Reviews for Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 5 Megapixel Compact Camera

1.5" LCD - 4x Optical Zoom - 2592 x 1944 Image - 640 x 480 Video - MPN: DSCV1

  • 5
  By member: nedillon - Jan 25, 2006

AWESOME CAMERA

Strengths: Great Quality, Loads of options.

Weakness: Haven't found any.

I have had this camera for over a year now and I love it I take loads of photo's. I occassionaly have the blurry photo but I have come to realize that it is because I am trying to take them before letting the flash charge up again. I notice that by being patient and waiting (I may miss acouple cute photo's) they aren't blurry. I only use the LCD to review the photo's I shut it off when taking photos and by doing that my batter lasts a VERY LONG TIME!! My cousin has the same camera and she uses the lcd when taking photo's and after her battery is done I'm still taking pictures. I love the ease of the camera and have purchased the big flash, the zoom lens (comes in handy at football games), and also the telephoto lens. I will never give this camera up. Location of pop up flash you get used to, I have and find no difficulty with grip at all I always use the wrist strap and yell at my husband if he doesn't put it around his wrist. Again Great camera well worth the money.

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  • 4
  By member: jczech - Dec 17, 2004

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 5 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: Image quality, focus speed, size relative to other cameras with the same features, price.

Weakness: Small LCD, poor auto white-balance feature, not the best ergonomics, Memory stick media only.

For me it came down to purchasing either the DSC-V3 or the DSC-V1, which was less than half the price of the V3 at the time of my purchase...I ended up going with the V1, and I'm happy with the decision. The picture quality is great, and auto-focus is fast and sharp in ANY lighting conditions, and for me these are the two most important features of any camera. By not buying the V3 I lose some features such as - CF Card capability, RAW imaging support, larger LCD, 30fps movie mode and 7mp sensor (not really a big deal - 5mp will produce huge prints). The V3 is definitely a better overall camera, but the V1 is a much better value (at this time).

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  • 4
  By member: nerdsincorparated - Aug 30, 2004

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 5 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: Nightshot,nightframing

Weakness: Small LCD screen, poor battery life, location of lift-up flash.

Nightframing are a feature that every camera manufacturer should add to the mid- high end cameras as it is great for those low light situations. A bigger 1,8"LCD SCREEN would make life more earsier for those whose are half blind. Sony should replace their propriety battery with a rechargable 2100 AA PENLIGHT batteries that can use normal alkaline batteries in case of emergency.

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  • 5
  By member: gloin - Aug 17, 2004

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 5 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: very high quality pictures, succesfull in low light conditions, manual controls, size

Weakness: low battery life, useless software

I ve been using this camera for 6 months and I m very happy with my first digital camera and my huge picture albums. I highly recommend you to purchase an extra battery and also use Picasa software instead of Sony's Image mixer.

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  • 3
  By member: rickznberg - Aug 15, 2004

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 5 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: Occasionaly great photos, better then most of my previous cameras. I really should give it a four stars minus, good manual settings enabling you to get natural lighting shots

Weakness: most of manual settings can't be seen in settings cause they are tiny . Too many blurry photos

I feel a complete contradiction to what was written here in a way, and what I get from my camera. I occasionally hear the same complaints from others. On occasion the camera takes great photos, but soo many options to go thru, I have to wonder if experts tried them out. Most of time though the photos especially in manual settings are off a little or blurry but occasionally a great photo comes out. The question becomes why don't others experience the same things? Other reviewers give it 3.5 out of five for noise and poor battery and average photos. I have found it better then my other cameras which had less resolution but you must work to get the great shots and have not tried any newer cameras from other makers. I don't know if this is a quality control issue and I have bad camera or its a user problem so I am torn here. After two cameras I am not sure I want to try again which is why I didn't give it a higher rating The other question I end up asking me is it worth keeping to get the occasional great photo.

