Editorial Review:Product Description:Here's a digital still camera for you, putting the power of creativity and the freedom to capture a moment just as you see it in your capable hands. If you thought you could only get true-to-life resolution, definitive control and stunning output from an SLR camera, check out Sony's DSC-S85 Cyber-shot camera. A digital still camera that combines exceptional control with extraordinary performance, the DSC-S85 is designed to deliver a huge array of impressive features. Its Super HAD CCD image sensor delivers an awesome 4.0 Effective (4.1 Gross) MP resolution, and the 3X optical/6X precision digital zoom Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar lens puts the picture in your hands. Experiment with tons of built-in features or take your picture the old-fashioned way. Other features include an AF and AF Illuminator light that can briefly illuminate your photographs and provide you with sharp focus in low- or no-light conditions, a 40-step shutter priority (8 sec , 1/1000 sec), 13-step aperture priority (f2.0 , f 8.0), and full manual exposure option.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
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Good camera for it's time
This was my first digital camera, I've had it since 2001 and have taken over 3,000 pictures with it. The image quality is excellent, My biggest complaint is that the auto focus is sometimes erratic. I've had pictures sometimes end up out of focus for no reason, and it's not always obvious looking at the display. Battery life is good. Camera has a good selection of manual features, Auto white balance setting consistantly gives great results, Build quality is excellent, The shutter lag is slow compaired to newer cameras. A very good camera at it's time, Image quality is as good as most newer P&S cameras.
Rating: -
The best first camera
I got this camera as a gift 4 years ago and it's seen a lot of use since then. This was a great first time camera. I took wonderful pictures with its automatic settings and even better ones once I learned how to adjust them to the scene.
Currently I'm upgrading. While I love this camera, there are much better prospects on the market now.
This camera has downsides that come with age:
-Size & weight are too much. It easily gets in my way.
-Turn on time and delay between pictures have both made me miss many spur of the moment shots
-Battery is big and obsolete. My biggest problem right now is I can't find the charger and if this camera only used AAs it wouldn't be such a big deal. When I can charge the batteries, they don't last very long. I always need to carry two fully charged ones if I'm going to be out for a day.
Still, this camera taught me a lot about digital photography with just playing around with it. I don't think I'd have picked anything else that was out there 4 years ago.
Rating: 
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Sony DSC-S85
If you're in the market for a digital camera, there has never been a better time to buy. The high tech electronics marketplace is absolutely glutted with digital cameras; nifty features and consumer options are way up, and prices are way down. Currently available digital camera models cover the resolution range from less than one megapixel to almost eight megapixels. An average user really only needs 4mp as this is great quality for enlargements up to 11 X 14. Many newer cameras on the market are overrun with too bells and whistles that make it difficult to find a camera that takes truly great pictures consistently. The DSC-S85 does just that, great pictures consistently and with no problems. I have had my camera for 2 years and never had any issues with blurring or poorly lit photos. The settings are straight forward and the camera is easy to use.
The DSC S85 has a Carl Zeiss Vario Sonnar 3X zoom lens, an accurate auto focus system, an optical view finder, and a 1.8-inch LCD display, all in a compact package that looks and performs like an upscale 35mm point and shoot. The 4.1 megapixel CCD provides superb images (2272x1704 pixels) that actually get pretty close to the resolution of a scanned 35mm negative (3000x2000 pixels) giving digital photographers excellent image quality.
Rating: -
Great camera
This is an excellent automatic camera. My husband bought it for me 2 years ago & I've been very happy with it. My only complaint is that the manual focus is pretty useless because using the display is an unreliable source & the viewfinder doesn't work for focus. I haven't had much of a need to use the manual focus however as almost every image turns out crystal clear!
Rating: -
A great camera with 3 small flaws
This camera does what smaller cameras cannot. It takes great pictures indoors and in poor light. It does so because it has a large lens and a powerful flash. Smaller cameras, having smaller flashes and lenses, can work well outdoors but can't compete with this one indoors or in low light.
The problems with this camera are:
1) It's too big to fit conveniently in your pocket.
2) There's an annoying delay of up to 1 second between when to press the shutter release and when the picture is taken.
3) It takes several seconds to turn on.
These three issues can cause you to miss a lot of pictures. So I keep this camera at home for family shots, where its strengths are important. If I'm going out during the day, when lens size and flash aren't important, I bring a smaller camera.
