The Sony DSC-P52 Digital Camera is pretty cool!

Author's Rating:

Pros: Not too expensive, a great digital camera to start out with.

Cons: None

The Bottom Line: 
If you want a digital camera to start out with, this one's pretty good.

Author's Review
The Sony DSC-P52 Digital Camera is pretty cool!

By James Zaworski

I love photography. I have had, until now, SLR 35 mm “film” cameras that are both traditional and reliable. The cameras that I own are a Nikkormat and a Pentax, both manual cameras that are truly wonderful, with a myriad number of lenses. It was with great reluctance that I finally broke down and purchased a digital camera. I chose to purchase a Sony Digital DSC P-52 because firstly of the reputation and quality of Sony, and because I wanted to get an established camera that had come down in price. The DSC P72, 92, and 100 are newer and better models, but they are out of my price range at this time. I am also going to be taking a grand adventure to China in December and January, and I wanted an auxiliary camera to take along, so I could upload digital images from the journey onto a website for storage, or a travel log that I might do. So, I went ahead and picked this Sony model DSC-P52 from overstock.com for $209 with a free shipping deal. What follows is a table of information on the Sony DSC-P52 digital camera, followed by a review of this camera and what I consider to be its high points and drawbacks.

Information Table on The Sony DSC-P52 Digital camera.

Brand Sony
Built-in Microphone With Built-in Microphone
Built-in Speaker With Built-in Speaker
Estimated Price $100 to $200
Focus Type Autofocus & Manual Focus
Image Sensor Type CCD
Interchangeable Lens Without Interchangeable Lens
LCD Protected Position Without LCD Protected Position
Manufacturer Part Number cyber-shot dsc-p52 • ps207s • dhdscp52 • ps200r • 2cwndtdabs • dscp52kitis • dsc- p52
Tripod Mount With Tripod Mount
UPC 27242624245 • 405420811043
Viewfinder Optical (Through-the-lens)
Warranty 1 Year
Exposure Control
ISO Speeds Auto, 100, 200, 400
Flash
Flash Functions Flash Off, Auto Flash, Fill-in Flash, Red-eye Reduction Flash, Slow Sync
Included Features
Self Timer 10 Sec.
Interfaces
Video Interface Video Out
Miscellaneous
Included Accessories Software, USB Cable, Video Cable, Hand Strap, 16 MB Memory Card, Driver, Lithium Battery, Battery Charger
MPN 2cwndtdabs
Product ID 20691248
Power Supply
Battery Life 540 Images
Battery Type Proprietary Lithium
Storage
File Size (High Res.) 1.66 MB (77 images on 128MB card)
File Size (Low Res.) .07 MB (about 1828 images on 128MB card)
System Requirements
Operating System Apple Mac OS 8, Apple Mac OS 9, Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows 98SE, Microsoft Windows ME, Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Video
Max Movie Length Without Limit (Depends on the camera free memory size)
Video Format MPEG
Video Quality 640 x 480 (VGA), 160 x 120


Review.

Features of the Sony P-52 Digital Camera.

1. Compact size.

I can’t believe how nice and compact this camera is! Compared to a real 35 mm SLR film camera, it’s tiny. Of course, as digital cameras go, it’s not the smallest one around, but it is a nice and manageable size. It weighs a few ounces, maybe four or five ounces at most. Not quite pocket sized, it’s still hand holding size.

2. The LCD display and control panel.

The back of the camera has a very nice. The LCD display is about 2 x 2” in size and shows you what you are going to take a picture of, or a video. The controls next to it include a switch that has a play mode, still camera mode, movie mode and a setup mode to switch to. You can set the date, time and displays here. There is a menu button and a delete button. Further, there is a navigation area where you have the ability to navigate the LCD menu displays for deleting photos, adding date or time, or playing the sequence of photos you have taken.

3. The view finder, lens, and focusing mechanisms.
The view finder, and zoom function, as well as wide angle function, are on the back of the camera as well. The focusing mechanism is automatic, so is therefore not worthy of mention, except that it works very well. So far, I’ve not taken an out of focus picture with this camera.

4. The batteries and re-charger device.

The camera takes two AA batteries, but it comes with a re-charger, which is a great feature, as I don’t have to run out and buy batteries every week for this thing. The batteries have a pretty long life before being recharged.

5. The memory card.

The camera comes with a 16 MB memory card. This means that on high resolution, you can only store 10 photos, but on low resolution, you can store many times that amount. The photos are uploadable, of course, and when you delete them, the memory card is reusable. I wasn’t content with a measly 16 MB of memory for my photos, so I bought a 128 MB memory card from Best Buy to go with it, and might get another one too, as these will hold 80 or so high resolution photos. It will do lots more low resolution photos. For some reason, though, I can’t get the memory card to upload to my computer when I remove it from the camera.

6. photo editing software transfer software

The Sony DSC-P52 camera comes with a CD-ROM that has image transfer software, USB interface software, and Cyber-shot software. I think there is photo editing software on the CD as well. It’s all good stuff and means you can upload your photos to the computer from the USB connector that connects the camera with your PC. But so far, as I mentioned earlier, I can’t get the memory card to upload the photos to the smart memory stick slot in my computer. I don’t know if it is my computer or the memory stick.


7. video options

The Sony DSC-P52 has a digital video feature with integration of the built in microphone and the video feature. I think it takes up to a two minute mpg format video, but I haven’t used this feature as of yet.

8. The lens and the resolution in mega pixels.

The Sony DSC-P52 has a decent 2.0 optical lens with a 3x digital zoom as well. I wish I had the new version’s Zeiss-Ikon lens though, as the photographer in me will find the limitations of this lens to be wanting in future.

9. Hookups.

There is a set of cables to hook up the camera to your TV set, which is cool for a slide show or a quick video show.

What I don’t like about the Sony DSC-P52 digital camera.

Price.

I think that by now this camera would have dropped by half as much. $200 is still pretty steep for a digital camera, at least for me. Pay the price I did, out of necessity. You might be able to find it for $50 less if you do a search.

The lens and mega pixels.

I wish the lens was better on this thing, and of course, we all want more mega pixels! No more than one day after I ordered this camera, a brand new state of the art digital camera came on the market at the Aldi grocery store. For $50 more, I could have gotten a 6.1 mega pixel digital camera of some no name brand that has a better lens and more features.
Who knew?

However, this seems to be a pretty solid little digital camera, and it’s stood up to some rigorous use lately, and hasn’t broken in the first week yet. The photos it takes are excellent, clear and I don’t have to run to Sam’s Club to get them developed and wait three days for my photos. Oh, that’s another feature too, that you can go to a place like Walgreens and bring your memory card with you and print out the photos for a quarter or so per photo, so that’s cool for those people who can’t afford photo paper or color ink(like me).

All in all, the Sony DSC P-52 digital camera is a great little digital camera that has some nice features, is easy to use, and takes great pictures. I feel that it is a good beginner camera for the inexperienced digital camera novice (not to sound redundant). It’s a good practice camera for the seasoned photographer to get the hang of the whole digital thing.
I recommend it and give it four out of five stars.