Sony Cyber-shot DSC-S85

Sony's Cyber-Shot DSC-S85 brings a higher resolution CCD and improved feature set to the company's digital camera range. It uses the same compact format as its predecessor and offers a combination of control and performance that make it attractive.

The 4.1Megapixel Super HAD (Hole-Accumalation Diode) CCD allows the camera to take shots at a resolution of 2,272 by 1,704 pixels. The 14-bit analogue-to-digital converter allows for a higher signal-to-noise ratio, providing more effective colour reproduction as well as better low light performance.

As is usual for Sony products, you'll find a Carl Zeiss lens, here a 7mm to 21mm 3X optical zoom (equivalent to a 34mm to 102mm 35mm lens) with a range of apertures between f/2.1 and f/8.0.

Although it's a consumer product, the DSC-S85 offers a good level of control. There's a choice between spot and matrix light metering as well as ISO equivalencies of 100, 200 and 400.

For low light scenes where the automatic metering can't produce the results you need, an exposure lock is provided, allowing you to set it from a specific area with a single button press and then reframe and refocus.

Three exposure pre-set modes are also provided: landscape, portrait and twilight. The camera's full manual option allows the entire range of shutter speeds (from eight seconds to 1/1000th) and aperture settings to be customised. Manual focus is limited to distance pre-sets of between 10cm and infinity.

The InfoLithium battery gives an estimated two hours of use, along with an accurate display of the camera's remaining battery life when using the external LCD viewfinder.

An internal optical viewfinder allows you to conserve power, while an additional information LCD lets you see an estimation of battery life and shots remaining, as well as aperture, shutter and general settings.

Images taken with the camera are extremely good, providing a sharp image. An uncompressed TIFF format is supported, as well as JPEG, with five resolution options. As well as stills, you can record MPEG movies with sound.

The only criticisms that can be levelled at this camera are that the supplied 16Mb Memory Stick is restrictive for a 4.1Megapixel product, and many of the control buttons are too small for easy use.

Contact: Sony 0870 511 1999
www.sony.co.uk/products/

See also:

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P9

Four megapixels and plenty of style from Sony.  22 Oct 2002

Fuji FinePix F601 Zoom

Fuji's sleek and stylish snapper looks good, but is it a triumph of style over substance?  08 Aug 2002

Olympus C-4040 Zoom

A high-end camera in every sense, including the price.  08 Apr 2002

Sony DSC-P5

A tiny and very stylish camera.  15 Jan 2002

Sony CD-RW digital camera

A fantastic package for the serious photographer.  07 Jan 2002

Like this story? Spread the news by clicking below:

 del.icio.us     Digg this     reddit!