as well as sample photos I took using it are available at the address below:
After using the 4-Megapixel Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-S40, which cost me $158, I got the new 6-Megapixel Sony Cuber-Shot DSC-S600. At $180 it was only $22 more and features a larger screen (2-inch vs. 1.5-inch) and higher resolution (6MP vs. 4MP). Otherwise, it turned out to be pretty similar to the S40, including its, wider than usual, wide angle zoom end and the control layout.
Pictures
The pictures of the
Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-S600
What Is Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-S600?
The Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-S600 is a 6-Megapixel compact digital camera with a 3x
optical zoom (31-93 mm equivalent), a 2-inch LCD screen, Carl Zeiss optics,
powered by 2 AA batteries. Two alkaline batteries included, rechargeable
batteries recommended.
The camera stores pictures on a proprietary Sony Memory Stick Duo or Memory
Stick Duo Pro and features fast USB 2.0 Hi-Speed connection to PC and Mac
computers. It has 32 MB of built-in memory to get you started. The camera has a
focus-assist light and an optical viewfinder.
The camera has no A/V out.
Getting Started
Upon the camera arrival, I discovered that, although the box was sealed, the
camera itself had evident fingerprints on its front and the shutter release
button. Weird. Nonetheless, I inserted my two trusty rechargeable NiMH AA
batteries and was ready to shoot.
First Impressions
The Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-S600 looks nice and feels sturdy in your hand. It looks
and feels durable. The controls of the camera have good tactile feel and the
lids open and close snugly. The battery compartment lid is a bit stiff, but
feels sturdy.
The camera is relatively compact. It has an on/off button on the top deck,
which powers the camera on/off when depressed and held. Once powered, the
camera opens the lids that protect the lens and extends its lens forward.
It happens pretty fast and you are ready to shoot in about a 2 seconds after
you turn the camera on. The shutdown is also fast. The lens retracts and the
lid closes.
The camera's top deck also has a shutter release button and a LED that lights
up when the camera is on. The bottom of the camera has a Memory Stick card
compartment lid as well as a standard threaded tripod mount (offset to the side
and is made of black plastic). The side has a USB port cover and another has a
sturdy battery compartment lid.
The rear panel of the camera houses a 2-inch LCD monitor, control buttons,
viewfinder and a zoom buttons as well as the switch between shooting, review
and video modes.
The camera is very easy to use. I have not read the manual, but was able to use
the camera and all its features in no time. The camera can be used by any
member of the family and by photographers of all levels of expertise from
novices to advanced ones (albeit it will not give you much control over the
shutter speed or aperture).
The Sony cameras use menus that look almost exactly the same. If you are
upgrading from another Sony model or getting a second camera with the first one
being also Sony, the learning curve might be nonexistent. The menus are easy to
use and give you quite a lot of flexibility.
The camera comes pre-set to Auto mode. You do not have to do anything other
than point and shoot - the camera takes care of the rest. The camera
uses 5-area smart autofocus (you can also select spot autofocus). You press the
shutter release button halfway to make camera focus (the camera shows you that
it focused and beeps to confirm focus) and then you take the picture by
pressing the shutter release button all the way.
You zoom in and out by using the zoom buttons on the rear of the camera. The
camera has an optical viewfinder and a 2-inch LCD screen that is accurate,
fluid (slightly less fluid in the dark) and works well in the sun and dim light
(gains-up). But the resolution of the screen is not as high as some of the
competitors provide. Still, it is adequate.
If you want more control, you can select one of the scene modes (Portrait,
Landscape, Show, Beach, etc.) For even more control, you can select Program
mode, in which you can select ISO (up to 1000), white balance, exposure
compensation, metering mode (multi, spot), etc.
The camera is reasonably fast in operation. In single-frame mode, the camera
could snap pictures as fast as I could push the shutter release button - about
once every 1-2 seconds. The focusing takes less than a second and the shutter
lag (the time between the moment you push the button and the moment when the
picture is taken), when pre-focused, is much less than a second.
In dim light, the focus-assist light illuminates the target area and helps the
camera focus. Focusing in dim lights takes up to a second at wide angle and can
take up to 3 seconds at telephoto. There are occasions when the camera fails to
focus altogether, but it is rare.
When taking pictures with flash, the pictures can be taken at about 6-7 second
intervals. The flash is quite powerful for the camera size. I was pleasantly
surprised how far it could reach.
The zooming is relatively slow (3 seconds from wide angle to telephoto or back)
and a bit noisy, but it is rather precise and lets you fine-tune your
composition well. The camera has a 3x optical zoom (31-93 mm equivalent focal
length) with f/2.8 maximum aperture at wide angle, f/6.3 at telephoto, which is
rather good. The 31-mm wide angle is rather wide for a consumer-level digital
camera (usually they start at 35-39 mm). It means that you can get a wide
coverage, which is especially useful indoors or on narrow streets. You do not
have to move far back to get everything you want in the frame.
