Sony Cyber-shot DSC-G1

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With its 921,000-pixel, 3.5-inch LCD screen, the G1 is practically a TV (in contrast, the usual camera LCD has about 220,000 pixels). 2GB of internal memory makes it possible to carry your whole photo library around with you for display on that huge LCD.

The G1 looks pretty ordinary in all other respects: A 6-megapixel ultracompact with a relatively slow, narrow f/3.5-4.3 38mm-114mm 3x zoom lens. It does use Sony's SuperSteadyShot optical image stabilization, and offers a 640 x 480 30fps movie mode; interestingly, it does not use Sony's MPEG VX MPEG-2 recording, instead switching to MPEG-4.

Design
At 204g, the Cyber-shot G1 is certainly not the lightest compact camera in the world. It’s big, too, because at 93.3 x 71.7 x 25.3mm, it’s not what we would call spare change, either.

For more details on the Cyber-shot G1, click on the image.

Unlike the Cyber-shot T100, the G1's lens cover cannot be slid open with a light push of the thumb. Instead, the semi-automatic sliding mechanism has to be released with a clasp located on the camera top. Open it and a lot more than just the lens is revealed, including a speaker (located on the bottom) and a slide-out panel of physical buttons for camera controls (zoom, playback, flash, macro) on the right.

Most of the buttons on the back are a trifle small; in fact, the designer obviously had to spill some of the buttons over to the right edge of the G1, such as the five-way joystick and the buttons for menu, home and display. Of course, that's because of the generous 3.5-inch screen which is quite possibly the largest we've seen for a compact camera.

It's a good thing the physical controls are not too much of a maze. We found it easy to make sense of, especially since this is also the first Sony camera to base its menu interface on both the PSP and the PS3's. The mammoth display helped a lot, too, and came in real handy for framing shots as well as viewing our pictures in gallery mode.

For more details on the Cyber-shot G1's design and comparision shots, click on the image.

On the left side of the camera is a 3.5mm earphone jack and there's a WLAN button on the top, but we will get into that later. Oddly, the tripod mount on the G1 is located on the extreme left of the camera which is not exactly the center of the unit. So look out if you are using one of those tiny table-top aluminum tripods since your top-heavy camera plus tripod setup are liable to topple.

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