Sony DSC P30 Cybershot

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Price Paid:  $150.00 from My Roommate at the t

Summary:
Before this camera I only owned low end 640X480 cameras.
I got this camera about 5 years ago. It worked good it was reliable, never broke, the picture quality is amazing, it prints great pictures too.
Well to this day I still own this camera (only digital I own other than my phone).
I recently actually sat down and read the manual and how to tweak certian settings to get the most out of the camera...WOW. It's like I have a new camera! I was thinking of buying a new one...but why bother, this one takes great pictures and now that I know how to use ALL the settings it's GREAT! I recommend this camera to anyone. Now that it's probably classified as 'out dated' you would be able to pick one up for CHEAP... I've seen them on ebay for $20-$40.

Strengths:
Easy to use. Great picture quality. Durable (mine looks mint after 5 years!). Not expensive (anymore).

Weaknesses:
Classified as 'out dated'. Old style memory sticks, can't hold over 256mb memory stick ( I could be wrong on this, it might only hold up to 128mb). Big compared to the cameras of today. Poor battery life (this is much improved with the optional battery pack, or with basic rechargables). Video quality is poor.

Similar Products Used:
Sony ericsson walkman 2.0 megpixel camera built into cell phone.
Canaon 4.0 megapixel powershot camera.

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Price Paid:  $300.00 from 2002

Summary:
I bought this camera (my first digital camera) in the begin of the 2002 year and I still have it.
I made some travel wih it and I love it for the simplicity and the good controls that it permit to achieve.
beside of the 1.3 megapixels it's very good even in the paper photo develop.

Strengths:
good sharpness
good colors
easy to use
some interesting possibility of change the parameters of the photo..

Weaknesses:
I just think it is a hungry camera in power consume.

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Value Rating
 3 of 5

Used product for
2-5 years

Visitors rate this review
3.33 of 5,
3 votes

Price Paid:  $250.00 from Sony shop

Summary:
I loved the pictures, it does eat batteries so, I bought the charger and battery NPFS11 pack. The trouble i am having is the camera shuts itself off after 5 or 10 seconds have replaced the batteries read the manual 3 times. Sony support is nonexistant.

Strengths:
Grat pictures, easy to use

Weaknesses:
Battery life, absolutely no support from Sony. a right handed camera. not for lefties

Similar Products Used:
Apple quick take, Ricoh

Customer Service:
where? I can not find it!!!

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
2-5 years

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5,
1 votes

Price Paid:  $299.00 from Fry's

Summary:
i used this camera for close to 2 years. it finally just died on me. but i did want to let you know that i took at least 14,000 shots on this little bad ass- took it all over the world and have had some amazing digital pics out of it- was very happy. used it just to document my travels.

Strengths:
easy to use. tiny- easy to handle.

Weaknesses:
buy the charger. batteries die fast.

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
0-1 years

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5,
2 votes

Price Paid:  $188.00 from www.abtelectronics.c

Summary:
I was looking for a camera with a lot of features with a relatively low price. Even beginners will find that they slowly like to experiment with the extra features included in this camera. Many people overestimate the power of megapixels and underestimate the power of optical zoom in a lot of cameras. This camera only has 1.3mp, which is good for a decent quality picture at 5x8" (which is, by the way, bigger than a normal developed 35mm photo). Even that won't do you any good unless you have a printer designed for printing digital photos, otherwise you'll just get an average printout. If you're into just storing pictures on your computer, this is a good camera for you. The 3x optical zoom is great on a camera for this price. I've looked around and haven't found any optical zoom at all on a camera in this price range.

Strengths:
-Lots of extra features like video, clip motion, red eye reduction. -Macro mode is very good for getting focus on close-up pictures (3 cm close) -Controls are very easy to work and understand, they don't feel cheap and cheezy like other cameras -USB interface has easy transfer of images from camera to computer -Manual exposure settings let you adjust exposure for different sunlight conditions. -Optical zoom is awesome.

Weaknesses:
-Eats batteries like I eat chicken sandwiches. Maybe 5 minutes running time on a normal pair of AAs. Don't go for the expensive Lithium Ion battery that Sony tries to sell you...just keep two pairs of recharged NiMH batteries on you with a charger, and you'll be fine. -Shots can be dark at times, but can be easily remedied using exposure settings or computer editing -Memory stick included only has a wimpy 4mb...not even enough to hold one TIFF. I personally bought a 16mb memory stick for 19.99 at a local place, and that will serve you fine unless you take a lot of TIFF images. -6x Digital Zoom is utterly useless unless you can find a way to fix it up in computer editing.

Similar Products Used:
-HP Photosmart series -Some of the early Sony Mavica series

Customer Service:
Never needed to use it.