Sony DSC S30 Cybershot

Review Date
September 8, 2003

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
2-5 years

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1 votes

Reviewed by
Larisa McCarty , Casual , from Manchester, NH

Price Paid
$500.00 at Circuit City

Summary
Worked great. After 2 years of light use, it came up with the E61:00 message. What a scam. Repair would be minimum $170.00 plus shipping. Won't ever buy Sony again. Now, not worth a penny.

Strengths
nice pictures for a couple years

Weaknesses
built-in errors to force you to buy a new one.

Customer Service
poor product support, Sony doesn't stand behind it's name like it used to.

Review Date
January 5, 2002

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
0-1 years

Reviewed by
PeterR , Intermediate

Price Paid
$0.00

Summary
I purchased this camera for a blow out price as a display model. I upgraded from an old Apple QuickTake 200 with 640x480 res. I now have this Sony with 1.3 megapixels. I am very impressed. I didn't expect the technology to get this much better! The color reproduction is excellent and the sharpness and quality is unbelieveable! I am very, very pleased to have come across this camera. I also really appreciate the swivel screen so that you can protect the delecate LCD from harm. The features on this camera are very simple once you get used to how the menus work. Too bad this camera isn't in production anymore! The replacement is the DSC-P30 as far as I know and that model is also a great camera! I am mostly surprised at the quality of this camera (coming from Sony and all). It is very solidly built and the zoom is actually very effective. I don't recommend using the digital zoom, but the optical zoom is very handy. I am very happy with this product and when I upgrade in the future, Sony will be one of my first considerations. I use this product in conjunction with a HP 960CSE printer and they make a great combination for 5x7s on HP photo paper... almost photo quality.

Strengths
Swivel screen, zoom, menus, options, memory stick, battery, options... too many to list.

Weaknesses
It is a bit bulky, the flash is weak, but other than that, it is excellent!

Similar Products Used
(I work in a department store as a school job... I have used them all)

Customer Service
Haven''''t had to use... no problems since I bought it (6months ago).

Review Date
January 5, 2002

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
0-1 years

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1 votes

Reviewed by
Blake , Casual

Price Paid
$299.00 at Circuit City

Summary
I had wanted to advance from the point-and-shoot set and get more creative with my photography. However, the thought of shelling out $300+ for an SLR that I'd have to learn and pay the lab costs for (even with point-and-shoots, I have a lot of pictures I don't like) didn't sit well with me.

This camera was a happy compromise. I bought it as an open box buy. The only thing it lacked was the 4MB Memory Stick. But, since I knew that wasn't going to be enough for me, I shelled out for a 32MB stick (I now have several).

In the year I've had the camera, it's worked wonderfully with few drawbacks. The ability to change exposures and shutter speeds is utterly amazing to me. Pictures that others mess up come out perfect on this unit (maybe I should say, "More perfect than theirs").

My unit doens't have the movie mode, but I don't think I'd have a real use for that. I'd need a bigger memory stick.

The swivel display is a mixed blessing. In bright sunlight, it's a curse sisncle there's no separate viewfinder. But, to get shots where you can't get right behind the camera (e.g. self portraits, shots around tight corners, etc), it's a god-send.

Downlaod is easy. On Windows platforms, it appears as an external hard drive. Speed may not be up to snuff for some, but I'm happy as long as I can empty my 32 or 64MB sticks in under 5 mins.

Strengths
- Ease of use.
- Flexibility
- Quality of image. Good for e-mailing (with e-mail mode) or prinitng out 4x6's. Also good enough to take to a Kodak PictureMaker kiosk.
- Swivel display
- Memory stick. Can be locked so you don't accidently erase something. Haven't used other media (e.g. SmartMedia cards) for anything but MP3 players, so I can't comment on them.
- Ease of download.

Weaknesses
- Flash. Had mixed results. Seem to have better results changing exposure time, etc.
- For lack of a better term, response time. In most cases, the time from when you press on the shutter release to when the image is captured is fine. Most people will stay still. However, some who are not used to it may think they've taken the picture when they haven't. I asked two people on top of the Empire State Bldg to take a picture of me using this unit. They both swore that it worked. They just didn't press it down long enough. Thank God for the swivel display.
Also, some friends have a 15 month old boy. It's a trick to get a picture of him because he'll move much faster than the camera will react. Many times, I'll have to autofocus and wait for the right moment.
- Focus. Much of the above problem may be related to the autofocus feature. On the whole, no problem with the focus. However, lately, when taking pictures of objects in the distance, focus can be tricky. I chalk it up to my lack of experience.
- No additional viewfinder. I love the LCD display (especially the swivel), but on sunny days, you have to pray you have the pic frames correctly.

Similar Products Used
- A really basic Polaroid digital camera. That was great for photo IDs, but it "lacked definition" for other things.

Customer Service
- No experience... yet.

Review Date
November 28, 2001

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
0-1 years

Reviewed by
Lanzer , Intermediate

Price Paid
$0.00

Summary
You can enable Mpeg movie mode on this camera, more info at http://syste.ms/s30mod/index.html

The overall construction of most Sony cameras has this plastic feel which isn't what I favor, but it's really performance that counts. At the $270 price range it's indoor picture quality is above average. Lots of focus and exposure control and the swivel LCD display is really useful when you find yourself holding the camera straight up and above everybody else in a crowd. Otherwise the camera performs alright in low light condition, nothing to boast about.

Strengths
Wide array of control
Swivel display
Good picture quality
Hidden MPEG mode. :)

Weaknesses
Bulky outlook

Similar Products Used
DSC-P50

Customer Service
Shutter button died, a repair would cost $250 since the unit is out of warranty and nobody could tell me how to buy a replacement part if I were to service the camera myself.

Review Date
August 2, 2001

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
6 Months

Reviewed by
William , Beginner , from Tampa, FL

Summary
I was shocked at how good this camera really was. I love the swivel display. I don't know why sony got rid of it. I was able to take shots due to this feature that are almost impossible with othe cameras. This is, by far, the best all round camera for the buy.

Strengths
Quality that comes with buying sony

Weaknesses
Haven't found one yet....