This was a pretty good little camera
343649
This was a pretty good little camera. The reason I am only giving it 3 stars is because  A: It seems a bit fuzzy B: It took awhile to ship and C: It doesn't seem to sit on the monitor the right way. I cant quite get it to sit on my laptop screen either. Overall, it is a pretty decent camera for doing something as simple as maybe video chatting on Skype.
848264
Once I got this nifty little camera out of the box, I was very excited to begin taking pictures. The great thing about this package is everything you need to get started is included, so you don't need to go off buying batteries or memory stick.
This camera is fairly simple to operate. Everything is explained in the included instruction manual. For its small size, some people may easily misplace or lose it.
There are two image sizes this camera offers: 1280x960 and 640x480. I found the 640x480 to be a lower quality than I expected. Many of the pixels are visible, making a not-so-clear photo. However, the 1280x960 size seems to not have that pixel problem.  Another cool thing possible on this camera is making a 15 sec movie (no audio). The LCD screen is only about an inch wide, so it may be difficult to preview your photos clearly.
this isn't a great camera to be printing with. However, if all you want is to send e-mail with them or put them up on a website, then by all means, this camera is well suited for those purposes.
4573012
I do like what I've seen of this camera. It is small, light, comes with an adapter for those international trips. The picture quality is pretty good, especially when in a dark area. If you are trying to do more than just casual picture taking, however, you might want to be less stingy with your cash and go for a higher priced camera. This is definitely a casual photo camera.
202941
not the best camera out there , i guess for the price it does the job
2208666
I bought this camera for my 6 year old granddaughter.  She had the plastic toy camera that she enjoyed, but I felt it was time to get a real camera.  I really didn't expect much for $69, but it certainly turned out to be a good value.
The feel is quite cheap and plasticky, even though it looks good.  I hope it holds up to a little abuse.  I like that there are not a lot of dials and choices.  It is very basic.
I was very pleasantly surprised by the photo quality.  I downloaded and printed several pictures, and they were passable.  Even the video was pretty good.  I personally use a Nikon D90 and a Lumix LX5, so I am used to exceptional picture quality.  While I would not use the S1 for my personal use, I think that it will be a perfect choice for my granddaughter.
I gave it 4 stars compared to other inexpensive P and S cameras.
2801487
I bought this camera replacing my old and loyal Kodak EasyShare CX4200 and I'm not repent of it. This little camera takes vivid images on daylight and nice takes at night. If, like me, you have bad pulse you'll probably need a tripod for night shots 'cause normally this kind of pictures appears blurred.

This camera has two 'cons': it has no optical viewfinder, so it's mandatory to use the LCD screen; bad idea for some people, not a problem for me, yet. And, sometimes night images could appear a bit noisy, it has ISO 800 sensitivity but a little lens; so, flash may be necessary.

In my opinion, this camera is a good choice for those who are beginners in photography, perfect buy for a first camera.
177181
This camera is tiny. The menu system is a little confusing with its modes. There are some quirky things about which format you record in and how it stores and transfers these movies. But if you just take defaults and shoot with it, its pretty good. After reviewing the recorded movies on my computer, I'd say the encoders are not great, just run of the mill.

My only complaint with this package is the bag. The bag is just big enough to fit the camera and an extra battery, pretty much nothing else. I've included pictures taken with my Note3 to show the scale of both the camera and the bag.
3358354
Nice little camera, takes good pictures for its size. It is much more than a point and shoot camera. It is odd in design. I used a Nikon D70 for years and of course the Sony has a new leaning curve.  The camera is not well balanced and the flash is cheap and fragile and the mini usb  port is hidden behind a little flap that is hard to open and the cable is very,,very short. The auto focus lags a bit but is OK. The LED viewer is handy but can have to much information if you accidentally try every setting,  and  I would prefer to see just the picture I am shooting. The manual is typical, long on clever options or features but short on how to turn on/off various settings. (typical in most users guides nowadays , nearly all of the buttons are not marked  and are flush with the camera body, they are hard to see and use.
On the other hand , The video recording worked nicely with very good output, both picture and sound. I have used Lightroom 4  to process some shots and the results very good.. Over all a good camera especially for tthe price I paid  Most optional lenes cost as much or many times the cost of the camera however.
I would recommend you try this camera before you purchase it. Especially if you have big hands.
2612919
This camera is a good basic camera taking pretty good pics. It doesn't hold battery life to the best extent. It is a good starter camera but isn't the best.
3399545
I bought this camera mainly to take pictures of my kids as they grow up, and to satisfy the clamoring from relatives for pictures of the kids.  In both indoor and outdoor lighting, I've taken a whole bunch of great pictures, and I have no particular training or even track record of taking good pictures with previous cameras I owned.  The software that comes with the camera is pretty easy to use and install, and I have an aging G3 Mac, so that's not a small accomplishment.

