electronics Sony Cyber Shot DSC-U30 opinions and reviews

Sony Cyber Shot DSC-U30

Stylish and sleek, the Sony Cyber Shot DSC-U30 is basically a click-and-shoot camera encompassing a 2-megapixel sensor.

With dimensions of 85.0 x 40.3 x 29.7, it is small enough to fit into your pocket and weighing 123 g with the battery and memory card installed, it is very lightweight. Available in three colours; blue, silver and grey, you can also hang it down your neck with the neck tie provided.

Build quality of U30 is supreme as it is made of first-rate, brushed metallic plastic. You will find only a small 1-inch LCD screen as there is no viewfinder to frame shots. A mirror present helps in taking self-portraits.

While U30 does not integrate an optical zoom, there is an autofocus feature. The pictures can have a max resolution of 1,632x1,224 pixels (2 MP) and 640 x 480 (VGA).

Special effects of U30 feature Negative Art, Sepia, Black and White, and Solarize. Flash options include Auto, Forced Flash and No Flash. A macro mode is also present. Scene selection modes in U30 comprise Soft Snap, Illumination Snap, Vivid Nature, Twilight, and Active Outdoor.

On the other hand, a couple of elementary yet crucial functions like exposure compensation and white-balance presets cannot be found.

Movie clips can be captured but without sound in the MPEG format (160x112) at 8.3fps. This facilitates emailing videos.

For storage purposes, U30 ships with an 8 MB Memory Stick. For enriching the memory, you can purchase the Memory Stick PRO media which can store 1 GB data.

Transferring images can be done courtesy the USB cable.

U30 has an impressive start-up time of just under a second. Shutter lag is minimal and reprocessing between shots is also rapid.

Exploiting the two rechargeable AAA nickel-metal-hydride batteries, the camera is able to deliver close to 150 shots, provided it is fully charged.

However, most of the good work is undone by the mediocre picture quality delivered by U30. Many of the images lack sharpness even as it has to be accepted that the colour reproduction is reasonably accurate. But with no manual ISO settings, noise disturbance is palpable. Some of the pictures also look underexposed. The image quality is alright only for emailing to friends and relatives.

All in all, the U30 is a camera only for general use. If you want a camera with hordes of manual adjustment options, this is not the one to experiment with.