digital cameras

I love this camera. I don't have to develop film anymore or find a computer to remove the pictures from my camera when I am on a trip. I just need to pop in a new cd and keep on snapping! This camera takes great pictures in all kinds of light--we have beautiful pictures of sunsets and the ocean on a bright sunny day and clear pictures of us around a campfire. I don't have the problem of waiting for the camera between pictures like I had with previous digital cameras. You can also film close to an hour of mpeg movies on one disc. The battery runs practically all day, too. The only drawback I found was it was a little heavy to lug around Disneyland all day. We solved this problem by rotating it among our family members, though (everyone got to take their own pictures then, too). If you are a novice at photography like I am, this camera is for you. It is easy to learn how to use features like the zoom and flash (even without the manual) and takes nearly foolproof pictures, although you still have to remember to keep your thumb out of the way! The cds are great for storage of pictures--no more boxes of pictures that can get ruined over time or big, bulky photo albums. To anyone considering this camera, I say throw away those old rolls of film and buy this camera!

After a couple of years of using a Mavica 73 for web shots and a Canon 35mm for vacation photos (the serious stuff), I decided to upgrade digitally for a much higher resolution with the 350.

After taking some test shots, I realized I could trust this camera with the vacation and family photos that required superior reproduction for prints. The resolution is terrific! This is coming from someone who made money with theatrical, model, and advertising photograpy and even had a photo published in the World Book article on theater.

This is actually a computer that takes pictures and movies, and is easy to operate if you limit your technical requirements. There is very little intuitive about using the buttons & controls through series of menus, so I brought copies of the most important instruction book pages along on our cruise, and did refer to them two or three times.

Just like with the 73, the results appear much better on the LCD screen than on the monitor, so most shots needed photoshop enhancing to increase bot brightness and contrast. Of course, the corner drug store photo processors will also increase brightness, but they ordinarily do not touch contrast.

Also, several shots needed -cyan for better color balance -- just like the early 73 Mavica.

Two of my Sony disks failed in the camera, and my friend, who bought a 350 because she like mine, also lost all her photos when her Sony disk failed in the camera. The Sony tech support guy said "It happens," and sent me a replacement for the first one. But after 30 days, no more replacements. I did buy three costly re-writeable disks at $6 each from Sony on line, one failed with only 12 photos taken, but it was too late to get a replacement from Sony. "Sorry."

Luckily, I came across some software that lets users miraculously recover otherwise "lost" files on CDs and DVDs, and I was able to save nearly all the shots from disks that, when examined with Windows Explorer, showed NO FILES! I recommend non-Sony disks that are five for six dollar at retail, and the first five that I used not only worked flawlessly, but held about 30 more photos than the Sony disks. It's because of the latent possibility of such devastating disk errors that I took one star off the rating.

Also, the file transfer software supplied with the camera does not display any text, so I have to rely on using a magnifying glass to read the tiny screen captures in the instruction manual.

Neither Sony nor the software publisher's tech support could help with this stupidity, and each referred me to the other.

We bought this camera in Mid-January. And Both my husband and I love it. This camera has EVERYTHING we could want. And is SO much better than my cheap Kodak DC3200. We are expecting our 4th and final baby in June. And this is another reason why we purchased it. Although we didn't pay 399. for it. We paid 379.00. The clarity of these pictures are just AWESOME! We have even printed them out and they are SO clear! I would purchase this camera again in a heartbeat!