Probably because of its economical-looking
silvered plastic shell, the appearance of the Sony DSC-S600
is quite deceiving and may well hide the excellent value it
offers.
A very competitively priced camera, the S600 is equipped
a 6 megapixel resolution, a 3X optical zoom and a 2-inch monitor;
all features that are not uncommon on compact digital cameras,
but generally at a higher price. Moreover, the DSC-S600 has
more surprises in store, starting with its optical zoom.
Albeit small, the zoom of
the S600 is signed Carl Zeiss and offers a focal length range
that is equivalent to 31 to 93 mm on a 35mm camera. While
this optical formula sacrifices a bit at the telephoto end,
it provides a very generous wide angle, a feature that is
not available on most current compact cameras. Moreover, the
lens exhibits excellent optical qualities: images are generally
sharp across the entire frame at all focal lengths, and are
only slightly softer in the corners at the wide angle end.
Images also show that the lens does not induce any major distortion,
be it at the wide or the telephoto end, more than likely due
to the use of aspherical surfaces in the composition of the
zoom. Likewise chromatic aberration is only rarely detectable,
and is best described as minimal when it does occurs.
Aperture: f5.1, shutter speed: 1/60 sec.,
80 ISO.
The colours captured by the S600 are perfectly saturated
and very accurate. Surprising, however, is the fact that when
set to the Program mode, the most advanced mode offered on
the camera, the white balance is Automatically controlled
and cannot be set by the user. Even more surprising, however,
is the fact that the Auto white balance is often more accurate
that the white balance presets available with some of other
shooting modes. Indeed, even when used under incandescent
lighting, or other artificial light sources, the Auto white
balance yields precise colours.
The metering is similarly reliable
and usually produces well-exposed images. Nevertheless, used
with fall/winter light, the exposure system has a noticeable
tendency to favour the highlights, avoiding overexposure of
these areas while underexposing the shadows slightly. While
this method does lead to generally more pleasing shots, should
a more precise exposure of a subject in shadows be required,
the Spot focus mode should be used as it limits the evaluated
area to a small area at the centre of the frame.
As it is with many current compact
cameras, the S600’s weakest point has to do with noise.
Undetectable when photos are captured under bright sunlight
at low ISO settings, noise can become noticeable in the shadows
at 80 ISO when the image is captured under less than ideal light.
And, while at 100 ISO there is little increase in noise, it
starts to be visible at 200 ISO and can be seen in the uniformly
coloured areas from 400 ISO onwards.
The built-in flash of the
S600 is not very powerful and is not sufficient when it is
the only source of light indoors. While it is effective over
short distances, when used indoors in an average size room,
better results are obtained when plenty of artificial light
is provided and the flash is used as fill light.
The S600 can only save images in JPEG format, and the least
compressed format, Fine, usually produces images that show
no compression artefacts.
Still, when an image contains a
large amount of fine details, the compression can lower the
overall sharpness, an effect that can be seen when the image
is inspected at 100% scale on a monitor. Furthermore, should
the image contain some noise, the compression can make it appear
to be accentuated, again an effect that can be observed when
images are seen at 100% scale on a monitor, but not when they
are printed.
This said, the Sony DSC-S600
represents real value for money, and should enjoy a great
deal of well deserved interest at this time of the year when
the holidays are fast approaching. While some savings have
been made to position the S600 at this price point, in our
opinion the image quality was not sacrificed. Indeed, shots
captured with the camera and printed out to a 7 x 9.4-inch
size (18 x 24 cm) at 300 dpi have nothing to envy comparable
photos produced by much more expensive models.
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