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  • 5
  By member: 0_o - Aug 4, 2004

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 5 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: nice auto focus, Pictures are pretty nice, Night shot, 4x optical Zoom, Really nice manual control, and really Compact size for a professional camera

Weakness: Accessory are WAY too expensive, Battery life is kinda crappy but batteries are small but expensive, sometimes noisy pictures

The DSCV1 is a really good camera. 4x optical is hard to get these days for a 5 megapixel. The battery is kinda crappy but the battery's size makes up for it. Although, the batteries are kinda expensive. 32 megabyte memory stick comes with the camera but all cameras come with a small memory card with it. (unless internal memory then they come with none). The Accessories I find are too expensive for the price... seperate battery charger shouldn't cost around 99.99 cnd. Night shot/frame is kinda usefull when you're taking pictures in the dark. The LCD is kinda small and standard which could be improved abit but would drain the battery even more, so Sony probably had to compensate. The thing I love most about this camera is taht it has almost FULL manual control over it. I could tweak almost everything. I do have a complaint though. It's these screws that are clearly visible on the camera taht makes it look really badly designed.( By the dial and zoom and on top of the AE lock and by the ACC). I paid $800 CND for this product and It should be well designed. Other than that its a nice camera. People complain about where the flash is located.. If you think about it.. its better than no flash because there is no where else to put it and Sony knew that people would complain but you'll get use to it.

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  • 2
  By member: doctorazo - Jun 30, 2004

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 5 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: The design is modern. It is light weight.

Weakness: Difficult to hold, easy to block the flash with your fingers. The LCD screen is small and difficult to read the characters The battery does not last long. I am exchanging it.

The memory card that comes with the camera has not enough capacity. You need to buy a lot of acessories like camera case, extra batteries shoulder strap and more memory cards. For the price these things should be included

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  • 5
  By member: becker163 - Jun 4, 2004

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 5 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: everything is great! it is the best camera, packed with the most features in such a small package

Weakness: battery life, most definitely! everyone complains about the grip size and position of flash, and they are right. but... (see below)

without packing everything that sony does in such a small package, you might not care the camera because it was too bulky, then missed the picture you always dreamed of. don't let the grip/flash position stop you from buying this one. you can look at other things (such as if you RAW format or want to be able to go down to 50 ISO) but i think all things considered, this is the best camera out there in it's field!

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  • 5
  By member: rudydeblieck - Jun 4, 2004

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 5 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: Automatic focusing, white balance Sturdy construction Manual tweaking night functions Ergonomic, intuitive controls very good lens Sharp, noiseless, vibrant pictures Very fast TIFF

Weakness: energy pack is too small for camera grip is not as secure as with some other camera's especially when one has big hands

From my first (fully automatic) picture on, this camera produces crisp and vibrant images. The images can be captured in TIFF (100% lossless), but the jpeg compression produces very good results. I experimented, amongst others, with the white balance settings, and it seems that the automatic settings are really well balanced. The same goes for the sensitivity which goes up to ISO 800 (!). Macro pictures are superb with a breathtaking depth of field. Flowers look more beautiful than in reality ! The holographic 'night framing' is precise and the IR nightshot is sensational.

It is also very easy and intuitive to adapt imaging parameters even when you're not a professional photographer.

I equipped my SONY DSC V1 with a 256 Mb Pro memory stick which gives a lot of operational freedom albeit that the power pack is the real limiting factor here. This is the only weakness of this outstanding piece of equipment.

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  • 5
  By member: ragner - May 25, 2004

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 5 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: Excellent pictures with good color indoor or out. night pics. manual controls.

Weakness: camera is difficult to hold because of the location of the pop up flash, but one can get used to it.

