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Sony Cyber-shot DSC-S60 4.1 Megapixel Compact Camera
Strengths: Minimal shutter lag. Excellent picture quality. Awesome video quality. Nice 2" LCD.
Weakness: USB hook-up can cause Camera lock-up with Windows 2000, proprietary USB cable.
First, I simply must say that this camera is fantastic. It could have a stronger zoom and more pixels, but for the cost, size, weight, and battery life, it exceeds expectations. I was worried that there would be unacceptable shutter lag which is important to me with a squirmy 3 year old, but the DSC-S60's Carl Zeiss lens perform great. Even the flash recharges quickly. It appears that the only difference between the DSC-S60 and the DSC-S90 is that the S60 has a 2" LCD and the S90 has a 2.5" LCD [and comes with rechargeable AA batteries and a charger I think]. That's all!
I immediately put in 2000 mAh NiMH batteries and have only taken about 20 pictures and a video, but I couldn't wait to post my review because I've been looking for reviews and there are very few out there, so I wanted to add to that.
Here are some of the other great features: optical viewfinder, quick resizing of pictures in the camera (it creates a new copy so you don't have to choose whether to keep the high quality one or the one for email - save them both!), 640 x 480 video at 30 fps with unlimited recording time (but only with memory stick pro), built-in 32MB memory (you can start taking pictures & basic video immediately, even without an add-in stick), a suprisingly strong flash, and a decently quick multi-area focus (adjustable to spot focus). The camera is medium-small and light, but without seeming delicate. It only uses 2 AA batteries, so that helps keep it light. The threaded tripod mount is metal.
There's a short but good slide show tutorial with sound that has great info about which settings to use for certain photo situations and a simulation for seeing how different settings affect a sample picture. I learned a lot in just 10 to 15 minutes.
Two questionable negatives. 1) A proprietary USB cable requires that if you want to download from the camera without a memory stick reader, you have to bring the cable with you. 2) When I first installed the drivers on my windows 2000 computer at work and downloaded some pictures, I turned-off or unplugged the camera without clicking on the icon in the taskbar which tells you that it's okay to unplug the USB device. This set off a warning about that being bad. The camera then would not turn-on properly in the photo mode, but would work only in the "review" mode for looking at and editing pictures. The lens would not extend and the camera would immediately power itself down if I was in photo mode. I eventually took the batteries out of the camera for about 30 minutes. Since I replaced them I haven't had any problems
I'll report back if I learn any more about this. Just be careful to click on the USB icon in the bottom right of Windows before unplugging the camera. Maybe it's just a Windows 2000 issue, or maybe it was just my error.
[Update: This lock-up must be a Windows 2000 issue. No such problems on my Windows XP home computer. No need to click on the taskbar icon - just turn the camera off or on. I haven't had a problem at all with Windows XP.]
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Oct 20, 2005
All (at least any that I sold in the last five years) digital cameras use a proprietary USB cable to download images from the camera. I would invest $30 in an all in one usb reader so any future camera purchases and all your friends can use this reader....Sandisk makes one that is not too larger and can be transported around for using at the office or a friends place. It is USB 2.0 and is a little faster if you have USB 2.0 on your computer...otherwise it works the same as any other USB device