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March 09, 2006
[ REVIEW—SONY CYBERSHOT DSC–N1 ]
Price: $900
Rating: 3.5 stars
The low-down: The Sony Cybershot DSC–N1 is an 8.1 megapixel compact digital camera with a Zeiss 3X zoom lens (38–114mm film equivalent). Construction is metal and quality of design and construction is high.
There is no optical viewfinder and the 7.5cm LCD is hard to see, even in overcast light. In situations where the screen is visible it is an excellent high resolution display.
All shooting parameters are set via the screen by touch. This is one of those mysterious technological breakthroughs that no one knew they wanted and when used it makes you wonder why they bothered. Navigating through menus by way of a touch screen is slow and frustrating and surprisingly difficult without the manual to hand.
When a photo is displayed in review mode it can be scribbled on (“painted”, according to Sony) or can be stamped with a heart, snowflake or star etc. The supplied stylus is too coarse for fine drawing or writing legibly.
Like this: Hidden behind the pointless technology of the Sony DSC–N1 is a fine camera. Resolved detail with the 8mp sensor and Zeiss lens is breathtaking. Exposure is always spot on and dynamic range is very good for a compact digital. Colour is generally good but auto-white balance is not completely reliable. Photos taken in open shade tend to yellow/red. We found that by reducing Saturation and Contrast the orange cast can be cut back. In fact using the low settings seems to improve all photos.
Dislike that: Reaction to the gimmickry of the DSC–N1 is bound to be personal. Some people will love it. You can even create slideshows in the camera with music (supplied in the camera’s internal memory) which is played back through the tiny inbuilt speaker. Given a choice, for the same money, of touch screen gimmickry or a good optical viewfinder it would be no contest.
Parting shot: The Sony DSC–N1 will have strong appeal to the gadgetphile, but the serious photographer should compare it carefully with Sony’s excellent DSCW7, a 7.2mp camera with a good optical viewfinder and costing $250 less. The DSCW7 doesn’t let you put snowflake stamps in ten colours on your photos, but if you cherish your images you won’t miss that dubious boon.
Posted by terry at March 9, 2006 08:28 AM
Comments
Managed to get the camera to find a Netgear DG384G without problems but it won't "connect on" to a PC attached to the router.
In "Nikon" modes, it never managed to launch PictureProject and in "PC" mode it shows up in "Windows Explorer" but doesn't managed to connect properly so no pictures "show up".
BTW, I've disabled the firewall on my PC whilst trying this and there is no internal firewall on my router. If someone from Nikon reads this, I've a computer programmer so I'll happily get some diags - just tell me what you need to see, including Ethereal trace.
Paul DS
Posted by: Paul D Smith at June 4, 2006 09:59 PM
Paul:
Maxwells, the Australian distributors of Nikon cameras, know about this problem. If you have a look at our review of the Nikon P1 you will see that we had exactly the same problem -- which, incidentally, we also had with the Kodak and Canon wireless cameras -- and we discussed it at length with the tech at Maxwell and it proved to be unfixable.
We also have a Netgear wireless setup and have had no success in establishing a connection between the wireless router and any camera.
Sorry to be a bearer of bad news, but if you do ever get it to work we would like to hear how you did it.
TL
Posted by: Terry at June 5, 2006 04:08 AM