M. A. Johnson
I bought this camera to replace my previous Sony camera of the same lineage, after the previous camera was dropped on its open lens and would no longer close its lens. I did not buy this camera to use in place of a higher end DSLR, and I do not expect to use it in this manner. I know the camera has limitations, but I also use it for what I believe it is for: A pocket point and shoot camera with higher quality pictures for travel and as a daily, casual camera. For this purpose, I believe this camera takes great pictures. I am still working out some of the features of the camera to adjust pictures taken at night, but I am really happy with the picture quality so far. It has a deeper zoom than my previous camera, so I can actually take closer pictures than my previous Sony camera. I also have no issues regarding the Sony software as I typically take my SD card out and stick it in a card reader. I did test out the wired cable, and while it did install drivers, I actually just accessed my pictures as if it were a USB drive. The camera itself is a little on the gentle side, but I generally keep my camera in a padded leather travel case when not in use, as I have owned higher end cameras and I am well aware of fragility of all cameras and the hardware inside. Updates from the previous model: Most of the features have been combined into the selection dial, which is also a button. The screen is a little bigger. It has a wider zoom. Some of the digital enhancement features offer better stabilization. Regarding some of the issues with night pictures - it seems the camera takes better pictures and uses its own digital aperture sensor to balance the surrounding light in the area to take a better picture. While I havent had a chance to really play with night pictures, I was able to take some decent pictures of buildings with neon signs, and I only had issues with two of my night time pictures. I have uploaded some pictures with this review - the day light pictures were taken through a window. The evening pictures were taken after 10:00 pm, and the lighting involved is neon, sulfur street lights, and other business lighting. Please note I took the pictures to exclusively test the camera out of the box. Alright, having had some more time to fiddle with the camera, they have completely updated the digital apertures into a user friendly picture menu located under the "SCN" menu and a few more night shot options are otherwise in the rest of the aperture menu. I was actually able to take some pretty nice night and low light shots, though this camera is intended to be a simple point-n-shoot. I did not need an additional manual, and the aperture menu was easy to navigate, just push the button in the dial and move the dial up or down to find what one needs to use.