Sony Cybershot DSC-S950 10MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom with Super Steady Shot Image Stabilization (Black): Customer Reviews & Product Details

I just received this product and have not had a lot of time to use it. So far it's great! The price was great!

I got this camera just in time for a Styx concert where I had a front row, center seat. I got some great shots with this camera, even with a little bit of movement from the band. I was even able to get low light shots and shot some video. I didn't realize the video would start out black, so I accidentally deleted that video, so I guess that would be my major gripe, that there doesn't appear to be a way to tell when you have a video for the technically unenlightened like myself. I've been waiting for awhile for a digital camera and I am very pleased with this. Worth the wait on pre-order as well.

Overall I am not happy with this camera and here are the reasons:

1) The USB cord is Sony proprietary. This is a big problem for me. Don't be deceived by the online images, this is NOT a standard cable. I would not have purchased this camera if I would have known this upfront.
2) Bulky: I assumed that this camera would be slimmer so it could fit in my pocket easier. Yes, it WILL fit in my pocket, but it's wide enough that they could have used AA batteries.
3) The face recognition has never properly identified more than one person in the same shot.
4) Flash is weak.
5) Cannot zoom in video mode.

The pictures are adequate, but better than my older digital cameras.

Ok... what are the positives:
1) Screen is a nice size. The lack of a view finder provides an even bigger screen.
2) Zoom is sufficient. About as good as I would expect of a camera this size.
3) Handles red-eye well.

I am one of those typical Sony loyalist but I am very disappointed by this camera. The noise on most photos was terrible especially in lower light. Close up photos in bright sunshine was fine but I could not get a decent photo (with Flash). Surprisingly, I had an issue with the Flash too since its coverage was very less and did not light up the subject(s) well or even uniformly.

It's a great price but poor quality. I am returning this product for another camera.

My rating doesn't reflect the fact that the flash bulb in mine was doa, because that could just as easily happen to any camera... It's just a little annoying that their QC department didn't catch it. Anyways, Amazon is sending me a new one, and letting me use this one until the new one gets here.

The quality is great overall. Using ISO100 mode with a quick shutter speed produces an awesome quality outdoor scenery shot. For indoors, I found that using the automatic shutter settings worked best, and indeed worked well. I took a photo of a $5 bill (fitting the whole bill in the frame), and was able to clearly read the little "united states of america" written in the border around Lincoln's portrait. In fact, I could even see the ink bleed on each of the little letters. For outdoor shots, the 4x zoom doesn't seem to cost the photos any quality, and could even show some details better than i could see them with my own eyes, and I have perfect vision.

With that said, there are a couple points which i don't like about the camera. First, the quality of photos drops dramatically when you use an ISO setting much higher than 100. Don't even bother with the ISO3200, it looks substantially worse than a cell phone camera. I also don't like that it's one of sony's only cameras that doesn't have a Carl-Zeiss lens. I was so used to Sony cameras using one, that I was surprised to find out that mine doesn't. The Sony lens that it uses seems to work very well though, it may not even be noticeably different. I also don't like that you have to remove the battery to charge it. You can buy an additional charger that plugs directly into the camera, but why wouldn't they just give you one in the first place? If i wanted to pay another $20 for that, then i would've just paid an extra $20 towards a more expensive camera to begin with.

Overall I really like this camera, and would recommend it to anyone looking for a very cheap, but decent quality camera. I am using mine with an 8GB Sandisk Memory Stock Pro Duo, which holds 1900 photos at full resolution, or 5.5 hours of video.

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Update: Amazon was out of this camera, so they refunded my money, and I got a Sony DSC-W290 instead, which I am much happier with overall. It's double the price though, so I guess you get what you pay for. I don't think the S950 is the level of quality where you could expect to be happy with the camera for years to come; it's more of an introductory camera that you'd probably plan on replacing a year later. I would change my rating to 3 stars if amazon let me.