Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P1 > Reviews (7)

The Sony offering that cost £699.00 when it first came out about four years ago became available at £100.00 off at my local Sony Centre.

I had to buy it as my old digital camera was far too basic.

I had actually bought the very first digital camera from Casio which was a big thing back then. It had a lens that one could revolve to point in any direction … I found this so handy.

The Sony DSP-P1 hasn’t got this feature but has got, pretty well, everything else.

3.3 mega pixels was amazing when I bought it, though now, 5 and higher is becoming the norm.

The battery life on my Sony was horrendous … so bad, in fact, that I stopped using it.

However, on visiting the Sony web site, I found that there was a manufacturing fault with it and they were offering to repair all DSC-P1’s free of charge.

So I had it collected by Sony for free, they replaced the power supply/recharge unit and all THREE batteries that I had for it. A fault in the software was burning up the batteries and damaging the power supply.

I’ve now started using it again and it’s wonderful. It holds it’s charge properly and you get hours out of it.

If you’re buying one second hand, do make sure it’s been repaired as this fault happened in all DSC-P1’s.

I asked Sony if they’d ‘hurry up’ with the repair as I was about to go to America. They got it back to me in just a few days instead of a few weeks … good service or what?

Whether taking snaps or making short movies, this camera is great fun. Picture quality is second to none in it’s range and it’s very easy to use.

A lot of thought has gone into the layout of the main buttons although the menu screen is very small type and I need my glassesto see it properly.

This can be forgiven though as the memory stick system is a joy. I have a double 128mb stick where one simply clicks a switch on the stick to get the next 128mb of photos.

Most printers etc. support memory stick technology, so I simply insert my card into my printer and produce an index. The family choose which images they would like in full glossy size and I then print them off, saving the rest on my computerhard drive.

I can fit hundreds of images on the Sony unit, all on one memory stick which is handy as I used to have to swap them around when only smaller sizes were available. (The 8mb stick supplied when purchased was a joke … far too small)

The LCD display is clear and detailed (you can switch off the detail to save clutter on the screen) or you can take pictures through the viewfinder with the LCD switched off to save battery power.

The zoom is good enough for me, however, newer cameras go better than 3x.(6x digital).

You can work the menu system with a joystick button and have bleep sounds confirming what you’re clicking on. I prefer silence, so tend to switch sound off.

Movies can be made just as long as you’re happy with 15 seconds at a time (well, I use it and it’s fun).

Program settings, flash, macro, image size, special effects, playback, delete etc., they’re all here in all their glory. Loads of features, many you may never use but, as always with me, it’s nice to know it does it.

The camera is a good size, comfortable without being too small (I do hate these super small devices, preferring to feel the weight of the unit instead), fitting neatly in my hand and all immediate features needed for each photo are available within finger reach. A well designed piece.

While in America, I dropped the camera but, apart from a slight mark near the lens, it still performs faultlessly showing that build quality is good.

I was going to upgrade my camera a while ago but now I’m going to stick with the Sony DSC-P1 as it takes great snaps, is still fantastic for features and I do need to get my money’s worth. Buying it when it first came out made it extra expensive, while now I believe it’s down to around £300.00 where sold.

Typical of Sony products (and service, it seems), this camera is a good one.