Let me begin by saying that I have bought into Sony's proprietary technology for quite a while now. As an owner of a Vaio desktop, a Clie handheld and a Sony Digital HandyCam, it was obvious that when it came time to upgrade to a quality digital still camera, I was going to buy a Sony Cybershot. So after reviewing the options, which at the time consisted only of the P10, the V1 and the then-new U series of super compacts, I chose this model in the spring of 2004. Initially, my experience was good. I was upgrading from the 1MP camera that was part of my Sony Digital HandyCam so the image quality to me was astounding.
Other advantages were:
- Easy point & shoot right out of the box...it did not require my wife to read the manual in order to begin taking stills.
- Unlike my previous digital still experiences, this camera performs well in low-light situations. The integrated flash is capable of lighting small rooms.
- Battery capacity is ample and the features, although some difficult to use, are comprehensive.
Disadvantages:
- STARTUP TIME...don't expect this camera to be able to power-up and take a candid shot within 8-10 seconds. By the time you get this puppy ready to fire, the moment is gone.
- The menu tree is cumbersome and not altogether intuitive. Changing advanced settings is difficult unless all you want to do is switch modes (Program AE, etc.)
- As with most still cameras (Sony & the like), the included MemoryStick is way too small. So the purchase of an additional MS is obligatory.

My biggest beef with this camera, and the reason it earns only two stars is that it seems FRAGILE. After only 5-6 months of use, it began to occasionally have startup/shutdown problems. By the end of 2004 (~9 months of use) the auto focus was beginning to fail on a regular basis. Now, outside the 6-month warranty window, I am forced to pay $200 to $300 for LABOR ALONE to have the camera fixed, parts still covered under the original warranty. But still, this is a cost prohibitive solution.
So now I am at the crossroads with my Sony products. My PDA is approaching the end of its useful life and I find myself without a digital still camera that is capable of taking any pictures in focus -- remember the cyber-shots do not provide for manual focus. Perhaps it is time to consider a Canon product or other comparible vendor?

Right after the warranty expires, the camera will no longer charge the battery.
Of course I can ship the camera to Sony for repair, and ALL I have to pay is labor!

I recommend buying another camera or alternatively buy the extended warranty.

I've had my sony camera for over a year. I first bought it because with a 256MB chip I could get an 11 Minute movie that I could transfer to VHS. For the price I paid at the time $499, I should have bought a video camera. In my opinion the camera it's self really isn't anything to write home about. The lens is junk, my pictures always are pixelated. Compare a Sony picture with an Olympus, Minolta, or Canon, even with a lower amount of Megapixels the quality will beat sony at the highest setting. And if you reduce the Megapixels with Sony the images just degrades and the shutter speed is horrible. If a person moves slitely there is a blur. My choice after seeing and talking to friends is 1) Minolta 2) Olympus 3)Canon ... though the Canon is getting better and better with their newer rechargable battery. Anything else other than these is pretty much a gamble I wouldn't take...

I bought this Camera (which was my first) in March 2004 , so I've had it for 8 months .

First of all ,make sure that when you buy it , know that you're buying a high-end multi-media AMATEUR camera , not even a starting point PRO camera ... and that makes a huge difference.

Almost all of the negative reviews are either because of lack of experience in camera settings , and/or high expectations for not knowing enough about digital cameras and lens mechanisms .

The reason I bought this camera was because I was taking a long 6 month trip to India , Egypt , Syria , so I had a lot of exotic scenes and memorable moments to capture , I'm not a National Geographic photographer , so I just needed something small , elegant , handy with good quality .

Upon buying it , I raced to the next store to buy a Multimeida Pro 256 Mb memory card , the camera is otherwise literally useless with the bundled 32 Mb card ,I also bought a soft black case .

Well after going to three countries in the Third World , I can say that I'm very satisfied , the camera never failed me once .

As for the picture quality / flash /blurriness /shutter speed , there are enough reviews that resolve these issues , make sure you take the time to read up on the options and settings .

