Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-P93A Digital Camera
- Digital Zoom: 2x
- Camera Type: Standard Point and Shoot
- Weight: 0.39 lb.
- LCD Screen Size: 1.5 in.
- Resolution: 5.1 Megapixel
- Optical Zoom: 3x
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More a gadget than a camera
Pros
Lots of cool features; great as a gadget
Cons
A struggle to create good-quality photos; not a photographers' camera.
Recommended it?
No
The Bottom Line:
Gadget fans will like it, but true photographers will be disappointed.
Review version 3
After 4 months with this camera, I now have a fair idea of it's potential.
To give some background; my last camera was a Fuji Finepix 4700Zoom, and I loved it so much, I bought three in succession when the others were lost/damaged. In addition to the DSC-P93, my shortlist included the DSC-W1, and the Canon Powershot A80.
My experiences so far:
Movie Mode: I thought the 30fps, 640x480 movie mode would be a bonus. In fact, the friend who bought it for me, bought a 512Mb Memory Stick, not the Memory Stick *Pro* that allows 30fps. Perhaps this is just as well - this mode burns up 1.4Mb per second, or A#20 of memory a minute, and the 16fps from the non-Pro mode has been more than adequate. However - the fact that it continously adjusts exposure and white balance while recording turns out to be a *dis*advantage; unless you can keep the centre crosshairs tracked on your subject, the picture balance will waver all over the range.
Picture Modes: Candle, Landscape, and several others are included. Also Sepia, and B&W. The accessibility of these modes make you more likely to use them, which good for creativity. However, while exploring these, I've yet to generate a picture I was genuinely proud of. My Fuji tended to generate neutral to 'warm' casts, which I was fond of. The P93 is generally sterile in it's colour choice, in automatic modes. In manual/alternative modes, then if you have some knowledge of photography (Depth of Field, Exposure times, etc), it's hard to equate this knowledge of what you need to change, to the setting you must change on the camera.
Pocketability: For an AA-powered camera; it's OK. You know it's there, but you can fit it in a jeans pocket without walking like Jake the Peg.
Picture size: The compression engine is not great - Sony has sacrificed compression for speed and quality. As such, 5Mb pictures weigh in at 1.5-2.2Mb. A quick batch-run through PaintShopPro8 reduces these to 0.4-1.2Mb, with no loss in quality. One motivation for buying this camera was that I could do much of the manipulation before I even get back to my PC; but this poor compression adds 'Re-compress pictures' to the post-processing task list.
Folder management: The DSC allows you to create folders, and switch the default 'save' folder. This is useful for organising pictures on the move. However, you cannot move pictures between folders, reducing it's usability. Also, if editing pictures/movies, it saves the edited version in the 'default' folder; if this is different from the folder where the picture was stored, then your pictures are now getting jumbled between folders.
In-camera reviewing: I liked the DSC-P93 because it seemed I would be able to spend less time reviewing/cropping/sorting/editing photos and movies on my computer once I got back, by doing this in the camera instead. It's not quite as good as I thought it would be. In addition to the jumbled storage, above, it also does not rotate images on storage. ie. if you take a Portrait photo, then 'rotate' it in the camera, it does not actually save the image rotated, but just tags and displays it so - meaning you must do this again when you download the images. I also found the menu navigation slightly slow; if deleting multiple images, it takes two keypresses per image ("Up" - "Enter"), rather than just one ("Enter"). Repeated rotation is "Menu", "Enter" (Rotate), "OK", "Up", "Up", "Left/Right" {to rotate), "Down", "OK". In short, the camera is rather menu-intensive, and there are safeguards against, for example, accidental deletion that make it more laborious for a pro user.
Overall: I'm disappointed. With the Sony, I seem to end up with a large memory card crammed with over 100 photos from each event, which I whittle down to maybe 20 that I'm still not completely happy with. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but this camera just doesn't do it for me. Technically, it's pretty good. But the colours aren't vibrant, and the photos seem to lack both quality and soul. Also, transfer to my PC is a 20-minute affair, including downloading the huge images/movies over my USB1.1 link (OK, I know it's old), and then resampling all the images in a PSP batch job. Not the seamless transfer I was hoping for!
