No Fluff or Mumbo Jumbo - "Just The Basics" on Digital Cameras

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Short Review

Sony Cybershot DSC- U10

Photo from the Sony website

Introduction

When reading reviews or specs by manufacturers about some of the smaller digital cameras, you see the words "pocket sized" appear now and then.  Truth be told, few of these cameras can literally fit in an average shirt or pants pocket (a jacket pocket, maybe).  That has now changed with the introduction of the Sony Cybershots U10 and U20 cameras.  This review focuses on the U10, though except for resolution and colors, both cameras are pretty much identical.

Opening the box of the U10, you see the usual assortment of accessories that come with most digital cameras these days.  Sony includes an 8 meg memory stick with the U10, which is good for approximately 26 photos when you have the camera set at it's maximum resolution of 1280 x 960 pixels ( up to 80 or so if you step it down to it's 640 x 480 pixel level).  A neck strap is included as they apparently think you'll wear it around your neck instead of your wrist.  A USB cable for photo downloads, printed instruction manual, and "Pixela Imagemixer" software and camera driver for your computer come too.  As extras, you get 2 rechargeable NiMh AAA sized batteries, and a charger (nice touch, but the charger takes 13 hours to fully charge one set of these batteries.. plan on buying a better one later).  Last, looking deep into the box, you see the camera.  Hardly the size of an oversized pack of chewing gum.

Features

Removing the camera from it's protective wrapper, you just have to be amazed at it's size.  At just over three inches long, one and a half inches tall, and an inch thick at it's widest point, it's the first truly "pocket sized" digital camera that uses a real digital CCD sensor, and has a built-in flash.  The U10 is a silvery-white color which gives it an almost "night at the oprah" classy appearance.  You power the camera up by sliding the front casing to the side to reveal the small lens (much like some Olympus cameras).  There is also a power button on top of the camera, so you can turn it on to view photos you've taken without having to slide the cover open (nice touch).  The U10 powers up pretty quickly, and the tiny 3/4" (across) color LCD blinks to life on the back.  The color is a little washed out at this tiny size, but the LCD is clear, and offers a backlight that is bright and powerful.  A special reflective coating allows you to turn the backlight off when outdoors or in a brightly lit room, and you can still see the action clearly enough to compose your image (there is no optical viewfinder - there's no room for one!).

The U10 is pretty straightforward as far as cameras go.  Point, half-press the shutter so the auto focus can lock on, and finish pressing the shutter to take your photo.  The auto focus worked flawlessly for me even in dimly lit rooms - a hard task for many cameras that do not offer an auto focus assist lamp such as this one.  As a matter of fact, even in a room lit only by a single 75 watt bulb, the camera was able to lock on to the subject.  Impressive. When needed, you can access other focusing lengths via the on screen menu, for various types of conditions where the auto focus may not work (close up .2 meters, .5 meters, 1 meter for portraits, or "infinity" for landscapes) When needed, the tiny flash fires and will illuminate objects well up to about 6 feet, which is not bad considering it's half the size or less than those on many other digital cameras on the market.  The flash has a red eye reduction mode, auto mode, fill flash (always on) mode, or you can turn it off.

As mentioned earlier, the top resolution of the U10 is 1280 x 960 pixels (1.3 megapixels) and is fine for good email shots, and for small prints up to 4 x 6 inches of ok but not excellent quality.  A smaller 640 x 480 pixel mode can be selected for online or email photos as well.  You make your selections via two buttons and a toggle switch on the back of the camera.  There is no zoom (optical or digital) on the U10.  Unlike some of the larger Sony cameras, there is no choice here of quality levels such as "fine" or "normal"; the camera uses a fairly heavy amount of compression on all images in a more "medium" quality level at all times.  You can take your photos in everyday color, or, chose black and white, sepia, negative art, or solarize effects modes.  A "burst mode" allows for several 640 x 480 shots to be taken in rapid succession (no flash) for capturing quick action.  A self timer is included in the menu, in case you want to get into the picture yourself.  The camera does include a 15 second movie clip mode, however, it captures a maximum size of 160 pixels on clips - hardly clear, and not useable, really, for anything I can think of.  

Image Quality

Bells and whistles are fine, but image quality is what counts to most folks.  I found the image quality to be decent when compared to several 1.3 megapixel cameras on the market today that I've used, but not among the best of them.  On screen, images are pretty good, with a few "jaggies" seen on sloped angles here and there (somewhat common on a 1.3 megapixel camera).  At full size, the images show a bit of a loss of detail in areas such as grass, hair, cloth, etc.  This is due to the U10 having a pretty high level of compression on it's images.  Still, for web use, storage on C.D. disks, and email purposes, I found the images to be perfectly fine for most uses.  The camera does do a good job of capturing good colors, and metering the images well under most normal conditions, so no complaints there.  Prints however, were a little disappointing.  On good photo paper, my 4 x 6 inch print tests were "ok", but hardly stellar. Colors were fine, but details were a bit muggy.  A model U20 is hitting stores, and while almost identical to the U10, it offers a 2 megapixel resolution (1632 x 1224 pixels).  For the review on the U20, click HERE once you're done with this review. 

Final Word and Image Samples

For the retail price of $169.00 to $199.00, the U10 is a good bargain for what it is meant to be - a "take anywhere" pocket camera, that will bring you oooos and ahhhs by those who see you use it.  While image quality isn't the best on the block, it is still good enough for most on screen uses and small prints up to 3 1/2 x 5 inches before quality suffers.  For around $269.00 you can now purchase the U20 with a higher resolution for small prints.  I do hope future incarnations of this camera offer a better, larger, movie clip mode.  Though I'm no fan of digital zooms, having one on a camera such as this might be useful to some, so hopefully it will be tossed in on later models, as well.  On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give the U10 a solid 7.5, so while it's not the smartest kid in the class, it's not sitting in the corner with a dunce cap on, either.   I'd personally not pick it as my primary digital camera, but as a second cam for carrying around to take casual snapshots, it's great.  

Below you'll find some thumbnail images from the U10.  Clicking them will cause the full sized version to appear on your screen ( some may be slightly cropped to center them better ).  Click your "back" button to return here ( slower connections be patient as it may take a couple of minutes for these larger images to load ).  Keep in mind, that these are unaltered images seen at full size; right-clicking on them will allow you to download them into whatever image editor you have, where you can then resize them, and adjust them to suit your skill level and needs, to see if you find them acceptable or not.  My grade (below) is based on the camera when compared to others of it's megapixel category and price range.  Enjoy.

My "Grade" for this camera on a scale of 1 - 10?

7.5

All sample image thumbnails open the full sized version of each photo, at 1280 x 960 in size (some slightly cropped).  The flower photo was taken with the camera set to "macro" focusing at a closer distance of around 1.5 feet.  Photo 1 (left) gives a straightforward example of a sunny day shot.  The center image was taken only several inches away from the flower.  The last image (right) shows flash performance indoors, and focusing in low light conditions, as there was only one dim lamp nearby when this was taken.

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