Sony DSC L1 Review

The Sony DSC L1 is all about style. It is a small, sleek and stylish digital camera. It is lightweight, looks good and you can take it anywhere with you.

With the emphasis on style the DSC L1 is likely to appeal to someone who not only enjoys taking pictures, but likes their camera to look good too. The camera is easy to use, so there will be no problems getting up and running. Don't be fooled into thinking that this camera is nothing more than a fashion accessory though. It takes good pictures as well.

The DSC L1 produced a set of photos that I would describe as clearly above average. The outdoor shots tend to be relatively trouble free with most digital cameras, but the colours, sharpness and the detail in each shot is up there with the best cameras I have reviewed. In the sample images, even in the dark areas of the trees and the brightest colours on the boats work well.

Indoors is another area where the DSC L1 performs well. The sample image shot of the bottles is taken in very low light yet is sharply focused and the flash emits the correct level of light so that the details on the labels are clearer than with most other cameras. There is a loss of detail in the hair in the indoor portrait, but again not to the level often seen. There is a level of red eye in the picture that is higher than normal.

The colour shot is not quite as vivid as some digital cameras produce, but quite acceptable in my view.

The camera doesn't have a dedicated macro mode and so it wasn't possible to get in quite as close for the close up shot as normal. The picture produced is clear and bright, but suffers from a slight loss of detail in places.

Shutter Lag
Shutter lag is the time it takes to take each picture. A constant criticism of digital cameras is the delay in between clicking the shutter button, the picture being taken and also the camera being ready to take the next picture. With the Sony DSC L1 I was able to take five pictures in the space of 12.28 seconds. That works out at a rate of 2.456 seconds per picture. I am not claiming that this is the most scientific tests, but it should give you an indication of the recycling speed of the camera. At the time of writing this is a new test I have added for my reviews. Early indications are that this is a faster than average speed.

The DSC L1 is a four megapixel digital camera with a 3x optical lens. The optical zoom is backed up by both a Smart Zoom feature that offers a further 10x zoom power and a digital zoom that can give you a further 6x zoom power.

For composing images and accessing the menu system there is a 1.5" LCD screen. There is a trend that sees LCD screens getting larger, so this one is on the small side.

The built in flash unit has a maximum range of 2m. You can choose to let the camera decide whether or not the flash is required, opt to have the flash always on, always off or set to slow synchro. Slow synchro is normally used at night when you would like the background to be lit as well as the subject. Red eye reduction is also available.

To help you take pictures in differing photographic conditions there are a number of scene modes you can select from. These are Twilight, Twilight Portrait, Landscape, Soft Snap, Candle, Snow and Beach. There is also a ten second self timer for when you would like to appear in the picture yourself.

To add something different to your shots you can choose to shoot in sepia or black and white.

TV quality movies can be shot at a resolution of 640x480. These can be shot at a rate of thirty frames per second. It is worth noting though that you will need to buy an upgrade to the supplied memory card to shoot movies at the highest quality setting. There is also a setting that lets you shoot low resolution videos that can be sent by email.

More advanced features include aperture settings between f2.8 and f5.1, manual focusing, shutter speeds between one and 1/2000 seconds, exposure compensation, white balance (Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent, Incandescent and Flash) and ISO equivalents of 100, 200 and 400. There is also a burst mode that lets you take a number of shots in quick succession.

All the necessary cables are supplied by Sony to connect the DSC L1 to a computer and a PictBridge compatible printer.

There are also a few features that you may like to see that are not available to you. These include no viewfinder, no dedicated macro mode and no there is no connection to a television set to display your pictures on a larger screen. To use a tripod you also need to use an adapter that Sony supplies with the DSC L1.

The DSC L1 is easy to use. There are very few buttons and dials to get used to and those that there are, are generally well positioned. The zoom control is on the top of the camera near the front and if I was being picky I would say that I would prefer it to be in a more accessible position. I am sure that you will soon get used to it being where it is. The control or select button is rather fiddly for anyone with larger hands.

As ever with Sony digital cameras the menu system is straightforward and easy to understand.

You can pick up a Sony DSC L1 for around £165. This compares to around £225 for a Canon IXUS 40 and £195 for an Olympus Mini Digital.

The DSC L1 is an appealing digital camera. It is difficult to come up with a direct comparison with any other camera I have reviewed as it has a style of its own. It is rectangular with an aluminium body and will certainly slip into a pocket easily. It has dimensions of 95 x 44.3 x 25.7mm and weighs around 122g.

Power is supplied to the DSC L1 by a rechargeable InfoLithium battery. Sony supply one and a charger with the camera.

Images can be recorded on either Memory Stick Duo ™ or Memory Stick PRO Duo ™. A 16mb Memory Stick Duo is supplied with the camera. There are two downsides to this. First the memory card is likely to fill up very quickly with either four megabyte shots or movies. The second is that you will have to buy a Memory Stick PRO Duo ™ to record the highest quality movies that the camera can take. A bit naughty really! Click here to find cheap Memory Sticks.

Style and build quality
Ease of use
Picture quality

No output to a television screen
No macro mode
No viewfinder

Well if you are style conscious and you are looking for a digital camera that looks the part and can take good photos to then the Sony DSC L1 could well be just the camera for you. Although there is an emphasis on style and design the pictures it takes stand up well when compared to other digital cameras. It is also a straightforward model and you shouldn't have any problems getting to know it.

Sony DSC L1 Front View

Sony DSC L1 Back View

Sony DSC L1 Top View

Sample Menus

Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information on this site, please make sure you double check the feature set and specification at the point of purchase.

Sony DSC L1