First digital, and I did a lot of research for an amatuer interested in photography. Final hoices included Olympus 410, Canon S1, and Canon A75. I was looking to get into digital with low cost yet good features and durable. Salesperson convince me the DSC V1 was a better value with more features. He was right. Great pictures indoors or outside, including action. Movie mode is great! I got a 256 Sandisk memory stick for $74 with $20 rebate. You have to get more batteries, as the stock holds 87 mins full charge. You can do this on the internet at lower cost than the $60 per Sony battery, although I cannot yet vouch for quality. All tolled, camera($449) (including a 32 mg card, AC adapter, built in charger), 256 card ($54 w/rebate), case ($20), two extra batteries and charger ($61), and I still want another 256 mg card to take on our trip. A lot of money. But for someone like me just getting into digital and wanting lots of manual options, I am very pleased. Hope it will be durable, too. Seems like it will take some knocks.

Summery: Very very pleased with the camera, the pics. the quality so far. Takes a few days to read the manual and get used to all the things you can do so you get good pics. The manual does not teach you how to take good pics, just how to change the settings. Very well built. Solid as far as I can see. The Olympus 410 was attractive because it is "weather resistant" yet it does not have nearly the features as this one. My 15 yr old will be using it, we will take it to the ocean, camping, fishing, etc. Mpeg movies up to storage capacity are very very good. As others have noted, the flash is poorly located for holding the camera, but I am getting used to it. The night shooting modes are incredible. Get this camera. I read the W1 is not as good, but no details.

It does not replace my trusty AE-1 pro with lenses, but it is a good way to learn about digital, wait for technology to improve and eventually get a super digital.

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  • 4
  By member: KarlSATX - May 22, 2004

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 5 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: Excellent Quality, Features, Speed, Media, Size...

Weakness: You can't get the best grip...

This is an excellent product that has wonderful features and unbelievable media speed when used with Memory Stick Pro. This product is very compact and very portable. The battery life in the unit is a bit lower than the competition, however, it's better than some of the older Sony Cameras. The quality of this camera is what can only be expected from Sony. They have done an absolutely wonderful job with this camera. I would recommend this to anyone who has a desire for top quality pictures without sacrificing durability. This is my third Sony Digital Camera and I will never use another brand.

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  • 5
  By member: mekrause - Mar 21, 2004

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 5 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: Superior suite of options: ISO to 800, man/auto exposure, night shooting, holographic autofocus, hot shoe, many modes

Weakness: Small LCD (standard 1.8 size, but not great), 4x Zoom fair only, wish it had a dock, wish it had a remote

I waited before giving up my old cannon A-1 SLR a long time. The Sony V-1 has enough power and in a small package that we take more photos now than ever. Great preset options for my wife, who is a novice. I like playing around with different modes, exposures and lighting to be creative. Memory stick pro is fast and you can get good deals on memory through sales on Amazon or CompUSA. I bought a second battery and charger so that I always have a spare. With spare memory & battery, you're set for hundreds of super high quality photos. I do a lot with Photoshop too, and if you don't use too high of a digital zoom setting, you can make terrific enlargements and crop as necessary without losing detail. Also, the colors pop. I added and HVL-32 flash which works with the camera's holographic auto focus to range the flash. It's great. And I got a cool Sony tripod that lets you swap from the camera to a Sony Camcorder and have many functions automated on the adjustment bar of the tripod head. You probably won't use the night modes that much, but it's cool being able to take pictures in the dark (good for pets and kids on halloween). Overall very pleased with this camera. Well thoughtout prosumer camera and great assessories -- very pleased. Take the time to read the instruction book to avoid frustrustration. Good luck!

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  • 5
  By member: scgreer - Feb 4, 2004

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 5 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: Size, great pictures, manual and automatic control, fast power-up and fast capture

Weakness: battery life lasts about an hour.

