Sony Cybershot DSC-V3 6 to 7 Megapixel
Sony Cybershot DSC-V3 6 to 7 Megapixel
USER REVIEWS
|
[Mar 09, 2009]
davoonroe
Expert
Strength:
low light focusing
Weakness:
no rear curtain flash
I was lucky to find one of these in near mint condition. The seller even had the box and software. The software only goes up to Windows XP, though.
Customer Service none yet Similar Products Used: Olympus SP-350 |
|
[Jul 30, 2007]
cgarrard
Professional
Strength:
Features for price, a real leader.
Weakness:
Wide angle could be wider
The Sony V-3 is an almost forgotten, range finder style niche digicam. With the market booming in photography the last 3 years, this little guy somehow got buried from all the hooplah that has transpired. What a pity. If you are fortunate enough to be able to buy one new, or almost new, and it fits your criteria for a compact full featured digicam by all means, please purchase it. This camera still has an awesome feature set 3 years after it's introduction, and thats a major feat in the fast growing digicam market. For professionals needing to save weight on long excursions, and still take excellent images, the V-3 can (if used to its limits) still produce excellent results up to 11x14 prints, and very good up to 13x19 prints. For beginners and intermediates, this camera is a steal for the price you can get it for now, and leaves you with plenty of room to grow. I still use mine to this day (I purchased mine in early late 05'). This camera covers a broad range of needs, from very decent macro (close up) performance, to medium telephoto and decent wide angle shots. It has excellent to very good noise performance to ISO 400, but starts to drop considerably after that (typical for cameras with such a small ccd imager). It's night shot, and night framing features are truely unique to Sony, and only this camera and the F-828 (also a Sony product) have it (you can video in Night shot mode too) enabling you to shoot in complete darkness (it also can help you navigate on a dark trail at night). It's laser focus assist grid, is really a sight to be seen, and it works perfectly. Quick and accurate auto focus in complete darkness, yes why not! It has a very good video mode with sound (you can only use pro memory sticks however). It has two memory slots, one Memory Stick, and one Compact Flash slot, enabling you to carry as much memory as you can afford. It is built like a tank, with the body constructed mainly of magnesium alloy. Metal is everywhere on this camera. The buttons and dials being made of it as well. It has a very nice roomy grip that bulges out a bit, and makes it bulky for a pocket, but easily fits in a cargo pocket or jacket pocket. Battery life is very good, up too and over 2hrs of shooting if you manage your battery life well. If you set your lcd brightness at the medium/low setting you can get even more time. Images come in three forms, raw, tiff and jpeg, also 2 types of jpegs and a raw+jpeg combo capture. Perfect!. Has sepia, b/w, and various color modes that should satisfy almost any user. The flash works excellent, and is higher powered than you might think. It also has a hot shoe port, in case you want to go bigger and brighter. Shot to shot time is very fast, even by today's standards, with many different burst modes to choose from. Raw/Tiff images of course taking much longer, about 4 seconds per shot. Power up/down is a tad slow, but that can be countered by it's excellent battery life and power down mode (just keep it on if you need a quick draw time). About all the buttons you will need and some extras, are located in key positions on the backside within easy reach of your thumb. It has a decent albeit large 2.5" lcd, an optical viewfinder (for basic compositions in a pinch), and a very nice lcd viewfinder. Accessory lenses are also available in wide angle and telephoto (but be warned the camera's lens then becomes fixed focal length lens). All in all a camera that you will bond with, it truly has a personality all it's own. It can mold itself into many roles, from a beginning artist to a workhorse camera in commercial applications. If you are lucky enough to get one now, hang on to it. It may be the last of it's kind from Sony. And that is truly a pity.
Customer Service They might as well be a ghost, i've never had one Sony digicam ever break down on me. Similar Products Used: Sony F-828
|
|
[Mar 11, 2007]
wawafoto
Professional
Strength:
Weakness:
Whole package is just a little big: it won't fit into your pocket. I wish the wide-angle was a little wider. There are add-on wide-angle and telephoto attachments, but these are bulky and require an extension tube. Sunshade attachment impedes the on-camera flash, especially for macro. Proprietary battery instead of AA cells, expensive and not found everywhere. Focusing speed is OK, but not ultrafast. Made in 2004, so no anti-shake technology. By far my favorite of all the compacts -- a wealth of programs, many of them not found on any other brand. Yet very easy to use. I bought this after trying many others, and am completely satisfied. Customer Service Unknown -- but I got a full service/parts warranty from Ebay Square Trade (a good logo to look for on Ebay items) -- for $34.99. Similar Products Used: Olympus SP-350
|
|
[Mar 10, 2007]
wawafoto
Professional
Strength:
Terrific and intuitive control. Solid professional-looking presentation. On-screen information is extremely useful, and not too intrusive. All buttons and dials are cleverly placed for quick adjustment, including dedicated control of Exposure-lock and compensation. Very good on-screen readout of focusing areas, (particularly superior to other brands in multi-zone mode), with manual of moveable auto-focus area. Lightning-fast shutter delay and quick recording, with easy one-touch review of last shot. Unique-to-Sony interpolative program allows trimming images to HIGHER resolution than original. This makes printable images out of VGA's! 3 video settings, including LOW-Res, which makes videos that fit in emails, the usual 30fps, and high-res 60fps. Very easy video editing. Flash-shoe -- necessary for most still-life. Optical viewfinder. Holds TWO memory cards at once -- one Flash, the other Sony Memory-stick. These can be selected, one or the other, at will without opening camera by a switch on the camera back-- a BIG plus because you can shoot "snaps" on one and put pro-type work on the other. Excellent white-balance features including "Flash White Balance". Unique (that word again!)"Night-Shot" infrared, which does not require going into menus, is surprisingly useful for artistic work in low-light. Unobtrusive and quick-off night focusing. In-camera battery-charging when A/C power is attached. On-screen readout of remaining battery power in minutes and seconds instead of just the usual ideogram. Bracketing for both exposure and white balance. RAW files simultaneously record JPEGs. Half the cost of a DSLR and better than most of them, both in features and performance. A professional or informed amateurs dream compact camera, as far as I'm concerned.
Weakness:
Whole package is just a little big: it won't fit into your pocket. I wish the wide-angle was a little wider. There are add-on wide-angle and telephoto attachments, but these are bulky and require an extension tube. Sunshade attachment impedes the on-camera flash, especially for macro. Proprietary battery instead of AA cells, expensive and not found everywhere. Focusing speed is OK, but not ultrafast. Made in 2004, so no anti-shake technology. Still my favorite of all the compacts -- a wealth of programs, many of them not found on any other brand. Yet very easy to use. I bought this after trying many others, and am completely satisfied. Customer Service Unknown -- but I got a 2-year full parts and service warranty through Ebay Square Trade for $34.99. Similar Products Used: Olympus SP-350
|
|
[Oct 28, 2006]
Jung Oh
Intermediate
Strength:
durability in excellent body
Weakness:
Not muxh, except poor performance in red eye reduction
Reviewed numerous fine point and shoot digital camers.
Similar Products Used: Epson PC3000Z |