The camera lets you select the resolution for your images up to full 6
Megapixels. You also get a choice between Standard and Fine quality of JPEG
compression. The images in Fine mode can reach up to 2.7 MB.
The camera has 32 MB of built-in memory. You will definitely need to get a
memory card (Memory Stick Duo or Memory Stick Duo Pro).
The camera uses a two-step aperture, which is a big step forward in comparison
with the S40 that had fixed aperture.
LCD
The camera has a 2-inch non-articulated (fixed) LCD screen and an optical
viewfinder. The LCD coverage as about 100% - you can see exactly what will be
recorded. The LCD is bright, fluid (unless it is dark), has good visibility in
sunlight or darkness and decent (but not great) resolution.
The camera also has an optical viewfinder that is on the tight side. You will
not see everything that will end up on the picture you take, but it is a usual
situation with zooming optical viewfinders and is preferred to the opposite
(having thought something will be in the frame and then not finding it in the
resultant picture).
Computer Connectivity
The camera uses USB 2.0 Hi-Speed connection to transfer pictures to a computer.
You can also remove the Memory Stick Duo memory card (if you use it) and use a
memory card reader (if you have one).
I used the camera with the USB cable supplied. I did not need to install any
USB drivers on my Windows 2000 SP4 computer. The file transfer was very fast at
about 1,700 KB/s using built-in memory. This is very fast and you might be able
to get faster speeds with Memory Stick Duo Pro.
I have not used the software that was provided with the camera since I have
Adobe Photoshop CS2.
Camera Sounds
The camera itself is rather quiet in operation, aside from the zoom, which is
slightly noisy. You can customize the sounds it makes through its speaker and
their volume (e.g. sound when the camera obtains focus, shutter release sound,
etc.)
Build Quality and Ergonomics
The camera has a solid feel and good build quality. The major controls are
within easy reach and the tactile response is good overall. The camera has a
compact shape that makes it not the most convenient to hold, but it is not too
bad overall. The lids for battery and memory compartments are sturdy and the
battery polarity is well marked.
Menu System
I have not read the manual, yet was able to use the camera in all modes. I like
Sony's menus less than recent Canon menus or Panasonic ones. But they are
certainly usable, it just takes more time to do the same thing with Sony menus
than it does with Canon or Panasonic. It takes especially too much time to get
to the Setup menus. But the selection of resolution is one button push away.
White Balance
The S40 has auto white balance or you can choose among several presets
including halogen, incandescent, sunny, cloudy, etc. The camera's automatic
white balance favors warmer color casts, but does a good job overall.
Photo Quality
The camera has very good auto white balance system. The S600 produces very good
photos with well-exposed, sharp, contrasty and richly-colored images. Overall,
the picture quality is very good. I was not able to find much chromatic
aberration (purple fringing) in the areas of high contrast. There is a small
amount of blurring in the corners of the frame, but it does not extend far into
the image and is very minimal.
Overall, a very impressive performance, especially considering the price and
size of the camera as well as its wide-angle capabilities (31 mm). The camera
lets you select automatic ISO or set ISO 80, 100, 200, 400, 800 or 1000. I was
surprised to see that the camera lets you select ISO higher than the usual
upper limit of ISO 400. But the results were not surprising as there is a lot
of noise even at ISO 400, let alone ISO 800 and 1000.
The image noise is virtually absent at ISO 80, slight at the ISO 100 in the
shadows, gets more pronounced at ISO 200 and gets worse at ISO 400 (and some
fine detail get softer to suppress noise). ISO 800 and 1000 are barely usable
for prints no larger than 6x4. If you are printing 6x4 or 5x7 pictures, the
noise should not be visible at all and will only be visible at ISO 200-400 with
larger prints. The 6-megapixel photos let you print sharp photos at up to 10x8
inches with good detail (ISO up to 200) or soft, but wall-mountable photos at
13x19 at ISO up to 200.
Bottom Line
I was pleasantly surprised with the S600. In comparison with the
previous-generation camera (Sony S40), it has higher resolution (6MP vs.
4.1MP), slightly wider wide angle (31 mm vs. 32 mm, both of which are better
than average), two-step aperture (vs. fixed), larger LCD (2-inch vs. 1.5-inch).
And all this for only about $30 more!
I recommend Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-S600 if you an inexpensive 6-Megapixel digital
camera with good wide-angle capability, features and performance. It is easy to
use and works well.
Recommended
Yes
Product Rating
(Excellent)
This review is also available at Epinions.com: Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-S600 Digital Camera Review on Epinions.com