Sony Cyber-shot DSC-G1 Review

Review Date: July 16th 2007
Author: Mark Goldstein

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Conclusion

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4
Features	4.5
Ease-of-Use	3.5
Image Quality	3.5
Value for Money	2

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-G1 is a brave but ultimately flawed attempt to combine a camera, music player, image viewer, wi-fi and storage device into one product. It undoubtedly has the best LCD monitor ever seen on a digital camera, perfect for showing off your photos to friends and family. Hopefully more companies will follow suit and increase both the size and more importantly the resolution of their cameras' screens. The 2Gb of built-in storage sounds great as a headline specification, but doesn't really add up in practice. Sure, you can store up to 600 images on the camera, but with rapidly falling memory card prices, it makes much more financial sense to store your pictures in this way than pay the (massive) premium that the G1 demands. A recommended price of £450 and street price nearer £375 is simply too high for a 6 megapixel compact, especially as the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-G1 isn't a great camera. Noisy images at low ISO speeds contribute to only average image quality, whilst performance is marred by a painfully slow start-up time. In addition you will either love or hate the camera's design (I didn't enjoy using it), so definitely try before you buy if you like the look of the G1 on paper. Wi-fi functionality and advanced image management options make up to some extent for the camera's other shortcomings, but not enough for me to recommend the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-G1. Worth considering if you have a large wad of cash burning a hole in your back-pocket and you want a convenient and impressive way to share your photos, but otherwise save your money and look elsewhere.

PhotographyBLOG is a member of the DIWA organisation. Our test results for the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-G1 have been submitted to DIWA for comparison with test results for different samples of the same camera model supplied by other DIWA member sites.

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