This was my first digital camera purchased in Jan. 2004.
I've had it over a year and have taken hundreds of pictures with it. The camera has functioned well and is very easy to use. The main problem with it is blurred pictures. Very annoying. Out of the last 20 or so pictures we took with it almost half have been blurred. The LCD is too small to tell, so get ready for some disappointment when it comes time to review and print your pictures. At first I thought it was user error and that they weren't waiting for the AF to finish, but it happens to me, too. The default shutter speed indoors is 1/30th /sec. which meant a tripod in my old SLR days. After looking at the last batch of blurry shots on the Memory Stick I hung it up and bought a DSC-W1.
The DSC-P72 is also very slow between shots, frustrating when trying to capture an unwilling subject, such as a small child.

It's priced well an gets well lit photos.

It doesn't focus as well shooting indoors. The more light there is for focusing the better. The focus assist beam helps. Outside photos have no problem.

Also, with no flash, photos indoors can appear shaked, but not that bad.

Video capabilty to good for the price. You can start recording an image quicker even if its 60% of 1mp for video. Helpful when you have limited time and cant take a photo.

Useful modes, effects and beutiful photos make it a pleasing camera to have.

Don't buy a Sony. Period. Sony may make some great electronics but they suck when it comes to digital cameras. I bought a Cybershot DSCP72. The pictures were ok except at night or in low light. At 6 months, the flash stopped working. Now I can only take pictures when there is ample light. What good is that?

I had the worst experience with customer service. They kept trying to evade the issue and kept telling me it was the batteries. They told me that only parts were convered by the warrenty and it would cost me $139 just to get it looked at to see what was wrong with it. I wonder how much it would have cost to fix it on top of the $139. Sony was very unaccomodating. I am never going to buy another Sony digital camera, if any electronic gadget at all. I did not get any response when I sent an email complaining either. I am so disappointed with Sony.

So in summary do not buy a Sony digital camera. And if you do, do not expect to get much out of customer support when things go south with your camera. I know many people who own Nikon or HP and they all seem to be happy with their cameras.

My wife bought this camera for me. Within a year it has broken, i.e. it only takes pictures that are an undecipherable blur. Obviously something has gone wrong with the lens. Minimun cost of repair is $139-00 through sony.
Even when it worked it was useless in low light conditions. Slow shutter speeds made pictures fuzzy even with the steadiest of hands. Don't even try taking a moving image.
Very slow between pictures.

I think I will try the Canon next.

This is my first ever camera, and in comparison to my relative's and friend's cameras, it fares very well. Comparatively inexpensive against other cameras in its class.

Sony makes it very easy to just take photo shots on a whim and still comes out with great pictures. Of course, I had to teach myself to hold the camera still, but maintains excellent picture quality. I love the movie mode which allows for awesome pictore movies, great if you want to take family videos, but don't want the hassel of a huge camcorder. Or, just to capture that moment.

But, as wtih many things, it's advisable to get an extended warranty.

I bought this camera in November 2004 and by April 2005 it was dead. The lens motor is defective and even though it is still under warranty, Sony will not repair it. Thay want to charge me $140 to fix something that is defective in their camera. I would not buy this camera or any in the DSC line. I have seen many other reviews by others who have bought this camera and had the same problem.

I Have this camera and love it. No problems whatsoever and in fact i am buying another for my son. I happen to have lost my manual on this camera though and was hoping someone may have one they dont need/want. [...]

I have a sony cyber-shot DSC P72 and find it takes super photos, easy to use and have no problems with it whatsoever. Looking for another for my son...

i got this camera in 12/03 and i can't even remember how many months i struggled with battery issues, how many packs of rechargable NiMH batteries, and a battery charger purchase later before i read other reviews and found that it was a common issue for this thing to mass murder AA batteries. when it does decide to work, about 1/3 of the pictures come back blurry, even when the subject is standing still. sadly, i already invested in a nice memory stick for this garbage.

It worked fair the first year. Good pictures mixed with blurry. The flash re-charge took a long time (8+ seconds) with new batteries! Several times the camera has gotten into a mode where power off extended the lens out and then powered off the electronics. Conversly, powering on the camera re-tracted the lens and then powered off. It wouldn't allow you to take pictures in this mode. Now it is in that mode forever. New batteries, reset, etc. will not recover the camera.
I bought it on the Sony name because of reputation for good products.
I will not buy another Sony camera.
Read other postings here and elsewhere to find a similar trend of problems with Sony cameras.

