Reviews for Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P71 3.2 Megapixel Compact Camera

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P71 3.2 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: This camera is perfect for the person who wants a point-and-shoot.It also makes a great first time camera Picture quality is good.The negative reviews do not accuratly depict this camera.(see below)

Weakness: The only weakness is that it is a little slower to auto focus in dark settings. Another weakness is that the largest memory stick is the 128mb.(see more below)

I have owned this camera for over a year now. It is the best camera for the money, in the entry-level 3 megapixel range. I purchased it for $400 and that included a 128mb sony memory stick. Although, I just bought a lexar 128mb for $20. Those negative feedbacks are mostly not true, with the exception to the personal stories.(there are defective cameras out there)
1) The image quality is not poor,it is good. Some of the hues are a bit saturated. It is most apparent when pitures are taken with lots of green on a sunny day.
2) As far as the build quality, it seem to be excellent. It is made of very durable plastic that will hold up, even after a few drops on the floor.
3) It is true that the zoom is a bit noisy compared similar cameras, but it is not in any way overbearing.
4) The time it takes to turn on is average compared to many of the competitors.
5) The 4-way button is a little tricky to master, but I had no problem after about a week
6) As for the flash, I find the red eye flash to be irritating because of the "2 step" flash. I find that when the red eye is off, the flash seems to work the the fastest. And when red eye is off, it is NOT slow.
7) Oh, and that thing about not being able to get a fast moving object in focus is partly true. If you are using auto focus, it is very hard to get it in focus, but if you set the ISO to 400, you should get almost every shot in focus.
Auto focus light is a plus
Buy the NEW Sony P72, uses memory stick pro (up to 1GB)

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Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P71 3.2 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: Superior resolution, excellent picture quality overall, bright LCD, batteries last incredibly long, good number of settings

Weakness: High level of noise in some pics, smallish LCD, included memory a joke

The first thing I noticed about the camera is how well put together it is. Everything snaps together extremely very well. The battery & memory cover is spring loaded. The tripod mount is made of metal instead of plastic. It's hard to explain the exact feeling of satisfaction of loading batteries & memory because it snaps together so well. The design of this camera conveys a strong sense of how much thought was put into the smaller things & how much engineering went into the ergonomics.

The auto settings on the camera work very well 99% of the time, but for the other 1% there's a good amount of settings you can play with. The usual white balance, ISO, flash, etc settings are included.

Most importantly, picture quality overall was EXCELLENT. The detail and sharpness is amazing. Color fidelity is superb overall. Great 3x optical zoom. Some limitations the camera has: some low light situations gives the auto settings a hard time(try manually settings), flourescent lighting can create a green tint(most digicams do this), noticably high level of noise in some instances. Movie quality was adequate.

The memory included with the camera (16mb) is a joke considering at max resolution each pic takes about 2mb. Be sure to pick up the starter kit(2 extra batteries , 4-hour charger, carrying case), and at LEAST 128mb of extra memory.

Because of the great experience I've had with this camera, if I feel the need to buy a camera with more megapixels or options, it will be a Sony.

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Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P71 3.2 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: Simplicity, features (USB, battery recharge, and memory stick) and quality of pictures.

Weakness: The enter button is a bit hard to hit, but this is more of an annoyance. The MPEG feature is ok but limited in quality.

I bought this camera to take pictures on a Colorado vacation. I was thrilled with the results since I had been from the old school of SLR's and manually adjusting metering and focusing. I took over 300 pics in a week. My pics came out great on the 1280x960 setting and each pic file size is about 600kb. I bought an additional 32mb memory stick. Downloading into a computer was pretty painless too. This camera rocks and I would buy it again. I would ignore the one really bad listed review here.

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Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P71 3.2 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: clean pictures even at full zoom

Weakness: only comes with a 16Mb memory stick

I normally wouldn't buy Sony. (I do own a PS2,& Sony digital 8 camcorder) BUT the $349 price tag IS what got me to look at it! When I saw this camera's output I bought it. The zoom works much better than my other cameras, and the auto settings make this camera very simple to use. I have found with a larger memory card I just leave it set to the best quality settings and take lots of pictures. This camera almost always picks the best settings automatically. I've only had a few that were'nt properly focused, even when taken from a moving car or while walking. The movie feature is clear at the highest setting, but I have little use for a movie without sound.

