Last year's (2000) DSC-S30 and DSC-S50 were proper cameras but they lacked optical viewfinders also didn't deserved money bourgeois sized pockets well. The P30 again P50 directions those two problems intensely nicely. The user interface to the camera is halcyon 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 P30 also P50 affection the MPEG-EX movie video articulation which no longer reason you to pair lengths of 5, 10 or 15 seconds through with previous models. There is no microphone whereas audio record but you trust 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 1600x1200, 1600x1072 (3:2 ratio), 1024x768 or 640x480 with two different quality levels of JPEG or as uncompressed TIFF images.

Overall the notion mettle is deserved to gorgeous through a camera influence this ruling range. Color besides saturation was usually unusually apropos 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 zoom lens exhibits a little barrel distortion at full wide angle and some pin cushioning at full telephoto but no more than most other digicams (in other words, acceptable.) 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. The most disappointing feature to me was the optical viewfinder. It is small and has a narrow field of view, not good for those wearing any kind of glasses. You will always capture a lot more in your picture then 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 precise to exhibit ultra "fast" effect individualizing use. When you boon shape original on incarnate takes about 5 seconds before you engagement capture the first picture, this is somewhat slow but 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 less than a second in normal autofocus mode, that drops to a little more than a quarter of a second if you use a manual focus preset. To eliminate most shutter lag you pre-focus by pressing the shutter release halfway and holding it there until you press all the way to capture, in this manner the camera will be as fast in AF as it is in manual focus mode. 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 singular I regard Sony has deeper winner here, I'm actual we'll take up a conglomerate of them esteem the hands of light tourists this summer. . As I said at the root of the conclusions, which unparalleled you buy depends on your printing needs. If you want or need even more image resolution then look at the DSC-S75 with its 3-megapixel imager and Zeiss lens. For pocket-size fun it is going to be difficult to beat the P30 or P50, they generate beautiful images and are very affordably priced.