2000 Unbiased Reviews Since 1999
or Browse:
Type
Brand
Price
Need
Browse By Type Find the digital camera that fits your needs
Browse By Brand Find a digital camera from your favorite brand
Browse by Price Choose a max price using the slider below
Max Price
Any

$150.00

Any Price
Buying Guides Find the perfect digital camera for... See more
Jump to a part
Advertisement

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-G1

First Impressions Review

Previous: Page 4

Modes

Next: Page 6

Image Parameters
March 10, 2007 By Richard Baguley
0 Comments
(add your own)
 
Manual Control Options
The G1 has no manual mode. Tere is no way to set shutter speed and aperture directly. The manual focus control is also curtailed, making this a pretty disappointing camera for manual control enthusiasts.
 
Focus
Auto Focus
In our limited testing on the PMA show floor, the auto focus of the G1 seemed to be suitably responsive. We weren’t able to precisely time the focus, but it took less than half a second to find the right focus spot, and it didn’t swim in the limited low light testing we were able to do.
 
Three focus modes are available:  the multi-AF mode uses 9 focus points around the frame, the center mode uses an area of about a third of the image, while the spot focus mode uses just the dead center of the image. That pretty much covers the basics, but there are none of the fancy focus features that other cameras are starting to include, such as face detection.
 
Manual Focus
The G1 has limited manual focus features, and that is an unusual thing to find in a point-and-shoot camera. You can set the camera to a limited number of focus points: 0.5 meters, 1 meter, 3 meters, 7 meters and infinity. There is no way to set the focus on points in between, though, and it seems like an odd way to go: why not go the whole hog and provide a true manual focus control?
 
ISO
The G1 provides a reasonable range of ISO settings, from 80 to 1000 with 4 stops on the way. There’s also a full auto ISO mode. It doesn’t however, provide the ISO boosting high sensitivity modes that we see on many other lower-cost cameras.
 
White Balance
The usual suspects are there for white balance: there’s a full auto mode, plus presets for Sunlight, Cloudy, Florescent, Tungsten and Flash lighting. There is no evaluative mode or way to manually enter a white balance preset directly, though.
 
Exposure
2 stops of exposure compensation are available, in 1/3-stop steps. But there is no way to control the exposure settings more precisely than this. The live preview reflects the exposure compensation, which is useful for estimating the correct setting.
 
Metering
The standard metering modes of evaluative, center weighted and average are available in the program mode.
 
Shutter Speed
The G1 has a shutter speed range of 1/4 to 1/1000 of a second in auto mode, and 1 to 1/1000 of a second in program mode. That’s a little disappointing at the long exposure end. This camera wouldn’t be good for very low light shooting.
 
Aperture
The aperture range of the 3x Carl Zeiss lens is f3.5 to f8 in both auto and program mode. That’s a pretty normal range for a camera like this but slightly smaller on its maximum opening. This will affect low light shooting slightly and force the camera to default to higher ISO speeds to compensate. 
 

Shop for the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-G1

Loading Recently Viewed Products
Advertisement

Latest News
& Reviews

Top Rated Point & Shoots

  • Panasonic Lumix FZ150
    Panasonic Lumix FZ150
    $459.99
     1

    Panasonic Lumix FZ150

    Excellent image quality, speedy performance, and a great design add up to the best superzoom that has ever graced our labs. That distinction seems to change hands every week, but trust us when we say that the FZ150 is a truly great camera. Read full 16-part review

    $459.99
    Read full 16-part review
    Types
    Any Zoom
    3,5.1
    3.1x to 5x Zoom
    5.1,10
    5.1x to 9.9x Zoom
    10,
    10x & Larger Zoom
    Any Megapixels
    0,8
    < 8 Megapixels
    8,10
    8 to 10 Megapixels
    10,
    > 10 Megapixels
  • Canon PowerShot SX40 HS
    Canon PowerShot SX40 HS
    $378.99
     2

    Canon PowerShot SX40 HS

    Canon's SX30 got a CMOS makeover that resulted in the SX40 HS, an impressive ultrazoom that captures beautiful shots in almost any scenario. Read full 16-part review

    $378.99
    Read full 16-part review
    Types
    Any Zoom
    3,5.1
    3.1x to 5x Zoom
    5.1,10
    5.1x to 9.9x Zoom
    10,
    10x & Larger Zoom
    Any Megapixels
    0,8
    < 8 Megapixels
    8,10
    8 to 10 Megapixels
    10,
    > 10 Megapixels
  • Sony Cyber-shot HX100V
    Sony Cyber-shot HX100V
    $427.95
     3

    Sony Cyber-shot HX100V

    This professionally-geared ultrazoom offers some of the best color accuracy we've ever seen. It's a shame the other scores weren't quite so strong. Read full 16-part review

    $427.95
    Read full 16-part review
    Types
    Ultra-Zoom
    Any Zoom
    3,5.1
    3.1x to 5x Zoom
    5.1,10
    5.1x to 9.9x Zoom
    10,
    10x & Larger Zoom
    Any Megapixels
    0,8
    < 8 Megapixels
    8,10
    8 to 10 Megapixels
    10,
    > 10 Megapixels
    16.8 MP
  • Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ47
    Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ47
    $314.95
     4

    Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ47

    Panasonic resists the urge to cram more megapixels and more focal length into their latest ultrazoom. The FZ47 instead focuses on image quality and features, resulting in an incredibly strong camera that we loved shooting with. Read full 16-part review

    $314.95
    Read full 16-part review
    Types
    Any Zoom
    3,5.1
    3.1x to 5x Zoom
    5.1,10
    5.1x to 9.9x Zoom
    10,
    10x & Larger Zoom
    Any Megapixels
    0,8
    < 8 Megapixels
    8,10
    8 to 10 Megapixels
    10,
    > 10 Megapixels
  • Canon PowerShot S100
    Canon PowerShot S100
    $417.00
     5

    Canon PowerShot S100

    Canon's PowerShot S100 improves on the popular S95 and takes its place at the top of the point-and-shoot food chain. Read full 16-part review

    $417.00
    Read full 16-part review
    Types
    Any Zoom
    3,5.1
    3.1x to 5x Zoom
    5.1,10
    5.1x to 9.9x Zoom
    10,
    10x & Larger Zoom
    Any Megapixels
    0,8
    < 8 Megapixels
    8,10
    8 to 10 Megapixels
    10,
    > 10 Megapixels

Features

Jump to a part

Shop for the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-G1

Advertisement
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-G1
First Impressions Review
0 Comments
(add your own)

Previous: Page 4

Modes

Previous: Page 6

Image Parameters