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Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P71 3.2 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: Very easy to use, inexpensive for a full feature 3.2MP, paid only $349 and had a hard time finding one. The negatives are crap. Easy to download on a real computer. BUY ONE !!! ENJOY !!!

Weakness: NONE,

Love the clarity, softwear is great to use, perfect for all levels. Searched for the best price for a week, bought at Target, they had one! The case has a great feel of strength, comes with a charger and 2 batteries. Buy a 4 pack for back up, they were only $12.95. The Lexar Media card reader is the easiest/fastest way to go. Software is fantastic and even lets you "switch" instantly to black and white for that classic look. 10 times better than my Nikon, lighter, faster, far better pictures, 3 1/2 years newer and almost half the price. I have had Sony products last over 15 years, get one.

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Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P71 3.2 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: Best LCD

Weakness: none

This is the first digital camera I have ever own. I took the photos during the day and nights. The output meets my expectation. The images are very sharp. The best option I like is the LCD screen. The screen resolution is very high.

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Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P71 3.2 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: DOESN'T BREAK VERY EASY, EVEN TAKING PICTURES OF MYSELF

Weakness: IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW MANY PICTURES I TAKE OF MY SELF I STILL CAME OUT UGLY

NICE LOOKING CAMERA, IT WORKS VERY GOOD BUT I AM STILL NOT 100% HAPPY BECAUSE SO FAR EVERY PICTURE I HAVE TAKEN OF MY SELF STILL CAME OUT UGLY AND I LOST HOPE OF ONE DAY THIS BEAUTIFULLY CAMERA WILL MAKE ME LOOK HANDSOME....ANY ADVISE? IF SO, PLEASE E-MAIL ME AT UGLYBOY@HOTMAIL.COM.
HOPELESS-ME

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Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P71 3.2 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: Not bad picture quality. Reasonable features for the price.

Weakness: Poor build quality and reliability.

The camera is a little bulky. When you switch on, the motorised lens is very noisy and takes a few seconds before it is ready to go.

The LCD display is small but OK. The buttons on the back are fiddly to use and don't feel very robust. The 4-way switch has a central "enter" function and this is very difficult to operate - I often find I have hit the left or right button by mistake.

When setting up an image, I find the focus and exposure sequence takes a long time and the focus in particular is not always very accurate - it is almost impossible to get a moving subject in correct focus.

Once the focus and exposure sequence is complete, taking an image is quite fast.

I find the flash quite irritating - even with the "red eye reduction" switched off, the unit produces a double flash. I assume this is related to obtaining the correct exposure, but the gap between flashes is of sufficiently long duration that human subjects assume the first flash is the photograph and have moved or changed their pose by the time the real flash kicks in.

The memory stick is fine to use - it seems quite a robust medium, but is rather expensive compared to the likes of CF and SM.

The camera broke down within a month of purchase - this does not bode well for the future.

Overall I am rather disappointed - I wish I had not purchased the camera.

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It's Great

Strengths: It takes beautiful and clear pictures and Zoom very far and nicely...

Weakness: It's Bulky, It takes time to put flash on, Zoomed pictures have less value and it takes alot of time in the dark...also video has no sound.

IT's okay but no sound botherd me...and it is kind of big. but other then that is has a great value im just going to Upgrage to the newer version...

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Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P71 3.2 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: Great Pictures VERY easy to upload them to the computer.

Weakness: Instructions say "No Alkalines" This baby sucks up the juice from pink bunnies or copper tops ! Get 300 pics out of the NiMh rechargables. Seems to slow up on the ski slopes when it's cold.

We got this camera over Thanksgiving.
Picked it up for $300.00 from Office Max
- Read no shipping and no waiting.
Picked up a 128Mb stick for $70.00.

