Sony Cyber-shot DSC-S600

By David D. Busch, CNET.com
Mar 16, 2006

The chunky, 181g Sony Cyber-shot DSC-S600 offers remarkable flexibility despite its bargain price. Its 6-megapixel resolution and moderately wide 31mm-to-93mm (35mm-film-camera equivalent) lens, in conjunction with pretty decent low-light photos and extended shutter-speed latitude in moderate light, combine to produce a point-and-shoot camera with enough versatility to handle most picture-taking situations.

Design
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-S600's nearly empty top panel hosts only a microphone jack, the illuminated power button, and the shutter release. One-handed shooting is possible with the optical viewfinder, which is non-diopter-correctable, but you'll probably want to brace the camera with your left hand if you're using the bright 2-inch LCD.

On the back, a slider switches between review, photo, and movie modes; there's also a Menu button; a Display Info key; and an Image Quality/Trash button. Your image-quality choices range from resolutions of 6 megapixels to 640 x 480 VGA, at aspect ratios of 4:3, 3:2, and 16:9 (HDTV). A circular control pad offers additional functions such as flash (up), self-timer (down), quick review (left), and metering selection (right).

For other settings such as changing autofocus options and activating burst mode, you'll have to drop into the menu system.

Features
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-S600 comes with just 32MB of internal memory, so you'll want to put a Memory Stick Duo or Memory Stick Pro Duo card on your shopping list, along with some rechargeable AA batteries. This camera has no A/V port for connecting to a TV but does include a USB port for a linkup to your computer. The movie mode can shoot VGA videos at 30fps, and you can trim movie clips right in the camera.

There are no manual or semi-manual exposure controls other than standard- and flash-exposure compensation at plus or minus 2EV in 1/3EV increments. Sony supplements the automatic and program modes with six scene modes: Twilight, Twilight Portrait, Soft Snap (a soft-focus effect for portraits), Snow, Beach, and Landscape. Unfortunately, both EV settings and scene modes can be selected only within the camera menu. Exposures are set automatically between 1 second and 1/2,000 second, at apertures of F2.8 at the wide-angle setting to F5.1 at the telephoto end. An internal neutral-density filter drops into place to provide the equivalent of F5.1 and F15.3 under bright light.

In a variation on the old 16-frames-in-one feature, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-S600 includes the option to snap off 16 miniature shots at as little as 1/30-second intervals for golf-swing analysis and other stop-action tasks.

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