I have found that for indoor shots, there is a delay between when the electronic shutter button is pressed and the image is captured.  I attribute this to the camera adjusting to the light.  With small children that simply don't sit still, or for other indoor pictures, this can be a bit of an inconvenience.  The delay isn't so bad that I usually get the shot I was expecting, and the image quality is good.

Given the low price for this camera, I've found it to be an excellent value.
1515352
Took this new-generation Polaroid on a trip to Japan so my mother could have instant memories in a scrapbook as we went, and write down who's in the photo, where they are, what date, and what's going on. It was very handy. Prints are not exactly high quality but I was surprised after we got back stateside and I downloaded the digital files off the Micro-SD card. The digital quality of the original images are pretty good! Two potential issues that might keep this from being a pro or semi-pro's companion to "real" cameras: It overheated if I tried to print out four or more copies of the same photo (which is what I did when we had group picture of my mom with friends, so we could give copies to everyone). And, the rechargeable battery had a relatively short lifespan. I ended up charging the thing every night and it ran out a couple of days during the afternoon. It will work plugged in, but it's very awkward. Oh yeah, the image is very small -- business card size. The digital image can be enlarged, though!
2931079
This is a great little camera. Great resolution, more than you need really. AWESOME long zoom in a small package. This camera feels solid in your hands and is really easy to use. Havent used all the features yet but the intelligent auto setting works really really well. There are oodles of scene modes but have not really tested them out.

Photo quality is good but can be a bit overexposed using full auto in full sunlight. Working on the other settings to alleviate this.

Overall a great little camera!
4160151
This little guy is about the size of a cell phone, but it's able to perform as well as the larger point and shoots. After a few test shots, I "tweaked" the factory settings a bit, and my "tweaking" seems to be remembered when the camera is turned off. A morning of shooting at a "robot wars" competition in a local high school gym included some film clips with sound. I would have gotten better quality with a dedicated film camera and external mike, but these are usable for electronic scrapbooking, and great for a camera of this size. (Warning: movies are in Apple Quick Time format, which does not seem to be compatible with Windows Vista.)

I have the black non-metallic version of this camera, and the softer plastic coating is helpful in keeping a grip on this little guy. The build quality seems to be very good. It's not the equivalent of a DSLR, but this is more apt to be carried on casual Saturday morning adventures.

Update to the above, 6 weeks later:

I took this little camera on a recent trip to a family wedding in another area. As a travel camera, this little guy excels. Even when you're dressed up, it slips easily into a pocket.

Outdoor candid photos were clear and sharp. Indoor photos tended to be overexposed if the subject was too close to the flash. It actually worked better in a small room to have the flash off and raise the ISO. (I set 800 as my highest ISO, and chose "natural" as the color setting.) The image stabilization technology gave sharp photos with most handheld shots, I found, even in lower light.

Main weakness of the small lens is noticeable inward curve of vertical lines (buildings on a city streetfront) when shot at extreme wide angle (to maximize available light by using the widest aperture) -- a somewhat surreal effect.  Scenes without dominant vertical lines look OK.

I found the shutter lag on this camera to be a vast improvement over my older travel camera, approaching the quickness of a film camera. Much better for those candid shots. Battery held up for about 300 shots, without flash.
1790012
As background, I am a very amateur photographer that takes family/scenic snapshots, not photographs. I bought this camera to replace an earlier model of the same brand which got wet and quit working. This camera is not quite as good as the other one was but it's ok. This one is higher MP than the old one, but I can't really tell a difference. We took this camera as our main camera on vacation. I had to take 3 okay photos to get 1 fantastic photo. Sometimes the camera wouldn't want to focus but I just adjusted the zoom a little bit and then it was fine. By the end of our road trip I was using my digital camcorder to take my "road shots" because this one could not focus on the close canyon as we sped by at 75 mph (though I think the super-expensive cameras would probably not be able to take those photos either).

