Sony DSC-P5

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P5

This small and light digital camera maintains Sony's reputation for good hardware.

Price: £599

Manufacturer: Sony

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Verdict

The smallest 3.2-megapixel digital camera with a 3x optical zoom lens we've seen. There's little manual control and you'll need a second battery and bigger memory card, but it's irresistible and highly recommended nonetheless.

Gordon Laing, What PC? 29 Apr 2002

Sony's new Cyber-shot DSC-P5 may boast pretty good quality and some unique features, but it's the tiny dimensions that impress most of all. Measuring just 112 x 54 x 36mm with no protruding lens when switched off, it'll slip discreetly into any pocket.

The P5 may be the same height and length as Sony's best-selling P1 (which it replaces), but an impressive 8mm has been shaved from its thickness. It's lighter too, at 215g compared to the P1's 250g, both with battery.

The P5 is slimmer because it has a smaller battery than the P1. Its new rechargeable lithium-ion battery is good for around 60 minutes of solid use with the LCD screen switched on, compared to around 90 minutes on the older P1. This still translates into a good day or two of shooting depending on usage, but more enthusiastic photographers, or those away from mains electricity for more than a couple of days, should carry a spare battery, costing about £50.

Like all Sony digital cameras, the P5's battery employs Sony's unique 'InfoLithium' technology, which actually tells you on the display exactly how many minutes of use are remaining. This feature is invaluable and infinitely more useful than most other cameras, which indicate battery strength in just three or four degrees.

At the business end of things, Sony has fitted a 3.2-megapixel CCD; note that this produces the same resolution as earlier 3.3-megapixel models, but the name had to be changed due to new marketing guidelines. Either way, the P5 delivers a maximum image size of 2048 x 1536 pixels - enough detail to make a great looking 10 x 8in inkjet print.

These can be saved in the camera with two different levels of JPEG compression or as uncompressed TIFFs, although the latter measure around 9Mb each and take several seconds to save. Connection to a PC is via USB interface and there's also an AV output for making slide shows on your TV.

The highest quality JPEG setting produces files measuring around 1.4Mb each. While most cameras of this resolution are supplied with a 16Mb memory card, Sony still insists on supplying a measly 8Mb card, which means you'll only get about five best-quality pictures. The P5 uses Sony's proprietary Memory Stick format, which resembles a stick of chewing gum. A new 64Mb Memory Stick (storing around 45 best-quality P5 pictures) will cost you about £75.

Unlike most cameras of its size, the P5 has, remarkably, had a 3x optical zoom lens squeezed into it. This is equivalent in coverage to a 39-117mm lens on a 35mm camera, and the closest focusing distance in macro mode is 10cm. The lens extends out of the body during use, but folds flush back inside when turned off.

A protective cover then slides across, so there's no lens cap to worry about here. The P5 also has a five-step manual focus mode which is great for fixing the focus in situations when the camera gets confused, although the new auto focus illuminator helps a great deal when you are taking photos indoors.

Pictures are composed using the optical viewfinder, or the incredibly sharp 1.5in colour display on the rear; you can also smoothly zoom into pictures up to five times and scroll around them during playback. It's also dead easy to use the four-way control on the rear of the camera to toggle between the various flash modes, macro, self-timer and the quick-review facility, which lets you instantly check out the last picture taken.

Like the P1 before it, the P5 is pretty much an automatic affair. There may be exposure compensation and now manual focus too but, sadly, there's no control over shutter speed or depth of field. Fans of night photography can always select the twilight mode for increased sensitivity and longer exposures though.

On the upside, the P5 can record movie clips with sound, lasting up to 15 seconds in the best quality mode, or limited only by memory at the lower quality settings. There's also Sony's unique Clip-motion mode, which records several low-resolution images and saves them as an animated GIF for use on websites or in emails. Finally, the P5 is PIM-compliant, which means owners of Epson's latest photo inkjet printers can enjoy better looking output.

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