Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P71 review

The word Sony may be associated with notions of quality, but it's also indelibly linked with high price too.

Until now. Following a swathe of recent price cuts, the DSC-P71 is now available for a ridiculous £265. And for that, you're buying a 3.2-megapixel camera with a 3x optical zoom, sleek silver design and a range of features that would make a digital camera enthusiast blush with excitement.

The design isn't just about looks. Because the lens is automatically protected by a shutter, you can carry the DSC-P71 around with you without fear. It also feels comfortable to hold, while a weight of 280g means you can throw it into an overnight bag and not worry about excess baggage charges.

The Cyber-shot's sensible design extends to the ThumbPad - an easy way to change the settings. To adjust properties like sharpness, image quality (Fine, Standard or Email), white balance and so forth, you press the Menu button and cycle through the available options using the ThumbPad. There's also direct access to the four features Sony expects you to use most: review (to see the latest photo), timer, macro and flash.

But Sony has made compromises in order to produce such a value-packed camera. One is the TFT display. When you're taking photos, the screen is slow to refresh, always appearing a fraction behind. When you're viewing your photos, it initially makes them look blurred even when they're not - you must wait for the camera's processor to fill in the details.

There's another problem, too - the batteries. Although it's good to see a pair of long-life, rechargeable NiMH AA batteries included, they don't offer enough on-tap energy to power the TFT display while the flash is charging. So for that 2-3 seconds, you're literally kept in the dark. When these batteries eventually died (note the lack of a recharger) I resorted to a pair of fresh AA Duracell Ultra batteries. These kept going for a reasonable 110 shots, half of which used the flash.

Perhaps the Cyber-shot's biggest problem is the delayed response on pressing the shutter button. This is a perennial issue with digital cameras, but I found the DSC-S71 to be more disappointing than most. It means that trying to capture natural, unposed photos of people is almost impossible. By the time it takes the picture, they'll have changed position - quite possibly having popped into the kitchen and returned with a cup of tea.

But this camera has one rather useful trick kept up its sleeve: image quality. When using it at the maximum resolution of 2,048x1,536, it captured a staggering amount of detail - for example, we could read phone numbers printed on a delivery address label from a photo taken across the room. This simply wouldn't be possible with 2-megapixel cameras like the Nikon Coolpix 2000 (see September 2002 issue). With good light conditions, it also reproduced truthful colours. Another plus is the flash - it's surprisingly powerful for a compact camera, making the DSC-S71 better for indoor use than most.

To capture all this detail, you'll need to select the DSC-P71's maximum resolution. You can drop this down to 1,600x1,200, 1,280x960 and 640x480. If you want to print out your photos, however, we'd recommend a minimum of 1,600x1,200, and there's space for around 20 photos at this size on the bundled 16Mb Memory Stick. You can buy a 64Mb stick for £41, but when a 64Mb SmartMedia card costs as little as £19, this still seems a tad excessive.

This hidden cost is one reason why the Cyber-shot misses out on a Recommended award, but the main reason is its delayed shutter response. Fascinating as the backs of heads may be, they grow tiresome after a while. The DSC-S71 makes sense if you're taking posed photos or landscapes, but if you're after a general-purpose camera for social gatherings, you'll either have to fork out more cash or wait for future price cuts.