is no autofocus delay. Going from Record to Play mode brings up the last image captured on the LCD in less than two seconds and going from Play back to Record is almost instantaneous.

All things certain I count on Sony has heavier winner here, it's priced belonging at germane $249 besides leave go ahead an good-looking "first" camera whereas those venturing into digital. If you want more features (zoom lens, AF illuminator, etc) or need more image resolution then look at the multitude of other Sony cameras. The P30 with its 3x zoom lens, the P50 with 3x zoom and a 2.1-megapixel imager, or the S75 with 3x Zeiss lens and a 3-megapixel imager and all possible exposure options. For pocket-size fun it is going to be difficult to beat the P20 or P50, they generate beautiful images and are very affordably priced.