Sony DSC-P5

A tiny and very stylish camera.

Price: £700

Manufacturer: Sony

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Verdict

Sony has taken what already was a winning design and enhanced it by making it even smaller and adding useful features. Perhaps a better move would have been to keep the camera at the same size and increase the battery life. Still these are not issues which will greatly concern the gadget fans whose jaws will drop when they see the P5.

Ashley Norris, Personal Computer World 15 Jan 2002

In spite of its complete dominance of the camcorder market, Sony hasn't yet managed to achieve a similar position in the digital still arena. The ever-resourceful company has produced many interesting models, especially the Mavica range which records images onto CD-Rs/CD-RWs and floppy discs, yet has found itself outgunned by optical specialists such as Olympus and Nikon.

But last year the company released the DSC-P1, arguably its most successful camera to date. Sony has now unveiled its Mark II version of the P1, the DSC-P5, complete with the enhancements that it hopes will continue to keep it a best seller.

The obvious difference between the two is size. While the P1 could certainly be described as compact, the P5 is tiny. Sony claims to have shaved 20 per cent off the size of what was already a small camera, to deliver a model that is 112.5mm long, 53.8mm tall and 36.2mm deep. At 185g, the P5 is also lighter than its predecessor. The key to the reduction in size is the inclusion of a new InfoLithium battery.

Sony hasn't meddled with a winning design either - the new model is horizontal with a large lens on the left and battery and Memory Stick slot on the right. The camera is finished in tough magnesium.

Another difference is that Sony has shrunk the Status LCD in size, meaning users will have to rely more on the 1.5in LCD screen. The screen sports an anti-reflective coating which certainly makes it more usable than many of its rival screens in bright daylight.

In terms of features there are two key facilities that separate this model from its predecessor. If the user chooses Burst Mode on the camera, it will then take two shots in rapid succession.

More useful is the AF Illuminator that combines with the auto-focus to aid shooting in low-light conditions - an area in which this camera excels.

Sony has also added MPEG EX to the camera in addition to MPEG HQ. The difference is that the EX version takes images at eight frames per second (fps), and users can shoot longer movies with this format. With the high-quality MPEG HQ, which takes images at 16fps, they are limited to 15-second clips.

Sony has also reorganised the operating system replacing the P1's buttons with a much easier to use control dial at the top of the camera. The buttons next to the LCD remain and these include a handy one called Image Review, which instantly places the last shot you've taken on the screen - although you have to move in to playback mode to review previously shot images.

Other playback options include re-size, for changing the size of the image, and divide, for splicing movies into separate files.

Image sizes include 2,048 x 1,536, 2,048 x 1,360, 1,600 x 1,200, 1,280 x 960 and 640 x 480. Other features are pretty much identical to the P1, including a 3x optical zoom, five manual focus options, three ISO options, image formats of both tiff and jpeg, and a rather limiting 8MB Memory Stick for storage. Bundled software includes MGI PhotoSuite and MGI VideoSuite.

Images shot on the P5 are on the whole bright, colourful and fairly sharp. The P5 may only have a 3.2megapixel CCD, which is fairly standard today, but it features a new 14bit, as opposed to 12bit, D/A converter.

Inevitably when compared with higher-spec models, such as the Olympus C4040-Zoom, the Sony's small lens lets it down. Images look softer, especially when the zoom is activated. The camera's white balance seems a little askew, too, and there is no manual setting to tame it; just indoors or outdoors options plus the automatic facility. Battery life isn't bad, but it involves a degree of compromise because of the battery's size.

Essentially, you pay for the convenience of owning a tiny, stylish camera. The trade-off being the absence of some useful features, not particularly long battery life and a lens that produces images that can't rival the competition.

CONTACT: Sony
08705 111 999
www.sony.co.uk

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