A friend has the Nikon Coolpix 4500 4.5 MP digital camera , he bought it a year before me , and his pics' quality are much better than mine , but don't let it bother you , Nikon is Nikon , SOny is Sony , Nikon is SPECIALISED in imaging and photography , the lens alone cost as much as the SONY DSCP-10 , when the 5.1 MP mode is used , unless the settings and surroundings are PERFECT the picture will be somewhat grainy .... print it on postcard size photos , or reduce the size to 90% , and you'll be ok .... if you expected a pro camera with pro 99.9999% purity lens , then you should have expected a serious financial problem .

battery life is very good , I'm yet to suffer from a problem that needed warranty (although mentioning the warranty details are useless here because I live in the UAE where Sony has a different policy)

Bottom line is : Sony DSCP-10 , does more than it should do when compared to the cameras of the same price range . It's overall very good , the small size and handling are a plus .

I highly recommend it .

From all the reviews that others gave for this camera, there were some inconsistent facts. Hope this review answers all those inconsistencies.

Fact 1: The camera does not support black and white pictures. HOWEVER, it supports Sephia, which is just like black and white, except instead of shades of grey, its in shades of tan color. Maybe this was added in instead of B&W because Sephia seems to look better than B&W. In any case any picture in Sephia can be converted by paint software to b&w (but you can convert color pictures to B&W using paint software too)

Fact 2: Blurry images can be eliminated by choosing the correct options. It is eliminated completely if you force the flash to happen (via option) during each picture. The flash brightness is adjustible. Blurry images happen only if the scene is bright enough and the default options automatically turns off the flash, and you can't keep the image steady. The only problem comes is when you wish to take pictures of places that are not too bright and the objects are too far away for the flash to brighten. In this case, forcing the flash to happen will remove any blurry images, but the long distant objects will be dark. For this special case, you need a steady hand or a tripod. Why do blurry images happen? Because the aperature is left open longer to gather more light for the scene. (Otherwise it becomes too dark in the picture). Any movement during the time it is open will end up being blurry. If you leave the flash on, the camera always assumes there will be enough light, so it always closes the shutter fast, removing blurry images.

Fact 3: Cool accessory to have for this camera is the 2.6X telephoto lens VCL-DH2630 (requires another separate adapter body VAD-PHA as well). It increases the total optical zoom to 7.8 times, which you will not regret having if you are taking scenic pictures.

Fact 4: The camera can take 22 minutes 37 second movies with the included 32Meg memory stick if you choose the 160 pixels wide movies. And with the default 32 megabyte memory stick, you can only take 1 minute 27 seconds of 640 pixels wide movies. Increase the stick size, you and increase the length of movies proportionally. So with 2 Gig mem stick, you get more than 24 hours of 160 pixel wide movies, and 1 and a half hour 640 pixels wide movies (length of most theatre movies). And they all include sound!

Fact 5: The camera has a deep list of features. Most of the people who use it will use the default automatic mode. There are two other modes (scenic, and programmable) you turn with the dial. It is in these other modes that you can get special features or tune your picture capturing options. The only thing you can't manually adjust is the focus, but the camera comes with many different auto-focus settings and predefined focus increments.

Fact 6: The camera takes pretty good pictures. See http://www.edepot.com/ebay.html for pictures taken with this camera.

If you are just an amateur photographer that is either finally switching from analog to digital or just want a decent camera to take on family vacations or school projects, this is a great camera. It is small, lightweight, and does just about anything you could possibly need it to do. It won't take pictures of hummingbirds feeding across a forest bed, but it will take a decent photo of the grand canyon. The quality of the 3x optical zoom is really good, but the picture is sacrificed slightly as you try to artifically enhance it with the digital zoom. The battery life is good enough to take on extended trips from your hotel or on a hike without having to carry around a charger or spare batteries. If you plan on taking lots of high quality large photos, you will need to get a larger memory stick (64 MB will work, 128 MB even better), but the memory stick it comes with will be enough to photograph your child's birthday party as long as you download the photos onto your computer afterwards. At 5 MegaPixels, this camera will pick up hairs on a persons head and it will even be able to define a flea in the hair. 5 MP is enough to make clear 8x10 prints. There are 6+ MegaPixel cameras out there, but at the consumer level there is really no point in spending the money on one (7.2 MP won't come in handy unless you are making 15x20 prints or are a student taking pictures through a microscope or a telescope--it is more of a prosumer level) All around, while Sony's camera lenses may not compare with Canon or Olympus, Sony makes up for it with their superior knowledge of how to make a great consumer digital device and turn it into a decent digital camera. It is a great value for the price.