I purchased one of these cameras a few years ago and still use it today for all sorts of photography. Eventhough the camera is a 3.2MP it takes very clear pictures, I remember when I took a picture of a friend, he commented that it looked like a picture taken out of an 5 or 6MP camera.

I have been nothing but happy with this camera. It takes 2 double A batteries and has been everywhere with me, from FL to CO, to the deserts in Israel, or the dams in Amsterdam. This is a really great camera.

I bought this camera and was fairly happy with it for about a year. Sometimes it took very blurry pictures, but overall they were good quality pictures and it feels good to hold. However, I had the same problem as "Niwot Bob" described below. After about a year I started having a lot of trouble with this camera, I couldn't get it to turn on or take pictures at all. I called Sony's service center and they wanted $120 just to look at it. I'm not the only person I've heard of to have these problems with this camera. I would suggest finding another model or you will be shopping for another one not long after the warranty expires.

I purchased this camera less than a year back, and it was a pretty good companion while it lasted. As such I did not have many issues with the camera, other than the fact that the flash usually took too long to recharge, for example, if I could get a snap of my nephew giving a piece of b'day cake to mom, then definitely the flash wudnt recharge in time to get a snap of the dadz cake feeding :(

But my main complain is that I had problems with the camera shutter. It just wouldnt open. As the camera was in warranty, I spoke with the people at Sony, only to be told that they would charge $120 to even take a look at the camera, their so called Labour charges... Well, then what exactly is the point of the warranty? With the new cameras costing around 100, this was exceptionally ridiculous...

Well, I am done with Sony cameras for sure...

Good color BUT NOT reliable to take clear pictures. TOO MANY BLURRY PICTURES! Thinking about class action on Sony as there are a bunch out there that have the same issue.
VERY disappointed.

Did alot of research before buying - had the camera 2+ years and it takes awesome and vivid outdoor pics but indoor tends to be a little "warm" (read orange/reddish) in auto mode. No dial to change settings - you have go into a menu system. Has good flash and takes good 640X480 movies (with sound) limited in time only by memory space. Only complaint is recharge time between flash shots - 3 to 4 seconds. I was surprised to see that it is still avaialable.

a good first camera, it is cheap and has good simple to use auto modes. The macro mode was a bit disapointing, it is difficult to get clear pictures with alot of detail but not imposible. low light videos or pictures with out a flash tend to have a red tint to them. It is a bit large for the features it offers, and the softwear which came with it was not very user friendly. I have been pleased with it for pictures of family and friends. pointing and shooting usualy yields good clear pictures which I have been able to enlarge to 16" by 22" with no distortion. The video mode works well for capturing fun moments, but most be taken in a well light area.

I've had this camera for three years now. I've experienced all the same issues as many folks here. The strange power off/with lens open, then reversing. The only thing I've done is immediately remove the batteries after turning on the camera while pushing the lens in. it works!

I have a suggestion for those of you with blurry pictures. This camera has 5-6 settings for the quality of photos. If you press the trash icon button while in regular mode (do not have an image up screen) the menu for image size will appear. These are jgs folks. They are pixel based and can be very small. Also jpgs are meant for screen viewing, not printing, so you need to boost them up in order to get decent prints from these images. If you want clear images..please try to use the highest setting possible in order for the camera to record as many pixels of information. I use the highest setting 3.1M (other options are 2.8M, 2.0, 1.2 and VGA (which is the lowest and will give you terribly blurry picutres). It's quite easy to mistakenly press this button and change the image size, (this happened to us once while on vacation..terribly frustrating when I discovered what should have been beautiful, mmemorable photos were all at a low resolution.) Please give this a try

I'm all for class action suit vis a vis the battery chomping and lens issues. It's uncanny how often this has happened to so many people.

I gave this camera to my children to take pictures of my grandchildren who live in another country. They post them to a site on the internet, and I can see them as well as order paper copies. The camera works well, and we are all pleased with it.