This is intended to be a subjective review - there are plenty of good review sites out there with objective stats and picture comparisons. It could be merely a result of my fondness for my old camera, but I get the impression the Sony DSC-P93 is more of a gadget than a camera.
After 4 months with this camera, I now have a fair idea of it's potential.
To give some background; my last camera was a Fuji Finepix 4700Zoom, and I loved it so much, I bought three in succession when the others were lost/damaged. In addition to the DSC-P93, my shortlist included the DSC-W1, and the Canon Powershot A80.
My experiences so far:
Movie Mode: I thought the 30fps, 640x480 movie mode would be a bonus. In fact, the friend who bought it for me, bought a 512Mb Memory Stick, not the Memory Stick *Pro* that allows 30fps. Perhaps this is just as well - this mode burns up 1.4Mb per second, or A#20 of memory a minute, and the 16fps from the non-Pro mode has been more than adequate. However - the fact that it continously adjusts exposure and white balance while recording turns out to be a *dis*advantage; unless you can keep the centre crosshairs tracked on your subject, the picture balance will waver all over the range.
Picture Modes: Candle, Landscape, and several others are included. Also Sepia, and B&W. The accessibility of these modes make you more likely to use them, which good for creativity. However, while exploring these, I've yet to generate a picture I was genuinely proud of. My Fuji tended to generate neutral to 'warm' casts, which I was fond of. The P93 is generally sterile in it's colour choice, in automatic modes. In manual/alternative modes, then if you have some knowledge of photography (Depth of Field, Exposure times, etc), it's hard to equate this knowledge of what you need to change, to the setting you must change on the camera.
Pocketability: For an AA-powered camera; it's OK. You know it's there, but you can fit it in a jeans pocket without walking like Jake the Peg.
Picture size: The compression engine is not great - Sony has sacrificed compression for speed and quality. As such, 5Mb pictures weigh in at 1.5-2.2Mb. A quick batch-run through PaintShopPro8 reduces these to 0.4-1.2Mb, with no loss in quality. One motivation for buying this camera was that I could do much of the manipulation before I even get back to my PC; but this poor compression adds 'Re-compress pictures' to the post-processing task list.
Folder management: The DSC allows you to create folders, and switch the default 'save' folder. This is useful for organising pictures on the move. However, you cannot move pictures between folders, reducing it's usability. Also, if editing pictures/movies, it saves the edited version in the 'default' folder; if this is different from the folder where the picture was stored, then your pictures are now getting jumbled between folders.
In-camera reviewing: I liked the DSC-P93 because it seemed I would be able to spend less time reviewing/cropping/sorting/editing photos and movies on my computer once I got back, by doing this in the camera instead. It's not quite as good as I thought it would be. In addition to the jumbled storage, above, it also does not rotate images on storage. ie. if you take a Portrait photo, then 'rotate' it in the camera, it does not actually save the image rotated, but just tags and displays it so - meaning you must do this again when you download the images. I also found the menu navigation slightly slow; if deleting multiple images, it takes two keypresses per image ("Up" - "Enter"), rather than just one ("Enter"). Repeated rotation is "Menu", "Enter" (Rotate), "OK", "Up", "Up", "Left/Right" {to rotate), "Down", "OK". In short, the camera is rather menu-intensive, and there are safeguards against, for example, accidental deletion that make it more laborious for a pro user.
Overall: I'm disappointed. With the Sony, I seem to end up with a large memory card crammed with over 100 photos from each event, which I whittle down to maybe 20 that I'm still not completely happy with. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but this camera just doesn't do it for me. Technically, it's pretty good. But the colours aren't vibrant, and the photos seem to lack both quality and soul. Also, transfer to my PC is a 20-minute affair, including downloading the huge images/movies over my USB1.1 link (OK, I know it's old), and then resampling all the images in a PSP batch job. Not the seamless transfer I was hoping for!
This is intended to be a subjective review - there are plenty of good review sites out there with objective stats and picture comparisons. It could be merely a result of my fondness for my old camera, but I get the impression the Sony DSC-P93 is more of a gadget than a camera.