All in all it's a fine camera for the price (it was only $50 bucks). Does a decent job taking my family snapshots and I'll save the family portraits for the professional. :)
1484391
Sometimes I think Nikon makes some things just to show they can. This is one of them. OK, it'll never replace a real camera, but the best camera is the one in your hand, and this one makes that easy. It just showed up, I spent the last several hours fiddling with it, and i'm actually pretty happy.

It is really tiny; let's get that out of the way first. You can't believe how small. It really is about the size of a credit card, but about " thick, weighs nothing, almost fits in a watch pocket and for sure in any other pocket, inside a hat brim....  really small. Thus, it meets my first requirement, being in my hand when I want it. I'm not about to carry a big and/or expensive camera everyplace, this one will work fine for a "just in case".  Like American Express, don't leave home without it. Or Visa, it's everywhere I want to be. Somehow it inspires credit card jokes.

Quality-wise, not so much. It's OK, a bit noisy especially at high iso, but adequate. Not the tool for high resolution, big prints. Perfectly fine for small prints, anything where a bit of graininess is OK. Or, for that matter, where no other camera is readily available, which is where it shines. In fact, in black and white mode, the graininess looks pretty good. There's a bit of chromatic aberration and distortion at the frame edges, too. I give i a 7/10 for image quality. Much better than any cell phone camera, though; and better than cheap point-and-shoots with plastic lenses.

There's not a lot of manual control options. Actually, aside from zoom, none. Well, there is exposure compensation, +- 2 EV, which is something. It does what it does and you're not necessary for that. Point, push the button. DO turn off the touch-screen-to-trip-shutter function; it just begs for jiggle.

Internal storage for about 3000 frames at highest resolution is fine. Internal battery is fine, but I suspect it won't last more than a few years because of short charging cycles. That's OK, I'll make an effort to do a deep discharge once in a while.

The little place where the (standard mini USB; not proprietary at all) connector plugs in is a bit of a trick; you need to catch the slot with a fingernail and flip it up and sideways. I wish the instructions were a little clearer on that. it's held by a rubber plug, just bends out of the way. Probably the only cheesy-feeling thing on the whole camera. otherwise it feels like a quality piece of machinery; nice, dense feel, great finish, just what we expect from Nikon. The chrome finish, by the way, is a knockout.  Once plugged in via the cord, iPhoto or Aperture find the camera for download just fine; no special software needed.

I'm giving it a 4/5 because the image quality could be better (not sure how, though, with this dinky sensor. The optics are pretty decent for their size) and I'd like some manual something.

Well worth the modest cost if you really feel the need to have a camera in reach at all times. I plan to keep it under my pillow.
4878578
I am not a camera expert, but a competent amateur.  The Sony DSC-W710/B is a very compact, credit card size camera with a respectable 16 megapixel sensor and a 5X zoom.  It's 2.7" LCD screen is very clear and bright, as I was able to see in bright sunlight with no problem.  The menu is simple with an AUTO setting, which will select the best scene mode for the shot you are taking.  The speed between when you push the button to take a picture and when the camera is ready to take another picture is a bit slow, about 4 seconds.  There is a continuous mode setting which allows you to take multiple exposures by just keeping the shutter button down.  I also tested the video setting and it yielding very smooth, clear HD video with sound recording and zoom capabilities.

I loaded an 8gb SD card allowing some 1,100 plus images available using the full 16mp setting, which can be lowered to yield even more exposures.

The startup from out of the box took about 3 minutes and it was ready to go.  I have several digital cameras and this little, pocket-sized camera certainly has it's place.  If you need a simple camera for a trip or event, and want a camera for under $100, this may be a good bet. I am giving it 4 stars for what it is, an inexpensive, versatile video and still camera which will take better pictures than your I-Phone or Android phone, and it's actually smaller and lighter than a phone. I didn't give it 5 stars because I felt the image quality wasn't 5 star.
1449962
Not the crispest photos. But a good starter camera.