Sony Cyber-shot U DSC-U10

...loss as there are plenty of other packages available to use.

Make sure if buying one though, that you are getting a good price, as Sony now also have a 2.0 megapixel version available, which if you shop around, may not cost too much more.
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This is a nice simple point and click camera.

What you get:
The Camera (Obviously)
Memory Stick (8mb)
Carry/neck cord
2x AAA NiMh batteries
Battery Charger
USB lead
Pixela Image transfer software
Printer manual

The size of this is wonderfully compact, and slips easily into the pocket where smaller than a packet of fags it can reside almost unnoticed, its also light enough to hang it round your neck with the supplied cord.
It’s nicely built, with a mix of plastic and metal outer panels. The lens cover and battery compartments open and close with a nice solid action, giving the impression that they will give years of service. Despite accidentally dropping mine at about 20mph from the back of a moped, it suffered no more than a slight dent in the battery cover and continues to operate flawlessly. It certainly appears to have a very robust construction.

The feature range of this camera is not huge, resolution is ‘only’ 1.3 megapixels, there’s no zoom and no viewfinder. But are there really things to worry about?
The 1.3 megapixels is generally fine for most users and produces nice images on screen and printed at 6” X 4” the quality appears very good indeed. OK it won’t match a quality SLR, or some of the higher end cameras, but at this size and price can you really complain? I think not.
A zoom would of course be nice, but only an optical one, which would be almost impossible to include in such a compact camera, let alone at the price. I’m actually glad it does not have a digital zoom as this is a greatly over-hyped feature, performing nothing more than can be done on your PC and often encouraging the taking of lower quality shots.
A viewfinder would be nice, as the LCD can be hard to see in sunlight, a common enough problem. However the power consumption is low enough on this model that having to have the LCD on all the time is not the problem it is on many other cameras.

The batteries are one of the best features on this camera, using standard AAA’s means you can affordably carry spares with you. The supplied ones can last for up to 80 shots or so, depending of course on how much reviewing etc you do, over a hours use is easily achievable.
The supplied charger will take both AA & AAA sizes, and will recharge in around 10 hours.
A note of caution though, do not try to use ordinary batteries in this unit, even high power Duracells may only last for 15 or 20 shots, possibly less. Stick with the supplied (or other) NiMh’s for the best performance.

Menu navigation is done using just 3 buttons, and can be a little slow until you get used to it, most users will probably just point and shoot without worring about any of the settings.
It can shoot in 2 resolutions 1280 x 960 & 640 x 480, offers a burst mode using 640 x 480 where it takes 5 shots half a second apart (no flash available in this mode) and can also shoot 15 second video clips, these however are at an even lower resolution and have no sound, is short, don’t bother.

The Pixela software is Sony’s standard offering and offers basic camera to PC transfer and limited editing facilities. Personally I prefer to simply install the necessary drivers and then drag and drop the photos myself within windows, and trust any required editing to paint shop pro or similar.

The memory stick supplied (8mb) will hold around 30 to 60 shots, which is not bad.

The supplied manual is also quite comprehensive and easy to follow, a welcome change from the basic "getting started" or cd-rom versions so often supplied with products these days.

Overall, this is a terrific little camera, offering great value for money. Its size and long battery life make it ideal for carrying it with you, even just for that occasional shot. The only really poorly executed features on this model are the video mode, and the pixela software. The video I’m happy to live without, and the Pixela, whilst functional, is no great loss as there are plenty of other packages available to use.

Make sure if buying one though, that you are getting a good price, as Sony now also have a 2.0 megapixel version available, which if you shop around, may not cost too much more.
 

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