Sony Cybershot DSC S950 Review

The Sony Cybershot DSC S950 is an entry level digital camera. It is easy to use. Key features include a 10 megapixel sensor and a 4x optical zoom lens.

The Cybershot DSC S950 is relatively cheap for a digital camera from a known brand. It has a good sized LCD screen and you can increase the amount of zoom available when shooting at low resolutions.

Outdoor 1 (Medium Zoom)
The sharpness of the picture is about average for a camera in this price bracket. One problem is the lack of detail the Cybershot DSC S950 is able to capture in the brightest areas of the photo. An example of this can be seen in the white, wooden slats under the roof of the building.

Outdoor 2 (No Zoom)
This is the most challenging test shot when it comes to sharpness. The Cybershot DSC S950 handles in well enough. As long as you do not have exceptionally high expectations for landscape shots you should be happy with simple snapshots of scenes like this one.

Outdoor 3 (Maximum Zoom)
Using full zoom the Cybershot DSC S950 finds focusing harder. Even with a camera in this price bracket a camera should be able to add greater clarity to the shot.

Outdoor 4 (Building)
Focusing improves with the zoom less than fully extended. It is true that focusing is not perfect with the Cybershot DSC S950, but it is inline with many other entry level models.

Outdoor Portrait
There are no issues with focusing, but one or two areas of the photo could do with a bit of extra light. This issue is likely to be related to the problem of the very light areas in other shots. The range of dark and light areas the Cybershot DSC S950 is able to capture is limited.

Indoor Portrait with Flash
Apart from a slight orange colour caste I am very happy with this picture. The lighting provided by the flash is even and almost all areas of the photo are lit correctly.

Indoor Portrait without Flash
This is another good effort, especially when taking into account the low price tag of the camera. There is better definition showing in this photo than many more expensive digital cameras manage.

Colours
The colours are perhaps a touch stronger than many digital cameras produce. This is a matter of personal taste and you may like photos with a bit more punch to them.

Macro
The macro shot is o.k., but it has picked up a blue colour caste. This suggests the Cybershot DSC S950 has a problem with the artificial lighting I have used. This is quite easy to put right with some image editing software. You can also try different white balance settings to improve results. This should not be a problem when taking close up shots in natural light.

ISO 400 and ISO 1600
I have detected some extra noise showing in my test photos than is normal. It is not a major issue, especially on snapshot sized photos.

Overall
I am happy with the test pictures I have taken. They may not be perfect, but for this level of camera they are acceptable.

Shutter lag times were on the slow side. A single photo took 0.45 seconds while five clocked 13.86 seconds. With flash turned on times were very slow with the first photo taking 1.8 seconds and five taking 18.46 seconds.

Turning on the camera and taking the first shot took a long time at 5.45 seconds.

You can compare this camera to other models by taking a look at the Shutter Lag Comparison Table.

The Cybershot DSC S950 looks similar to so many digital cameras. It has a typically rectangular shape. It is available in black, pink and silver.

93.1 x 55.7 x 23.8mm

135g

Lithium ion (NP-BK1). Sony supplies a battery and charger with the camera. They estimate you should be able to take around 330 shots in between charges.

Sony has built 12mb of memory into the camera. It is also compatible with the following memory cards: Memory Stick™ Duo, Memory Stick PRO Duo™. Memory Stick PRO Duo™ High Speed(No Speed Advantage), Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo. You should be able to take around 3 shots before the internal memory is full.

Click here to save money on SD cards..

Very good. There are a fairly standard set of controls and it should not take you long to understand how to access the key features.

Ease of use

Turn on time - shutter delay - dark LCD screen - pictures with a lot of contrast - limited movie mode

The Cybershot DSC S950 is the third entry level digital camera I have tested in the last three weeks and I feel the both the Canon Powershot A480 and the Olympus FE-5000 are better bets than this one..

It is easy to expect too much from a cheaper digital camera, but I was left disappointed by the slow turn on times and the dark LCD screen. Picture quality from the Sony Cybershot DSC S950 is o.k., but there are better cameras around selling for a similar price.

Front View

Back View

Top View

Sample Menu

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 S950