Sony DSC S650
The S650 is a seven mega pixel digital camera with a 3 x optical zoom. The S650 has a very affordable price tag even though it is developed by Sony and is easy to use. As for its size, this is not really a camera which you could fit in a pocket and carry around but it is still portable enough being taken from one place to another.
Having dimensions of 3.56″ x 2.38″ x 1.16″ and weighing around 130g dose not make the S650 a pocket sized camera in general. The camera has Sony 5.8 to 17.4 mm (35 – 105mm equivalent in 35mm) lens attached to it. The S650 has 3 x optical zoom and 6x digital zoom. One can also make use of 14x smart zoom while in low resolution. The smart zoom feature helps increasing the zoom power of the camera and is a newly added feature in the S650. The camera has a 2″ LCD screen. In this department the camera really falls flat with the LCD becoming virtually impossible to be viewed under bright sunlight due to reflection.
Without zoom the flash works for 3.5m and with zoom in use this decreases to 2m.The various flash modes available are Auto, Forced Flash, Slow Synchro and No Flash. This also has red eye reduction. There are a few scene modes from which the user can choose and help the camera use optimum settings for a particular shot. The various scene modes available are Twilight, Twilight portrait, Soft snap, Landscape, Beach, Snow and High Sensitivity. Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent, Incandescent and Flash are the white balance options included in the S650. The aperture ranges between 2.8-5.6 (wide) and f4.8-9.7(tele). The S650 has the ability to get within 5cm of the subject to be pictured. One can take three shots at a maximum speed of 1.5 frames per second by using the burst mode present in the camera. The S650 has a self timer which can delay the picture to be taken by a maximum time of 10 seconds. Two new resolutions are available in the S650. The first plays back photos on a wide screen and the second takes photos the ideal size for making 6 x 4″ prints. Different picture effects such as Normal, Rich, Neutral, Black & White and Sepia can be applied as well.
Looking at the picture quality of the S650 in general it performs better indoors as compared to outdoor conditions. Outdoor pictures lack sharpness not only in the edges but also in the center. Brightness levels maybe a problem along with loss of detailing of the pictured subject. As for the colours, they are vibrant and natural but the colour balance is not maintained all through the picture with inclination towards brighter colours. The skin tones maintained in outdoor shots are good but the brightness level is a bit towards the lighter side. One would get the best out of the camera with flash turned on. During indoor shots with flash in use the camera works wonders with good focus and no red eye. Even in extreme low light conditions the camera works well providing well focused pictures. Even in macro mode the camera provides well focused pictures but the problem stands in the brightness area. Looking at various ISO levels the camera dose not provide any ground breaking result at ISO 400 with a fair amount of noise level present. It is better not to use the ISO 1000 option with pictures coming out completely distorted. Various ISO levels present are Auto, 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1000.
The shutter lag speed of the S650 is 1/8 – 1/2000 (Auto) and 1 – 1/2000 (Program). It can take single photo in 0.41 seconds and five consecutive shots can be obtained in a time of 8.30 seconds. With flash turned on this time increases dramatically with 2.20 seconds for a single shot and 22.50 seconds for five shot one after the other. So overall the sped of theS650 is slow as compared to other cameras available in the market. One can also capture movies with resolution of 320×240 pixels and 30 frames per second. Sounds can be recorded but zoom cannot be used while the movie is being captured. The camera needs to be zoomed before the movie capturing starts.
Two AA alkaline or NiMH batteries are used for powering up the S650. This has a 24MB of internal memory and is compatible with memory stick duo and memory stick duo pro cards. The S650 supports USB 2.0 for connecting it to computers and printers.
Overall the camera does come at a lower price as compared to most of the other cameras produced by Sony but still the picture quality expected from Sony is much higher than what the S650 provides. A couple of new added features and a simplistic approach might still not be enough to save this camera being described as a failed attempt in the market.
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Filed Under: Sony Digital Camera