This camera is easy to use and has a great lens. I like the manual control- for sports shots you can increase the shutter speed, for night time you can select the night portrait mode and it will allow you to pick up background instead of being blacked out, etc. The video mode is great if you don't want/or can't take along a big camera bag with a video camera and a still camera. The 32mg memory stick is not big enough so I got a 256mg memory stick pro from Circuit City for $90. That was plenty big enough. I would suggest at least a 128mg memory stick. I bought 2 extra batteries from a company on the internet for $42 and charge them before my trip since you charge the batteries in the camera. You can buy an external charger but that costs about the same as another battery. They are not very big and fit in my small camera case I got at Best Buy for $6 and it goes on my belt. Very small and easy to carry with you. I had no problem taking it with me on our trip to Epcot Center and it was never a hassle. I love it.

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  • 4
  By member: electroNut - Dec 29, 2003

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 5 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: great picture quality, tons of ad-on stuffs from sony, hot shoe, night shot, night frames, super lcd...all the stuffs you can count on

Weakness: 4x zoom, 32 mb memory? no raw file format. very slow in .tiff format

night shot, night frames, two features that make sony different from all other guys, love there feature when you are a nite owl. hot shoe slot only few and pricy digital camera had this features. over $ 100 price drop so why wait to get one. Classic SLR design that make your parents wanna to fall in love with. So much ad on stuff from sony, love the remote control tripod.

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  • 5
  By member: huyones - Dec 5, 2003

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 5 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: FAST autofocus, crisp pictures, great outdoors OR INDOORS, great low light shooting, 640x480 video

Weakness: Battery life is short

This is the ONE!

Great camera, especially for those with kids. The fast autofocus (in good light or low light) is an absolute must if you are taking pics of kids...they just won't stay still. This camera hardly ever blurs the image because the autofocus and the lens is so quick. At night or indoors, where there is low lighting and other cameras struggle (I returned the Sony P10 because of this), this camera has almost no lag. I turned off all the lights, put it on NightFraming so I could see my kids, and took pictures. They turned out as good as if I had all the lights on...and there was hardly any lag to taking the picture. This fast performance (with great looking, fine detailed, crisp and true colors pictures) made it the choice for me over all other digital camera's in it's price class.

The video mode is GREAT. 640x480 is wonderful. Though it stutters a little bit, the ability to capture full video with sound at regular TV size where you are at without carrying you extra camcorder is much more valuable then one would think.

There's tones of other great things about this camera that is top notch that you can read about on websites devoted to reviewing digital cameras.

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  • 5
  By member: bmwhalen - Nov 14, 2003

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 5 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: speed in writing images, very quick reaction time from pressing the shutter to image capture (much better than any other I tried--no detectable delay!) Great quality pictures. Resolution on MPEG movies

Weakness: location of pop up flash, flash recharge is a little slow. Image writing of email size pictures is labeled as .jpe which has presented some problems in using them with other software programs.

I love this camera. I had a previous Sony that I liked but wanted more resolution. I tried another Sony and Canon before settling on this one. Have been very satisfied with it. Just wish it saved the email size pix in another folder as .jpg like my previous model.

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  • 5
  By member: bap12053 - Nov 5, 2003

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 5 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: LENS ZOOM PRICE FEATURES OVERALL QUALITY EASE OF USE AND BEST OF ALL NITESHOT AND NITEFRAMING SHOOTS PERFECT COLOR PHOTOS IN COMPLETE DARKNESS NOTHING COMPARES PROSUMER CAMERA YOU'LL LOVE IT

Weakness: POP UP FLASH HAS POOR LOCATION NEED TO GET USED TO IT ONCE YOU DO YOUR SET ENJOY SONY QUALITY

LENS ZOOM PRICE FEATURES OVERALL QUALITY EASE OF USE AND BEST OF ALL NITESHOT AND NITEFRAMING SHOOTS PERFECT COLOR PHOTOS IN COMPLETE DARKNESS NOTHING COMPARES PROSUMER CAMERA YOU'LL LOVE IT 5 STARS NOTHING LESS

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  • 5
  By member: LimMaggie - Oct 11, 2003

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 5 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: Too many to list

Weakness: None so far

Great photo quality especially in darkness.
Great carl zeiss lens.
Have all the functions you need.
Easy to use.
Quick focus when taking photos.