I am using sony DSCP10 for over 1.5 yrs. and i have taken thousands of pictures. Picture quality is perfect. Never had any problem. Still in good condition.
Best part is .. You can connect it to TV directly, Computer. I can record video with zooming capability.
The memory stick that came with this camera was 32mb only. Now i have 1 GB of memory sticks, because whenever i go on a trip i carry this with me.

i have been using this camera since december 2003 and the camera is absolutely outstanding ! i have taken around 10,000 shots by this time and still the camera is working perfect to me.

PROs:
5MP
GOOD PIC QUALITY
1/1.8"CCD
GOOD BUILT
DURABLE
MOVIE WITH AUDIO

CONS:
SLOW START
SOME BLURRY IMAGE, SPECIALLY IN CASE OF MOVING OBJECTS
POOR BATTERY PERFORMENCE

but overall it's totally satisfying to me. a highly recommendable product.

I've had this camera for a few years but used disposables more often. Not good for sudden shots. Takes too long to start up, and the flash takes too long as well. By the time both things are done, the moment is gone or everyones tired of posing.

Also, it's never been dropped, wet, left in the sun, set on sand, ect. None of the meny things that could happen to a camera, but it stopped working suddenly. LCD screen is black with lines. Wish I had bought a cannon.

I paid over $1000 for this camera with ALL of the goodies. Last week, lines through the LCD, then totally black. I took exceptionally good care of this camera and only 2000 pictures.

My old Kodak DC-50 lasted longer.

Unbelievable. After reading dozens of reviews describing exactly the same problems I've had, I'll never, ever buy a Sony again. Anybody want to buy lenses and accessories for their DSC-P10? Call me at 860-210-9000. I'll sell 'em cheap.

Wow, my DSC-P10 just died yesterday. The screen went all fuzzy and so did the pictures. Based on the other messages here, it seems like this camera just wasn't meant to last longer than a few years. Too bad, for me. This wasn't a cheap camera at the time. I'm buying a Canon next.

....best money I've ever spent on a camera....and I've had many pre-digital models from all the major makers...

This worked perfectly for the purposeL shirt pocket carry everywhere, exposed to outdoors and none-too-gentle knocks and jolts. It ALWAYS worked. I used it hard and have 10s of thousands of photos from it....got the large memory stick when new...although toward the last few months it needs recharging more often, I have NEVER replaced the battery or had as much as even ONE problem with the unit.

A few things were annoying: slow to respond to shutter button, sometimes would cycle thru battery saver mode turning itself off when I was delayed in deciding when to use it again for a slow series of shots.

I'm in a quandry....it served SO WELL....and now it has been lost or stolen, I can't find it....and I don't know what to replace it with....

I bought this camera almost 3 years ago when it was just released. It still works fine so far, taking very good quality pictures, especially indoor, compared to my friend's cameras of other brands. Only one thing sort of made me disappointed about it is that the battery could not be ejected out after 8 months of the purchase. I was thinking to send it back for repair, but was too busy till it passed one year warranty period. Now the battery still cannot be removed from the camera, but it can be properly charged, and also, even after 3 years, the battery life is good. So, it is not a very big deal for me.

this camera is quite durable, cuz I dropped it on the floor more than 20 times and once I even dropped it with the lens out!

Do not use this camera at very cold area! I visited grand canon a year ago and it was snowy there. I tried to use this camera to take some picts, but the lens kept on coming in and out. So I have to warm it up with my body heat b4 it could properly function.

over all, it is nice camera. I am looking for a ultra thin fancy looked camera now , and very willing to go back to Sony brand becuz of the nice picture quality.

This is a great little camera, but is not a newer model.

PROS: The photos from this camera are fantastic! It's like you can't take
a bad picture! Very easy to upload pics and swap memory sticks.

CONS: The menu is a little difficult to figure out. I used the flash even during
the day. Subjects (people) shouldn't move until the second flash flashes.
Pics still turned out great with the daylight flash. ONE MORE THING - This
camera's software is not compatable with the newer Apple OSX (operating
systems). You can still upload pics but can't use other editing features.