Reviews

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P200

Before I get into actually describing the subject of this review, Sonyâs new Cyber-Shot DSC-P200, I feel compelled to present a few contemplations that came to mind as I perused his magnificent little 7.2 megapixel marvel.

It seems, for example, utterly incomprehensible that not all that long ago, all Sony digital cameras distinguished themselves by recording their pictures onto standard floppy disks. That was the Mavica series (which lives on in a trio of cameras that use optical disks as their recording medium, and one still uses a floppy disk) and you could tell they used floppy disks because their largish bodies were pretty much built around the square shape of a 3-1/2-inch floppy. In this day and age of tiny Memory Sticks and other postage-stamp sized storage cards the thought that a cameraâs size was once dictated by something as arcane as a standard floppy disk seems absurd, as does the minuscule recording capacity of those old floppy disks. Such a disk wouldnât hold a single image from the new Cyber-shot DSC-P200, not even in its lower ãstandardä compression.

Take one look at the gleaming silvery case of the P200 and you cannot help but marvel at how far weâve come. The fictional characters in Stanley Kubrickâs groundbreaking ã2001÷A Space Odysseyä movie may have been able to fly to Jupiter, but in Sonyâs wonderful world of technology, the year 2001 is ancient, quaint history.

Unlike those big old Mavicas, the Cyber-shot P200 is barely larger than a flip-phone÷4 x 2 x 1 inch, with a weight of just five ounces÷but itâs a powerful 7.2 megapixel camera with a high quality Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar 3X zoom lens, a bright 2-inch outdoor-viewable LCD screen, and the usual flurry of incredibly well designed micro details that Sony is famous for. Just like its P-Series predecessors (the P100 and the P150), from a design point of view, the P200 is playfully styled with one side square and the other side curving around the three bright concentric circles around the P200âs 3X optical zoom lens. In fact, everything about the P200 is rounded and curved: lines, buttons, inserts, even the tiny little flash window and the long concave moulding around the left side of the camera which is probably there so that you can more easily hold the P200 with the index finger and thumb of your left hand. All of this is in great contrast to the angular T1 Sony shocked the world with way back in, oh, perhaps 2004.

It is not entirely clear why Sony needs so many different lines of fairly similar digicams, but then again, that was no different when Sony still made its Palm OS-based CliŽ PDAs. No matter what your preference was, Sony had a CliŽ for you. If I were on Sonyâs staff and had to come up with an internal product placement description for this camera, Iâd probably say, ãThe P200 is for those customers who prefer style and elegance over the angular shape of our more engineering-driven models. These customers are value-conscious and demand advanced features and performance, but they are not willing to pay the higher prices of our no-compromise solutions.ä

As a result, while the P200 offers full 7.2 megapixel resolution, its 3X zoom lens motors out an inch when you power up the camera. An internal, foldable zoom is more elegant, doesnât get in the way, but costs more. And while some of the top notch Sonys have 2.5-inch displays, the P200 must do with a 2.0-inch LCD÷respectable, but noticeably smaller. There are other, less obvious concessions, but all of this means that the P200 costs less. It is not cheap÷no Sony 7.2 megapixel camera can be cheap÷but itâs less than the no-holds-barred, all-tricked-out W- and T-Series models.

What you get with the P200 is a high resolution camera that does almost everything well. It is small enough to fit into any pocket (as long as the lens has retracted inside the body), it has a solid 3X optical zoom thatâs complemented by either a standard 2X digital zoom or Sonyâs ãSmart zoomä that borrows unused pixels to enlarge an image taken in one of the cameraâs lower resolution settings. There is a small optical viewfinder for those times when it becomes difficult to view the LCD display outdoors. The controls are all fairly self-explanatory although an initial pass through the very good 98-page manual is definitely recommended. That way youâll learn that the little green camera icon means ãautomaticä and everything is taken care of, whereas in P(rogram) mode the camera controls aperture and speed and leaves the rest to you. In M(anual) mode you have complete control over everything. Frequently used controls such as macro, flash, or resolution can be changed by pushing one of the four directional controls÷no need to push the Menu button and work your way through the not always obvious on-screen menus for that. Controls are laid out well; youâll find everything where you expect it.

In the field, the P200 performs well. It never gets in the way, its battery lasts a long time and the screen even tells you how many minutes you have left, and the display provides enough information (including a live histogram) without being cluttered. Both controls and icons/text are a bit too small for my taste and Iâd rate the P200 only average in autofocus and frame-to-frame recycling speed. I love the 30 frames-per-second 640x480 movie mode with sound. It requires a Memory Stick Pro card, but produces excellent movie clips.

All in all, the P200 is the answer for those who want a small, reasonably priced Sony camera with high resolution and good features.

÷CHB

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