Customer Reviews

Sony DSCH55B Cyber-shot Digital Camera - Black (14.1MP, 10x Optical Zoom) 3 inch LCD

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My first camera broke within about 5 days, but amazon were brilliant and sent me a new one immediately. It's really easy to use and takes some great pictures. We've just spent 3 weeks in thailand and Hong Kong and it worked like a dream and the panoramic feature was especially good for pictures of the harbour at Hong Kong.

Really pleased with this purchase.

Outstanding camera does everything it claims and more, it gives outstanding results picture quality second to none. Only niggle is that it doesn' have a eye piece for framing your picture you have to use the LCD screen however this seems to be the case with most of the Sony range of cameras. Do not let this put you off its without doubt the best little digital camera around and incredible value for money from Amazon.

Barry Close

I am very happy indeed with this camera. It replaces a fairly old Minolta 6 Mp so the quality of this 14.1 Mp is a major improvement as you might expect. The software (PMB) included is really good and manages all of my previous picture files as well as the importation to my computer of any that I take with this camera. My only gripe is that for some reason Sony do not give a function on the camera to print on the images the date or number. This can only be done by the software once it is imported onto the computer. It does it very well but for me it is annoying that the camera doesn't do it and therefore I have to waste time adding it to every image separately. Anyhow, it remains a fine and easy to use camera and I am happy to endorse it.

This camera is amazing - I took 650 pics on a recent holiday to S Africa and nearly all were perfect. It does all the hard work for you, allowing you to click to your heart's content. It also has a fantastic panoramic picture facility, video and a very good zoom. Highly recommended for keen photographers who don't want to carry around a huge camera.

I wanted to replace my ageing Cyber-shot which was a great camera and decided to stay loyal to Sony rather than going for a Lumix. This one has 14.1MP, a x10 zoom and a great wide angle and I did not really want GPS so it looked ideal.

When I received the first one there was a thin film of some kind of oily substance on the LCD which had to be cleaned off - which was not so great. Then, although it is crystal clear and a good size at 3 inches, I found the LCD image was bleached and washed out - the greens often looking almost yellow. The quality of the pictures when I downloaded to the laptop was generally better but some were still disappointing (and based on my other cameras this should not have been the case) - suggesting that the camera had a problem. I returned it and have now received a replacement which, I confirm, has much better quality both on LCD and laptop and I am satisfied with it overall and will keep this one.

So, just to summarise the good and not so good points of the camera:

When taking shots it has a long 'recovery time', taking ages to be ready to take the next one - maybe I am impatient because I also have a Canon EOS 500d to compare with, which is pretty much instant, but even so... The picture quality on automatic is variable, from OK to very good (but the OK can be disappointing if you don't have time to fiddle with the semi-automatic and manual settings; I was used to better on my old Cyber-shot).

On the good side it is light, small, looks really good (in black) and has a range of 'smart' features that make it really simple to take reasonably good pictures. The lens extension is almost silent. When on automatic it 'knows' when you are taking a close up, landscape, etc. The wide angle is excellent for landscapes and big skies and the zoom is very impressive, particularly in relation to the lens technology. The panoramic feature is really great and fun - once you get the hang of it you can use it for all kinds of situations and with practice it works for vertical and oblique as well as horizontal pans. The non-automatic settings are the best bit which allow for a range of semi-automatic or manual applications - when (again with practice) the picture quality can be exceptionally good.

All in all not 5 star but a solid 4.

I have just bought this camera and have tried it out and takes great panaromic pictures so easy and it has the anti shake feature which helps me alot because I have a tremor and so this camera suits me great and the pics it takes is so easy and great animal pics too.

Recommend it to anyone and because it takes all kinds of memory cards very flexible.

Absolutely great camera! have a 10 month old son who was very difficult to get a photo off because he moves so quick! this camera is great for getting photo's of him on the go! plus the sweep panorama function is soooo easy to use to get a great result!

have had numerous cameras over the last 2 years and i'm glad i picked this one as it is second to none.

I got this camera as a gift, and i must say, this little camera works great. the 14.1 MP means u can have a bigger print, and the Sony Lens does a decent job.. the 10x zoom and Panorama are one of the highlights.. surprisingly the camera is packed with many features.. The macro shot is pretty good and that of the intelligent mode works very fine..

pros:
1.very good resolution
2. high zoom
3. good features
4. value for money

Cons:
1. grainy night pictures
2. the camera's color depth is not very good
3. a bit bulky for this price range.

But overall i am very satisfied with its performance. The battery life is good as well. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who has a little or no photography experience at all. In short a perfect Christmas gift..

Purchased this model (over the Lumix TZ8) as it seemed to be a bit more user friendly, which is key for the Mrs, who has no patience and detested technology that isn't intuitive.

So far, the camera is doing it's job, photo's look good (like being able to shoot 16:9 photos), video is better than our old Ixus 750. However, I do have the following niggles:

- TV playback, via the A/V cable does so only in 4:3, which is a bit naff on a 16:9 TV! (it could be I've missed a set-up item that sorts this, buy haven't been able to find it yet)

- The Intelligent Auto and Video shooting modes are at almost opposite ends of the dial - with is a little frustrating, as for 99% of its life this camera is going to be in one of these two modes (i.e. you can't just flick the dial one notch with your thumb to select the mode you want, you need to drop the camera down and rotate it round several notches (this may get better as I settle in with it).

- video and stills are stored in different locations on the card, the video being in a location that Picasa doesn't recognise, which means that it only brings in the stills and you needs to go and grab the video by and and push it into the folder with the stills. This is a little frustrating, but one hopefully that can be rectified with a feature suggestion to Google (which I'm about to do).

Overall the camera is very good, far superior to the original 5 MP, 3X sony that I had for the last 4 years. The image quality is generally very good. The camera is responsive and the flash is powerful. The video quality and the ability to zoom during a video are good functions of this camera.
I have noticed that some times the images are stretched at the corners .. the panoramic function is okay not as good as i would have expected ..the image is generally grainy and of low quality when taken in the panoramic view.