A Great Point and Shoot SuperZoom Camera

Author's Rating:

Pros: 15x Optical Zoom (much more digitally), Movable LCD Screen, Several Auto Modes, Sharp Photos

Cons: Battery life mediocre, Holding comfort mediocre, Does not come with memory card

The Bottom Line: 
I can highly recommend this camera for its photo quality and terrific zoom.

Author's Review
After owning a 3 megapixel Olympus digital camera with a 3x optical zoom, this Sony 15x optical zoom camera was better than I thought it would be. I read several reviews and felt this was the best camera for my needs and it has proven to to be the case. I found some reviews that said it took too long for the camera to start up. I don't have a stop watch, but from the time you push the power button, only two to three seconds pass before you are ready to shoot. I don't understand this complaint. Here are some of the features I really like:

The 15x zoom works great and unlike my older 3 megapixel, when you increase the zoom digitally (up to 30x), the picture still remains very good.

The LCD screen can be pulled away from the back of the camera and
then tilted up or down. Taking camera shots from low or high angles are little trouble with this feature.

You can review your photos via the LCD with different powerpoint style presentation formats including background music.

In some modes you can increase or decrease the flash.

In the portrait mode it can and "does" recognize faces for automatic focusing. You know it does because it places a box on the face of the subject or subjects. It also has a smile detection mode which keeps the picture from snapping until it recognizes a smile from the subject or subjects.

I am personally just a part time amateur photographer. After owning this camera now for about 6 months, I find myself sometimes wanting to be able to adjust some of the settings on the "auto" modes, but then this camera was made for point and shoot. It does have manual modes, but I have used them very little. I have not yet wanted to experience the "learning curve" required for that. The pictures taken from this camera have given "Very Sharp" results. The camera comes with everything you need but a memory card. I purchased a 4 gigabyte card and with the number of pictures I take it was probably overkill. While Walmart carries the batteries for this camera I personally just ordered a non Sony brand battery online for about 25% of the brand price. I cannot yet vouch on its quality. Anyone who takes a lot of pictures will need a back up.

The camera records pictures very quickly. It has a mode for continuous, fast snaps as long as you hold the button down. I personally have used this just to experiment.

I can highly recommend this camera for a person who is wanting a point and shoot camera with a great zoom. It is slightly awkward in feel but after you get the camera in hand it becomes secure. It has a quick release lens cover and also comes with a lens hood when taking shots outside in the sun. This 9.1 megapixel camera comes with software and a paper manual. The paper manual is only an abbreviated version. The full manual can be installed on your computer from the CD. The camera does come with a battery charger. The charger is trim and has a light which goes off when the battery is charged. This camera has more features like: a light metering button that can be used in some modes, printing photos without a computer if you have a PictBridge compliant printer, a movie or video mode, and the ability to create folders on your memory card to manage your photos. With all of its features, you need to remember this is a truly "enhanced" point and shoot camera. It has automatic mode settings for everything from portraits, sunny shots, twilight shots, snow, and even fireworks.