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  • 5
  By member: cryoer - Oct 4, 2003

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 5 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: superb Carl Zeiss Lens, captures crisp and vivid pictures. holographic focus, very useful when using in darkness. compact and stylish body design. Great vedio quality.

Weakness: expensive accessories, comparing with other media storage. position of bulit-in Flash.

this is an awesome camera. it has all functions you need. very good design and excellent picture quality. The main complains are: the expensive accessories, e.g., memory stick or memory stick pro; occasionally, you will forget to move you hand off the built-in flash when it pops-up. Overall, I personally recommend this cool babe highly!

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  • 5
  By member: haywho - Sep 25, 2003

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 5 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: Great image quality, sturdy, many accessories, great price for a 5.0 megapixel camera.

Weakness: None so far.

I thoroughly enjoy using this camera because it is dependable and routinely gives me the shot I am looking for. I like that the camera has many accessories like wide angle and telephoto lenses that are optimized for megapixel technology. Though the camera is compact, it is very easy to use. The manual adjustments can be tricky, but become easier once you get to know this camera. Highly recommended.

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  • 5
  By member: sony4life - Sep 15, 2003

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 5 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: Portable with all great features, Superb image quality, record up to 6+ minutes of quality 640X480 MPEG,fast Zoom

Weakness: Poor location of the built-in popup flash

I have used the V1 varies shooting condition, I am very happy with the superb quality of the images, even in the low light condition. Highly recommend purchase a add-on Flash for indoor shooting. I strongly recommended this Sony DSC-V1 for anyone looking for upgradebility and superb image quality

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  • 1
  By member: caverock - Sep 15, 2003

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 5 Megapixel Compact Camera

Strengths: size

Weakness: Durability and battery life is shocking, very delicate, bad photo quality, extremely expensive neccesary accesories, memory card included is insufficient, bad focusing if you add a lens, breaks

this camera really should not even be considered. for the same price you can get the nikoncoolpix 5700 and have tons more features. The sony scratches easily, takes disgusting photos, you need to immediately buy a new battery because this one doesnt last long, its difficult to use, the memory sticks are expensive. My camera stops working occasionally and then i switch it on and off. Its HIGHLY HIGHLY overpriced for what you get . KEEP AWAY from this camera its a shocker

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  • 3.0
  reviewgist.com - Jan 23, 2010

ReviewGist for Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-V1 Digital Camera

Image is Average according to 8 Digital Camera experts. -- "The image is great"-digitalsecrets.net -- "the photos looked great."-vnunet.com -- "Both our test images were very sharp."-pcmag.com Read more to find expert opinions on more features like Video, Optics, Interface, Battery, etc.

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  • 3.5
  testseek.com - Feb 9, 2009

Sony Cybershot DSC-V1

Testseek.com has collected 10 expert reviews for Sony Cybershot DSC-V1 and the average expert rating is 71 of 100. The average score reflects the expert community’s view on this product. Click below and use Testseek.com to see all ratings, product awards and conclusions.

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  • 2.4
  TopTenREVIEWS.com - Jul 16, 2008

Sony Cyber Shot DSC-V1

Sony Cyber Shot DSC-V1 receives an overall TopTenREVIEWS score of 1.94 out of 4.00. It is ranked the #331 standard digital camera of all time. The overall rating represents an intelligent balance of features, value as a function of price to features, and a summary of reviews from a variety of sources. The TopTen REVIEWS' formula gives a picture of important consumer features, market value, and a...

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  • 5.0
  Imaging Resource - Apr 18, 2003

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1

Sony DSC-V1 review updated! - Sample shots and analysis, based on a production model of the DSC-V1. Amazing features (as first seen on the F717), but I felt the 717 edged it on image quality. Still a great camera though, and one that's a good bit more compact and less expensive than the 717...

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