Then got a $50.00 rebate from Sony
and another $20.00 from Lexmark on the stick.

We love it - ignore the negatives !!

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Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P71 3.2 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: Lightweight, durable

Weakness: Very poor picture quality, unable to download pictures to computer, difficult to learn and to use.

Do NOT ignore the negative things you hear about this camera. They are all true! I have owned this camera for 6 months and I wish I had my $400 back!

This camera no longer downloads pictures to the computer. 3 Sony technicians tried to fix it and failed, blaming it on "operator error" which it is not. Three different computers were used with 3 different operating systems. It is the camera. Period. Sony only gives a 90 day parts/labor warranty, so buyer beware.

The picture quality is horrible. It is impossible to get a moving target into focus and the flash features do not allow you to get a good picture. Combine that with the difficulty in reading the manual and you have an extremely bad investment of $400. I too wish that I had never purchased this camera.

Incidentally, when I took it back to the store (a national chain) that I purchased it from so they could try and make it work (they could not) they said that this was the 6th camera (same make/model) that they had seen in the past few months with the same downloading problems. Sony claims that there is NO mass problem. Ha!

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Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P71 3.2 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: Best LCD screen out of any camera, great picture quality, menus easy to use, great accessories included, well-built casing, no need for lens cap, copies fast to PC.

Weakness: LCD a little small (but liveable), takes a few seconds for flash to warm up, can't take rapid shots if you use flash often, select button a little tricky. (All minor gripes)

Don't let the negatives scare you off. I've searched for months for a camera. Most are either flimsy, not very intuitive, or have bad LCD screens. This one has none of these flaws. Seriously, if you're using pictures for Internet ONLY, then you could get away with a 2, or even 1 MP camera. But, this one is great if you want to print pictures once in a while and have the cash. You could go with the smaller P7 or P9, but the P71 is definitely small enough for your jacket pocket.

One more thing, buy the extra starter kit. It comes with a case, a faster charger (the one that comes with the camera takes a whopping 13-hours to charge for 2 batteries; this one will charge 4 batteries in 4 hours!), and two more NiMH batteries. The NiMH batteries have to be completely drained before charging again, but I didn't see any cameras that take Lithium Ion, and I like the option to be able to buy alkalines if I'm in a real pinch.

Overall, I'm really happy and can't wait to start taking some great pictures (and movies).

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Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P71 3.2 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: Sharp pictures, choice of 6 resolutions, can turn off LCD display to save battery power.

Weakness: Controls are small and take some getting used to.

This camera takes the sharpest pictures of any digital camera I've yet to use. I have been using the second lowest resolution and still get great pictures. I have even taken several pictures through my window of animals outside and they came out very clear. I like that the LCD display can be turned off to save on the batteries. I use it like I would a regular camera and then turn on the LCD display if I want to check a picture taken. I have been using my camera every day and feel like I'm getting well over the 2 hours the batteries are supposed to last. I have not had to recharge yet. The timer feature is easy to use also. Definitely recommend this!

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Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P71 3.2 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: Compact, light, easy-to-use, some manual settings, construction, ease of use, more than 2 hours using the supplied AA batteries.

Weakness: 13-hour battery chager, some visible noise, unless you get used to, pressing the 'enter' buttom is difficult.

In general, a great camera. I've read negative reviews but I can't complain of mine. Sharp pics for this price entry camera. Easy connectivity. Recommended.

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Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P71 3.2 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: image is only fair,easy to use software

Weakness: cheap plastic, worse then any Sony of recent caliper.Green tint on too many photos especially indoor on all balance settings and could not modify correctly.Extremely disappointed.

Well I was extremely disappointed for a four hundred dollar camera.I urge you to consider a different model number unless I got a bad camera.The cheap plastic seems like the parts might break off within a year.The green tints on every photo indoors on all white balance settings is totally unacceptable and unbelievable for a Sony camera.I totally can't believe this from Sony.I have had some of their other digitals and wanted a pocket size camera.Forget this.

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Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P71

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