Digital Home Thoughts: Sony DSCU60 Digital Camera Reviewed

Special Effects
Like many consumer digital imaging systems today, this camera allows you to apply special effects when taking a photo. The four modes available are negative art, sepia, black and white, and solarize. Each of these modes is shown below, starting with a photo of the view without any processing turned on. The subsequent photos have all been processed by the camera and not by software – I just tried very hard to keep the camera looking at the same thing all the time. That said, I've never been a great fan of using these options within a device since, once you've applied them, they are there forever. It is much better, in my opinion, to keep the image as close to the original as possible and then manipulate it afterwards in something like PaintShop Pro or Photoshop.


Figure 24: The untouched view. Click on the image for the full size image. (438KB)


Figure 25: Negative art. Click on the image for the full size image. (442KB)


Figure 26: Sepia. Click on the image for the full size image. (316KB)


Figure 27: Black and white. Click on the image for the full size image. (321KB)


Figure 28: Solarize. Click on the image for the full size image. (411KB)

Connecting The Camera To The Computer
The camera is connected via the supplied USB cable to the computer. If you are using Mac OS or a version of Windows other than Windows XP, it is likely that you will need to install the supplied USB driver.

When you do connect the camera to the USB port, it becomes powered by the USB interface and turns itself on automatically. For both Windows & Mac OS, once the camera is connected, the contents of the Memory Stick appear as a new drive and it is possible to browse the contents directly. The CD-ROM also contains image transfer software for Windows if you prefer to have the contents copied onto the PC automatically when you connect the camera.

The CD-ROM also contains an application called ImageMixer (not compatible with Mac OS X). This can be used to create MPEG-1 video files or complete Video CDs. The software is good as far as it goes, which is about right for bundled software, but you can probably easily find something better.

Printing Your Photos
The manual advises that the 2MP photos taken are suitable for printing A5 size (148 x 210mm). The camera includes support for the DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) standard, which allows you to electronically mark selected images on the stick and then have those selected images automatically printed at a shop or on a compatible printer. The box that the camera comes in also claims support for EXIF and PIM (Print Image Matching). I say "claims" because (a) the manual doesn't mention it anywhere and (b) trying to print the photos to my Epson Stylus Photo 950 (a PIM-supporting printer) doesn't engage the PIM feature in Epson's PhotoQuicker application. When I asked Sony about this, their response was that this only works if you use the MemoryStick directly in a printer and that the information gets lost when the images are transferred to the PC. I suspect that the author of the reply was confusing DPOF with EXIF & PIM. I have asked for further clarification but not received any yet.

If you do copy the files onto your computer then, in Windows at least (I don't have a Mac OS system to compare against), you can look at the properties that have been stored in the image. An example of the settings that are stored can be seen in Figure 29.


Figure 29: Settings stored by the camera in the image file.

Convergence or Madness?
For a while now, I've had a digital camcorder that can take photos as well as record video. Increasingly, though, digital camera manufacturers have been extending the capabilities of digital cameras so that they can record movies, and Sony with the DSC-U60 is no exception.

But I just don't get why they think we would want this feature! After all, the camera has no microphone, so there is no sound recorded, the maximum record time is 15 seconds per recording (on this model, at least), and the image size is only 160x112. When the 15 seconds is over, the camera goes back to "stand by", so if you want to record some more, you have to press the shutter button again. The video is stored as an MPEG file.

The quality isn't too bad, I suppose, given the above restrictions, and you can use the special effects discussed above, and the self-timer if you want to video yourself, but I don't think that the movie mode should be seen as too much more than a gimmicky feature.

If you want to see a movie made with this camera, click here (280KB). You may want to save the file to disc before playing it.

Conclusions
It is possible to get waterproof cases for a few digital cameras now, but the DSC-U60 is possibly unique in being designed to be waterproof without any additional hardware. That gives me peace of mind – I don't have to worry about whether or not I've fitted the camera into the external case properly. The camera isn't without its limitations – the most noticeable is the lack of zoom and the slightly slower than desirable focusing & photo saving. All told, though, I've enjoyed using this camera, particularly underwater, and longer term use will probably help me to get better results.