2023 Weekly Challenge Week 6- Sony Cybershot S950

For this week's review I shot another Sony Cybershot camera, this one an older model from 2009 the Sony Cybershot DSC-S950.  This camera has a 1/2.3-inch 10mp CCD sensor and a lot less features to the WX50.  Its not nearly as small either and has the typical boxy shape that was common to digital pocket cameras in the late 2000s. This is another borrowed camera from a friend and it will be returning to him after finishing this review.

From the outside of the casing this camera looks very sharp.  It has a nice brushed metallic case and an engraved model name in the front plate of the camera. It holds pretty nice too with a nice weight, as the buttons and casing do not feel cheap at all. Some of the buttons are small and oddly placed which takes a hit in the ergonomics of this camera however.

Looks and feel are not the only thing that makes or breaks a pocket camera, and that was really the only thing this camera has going for it.  Like most early Cybershot cameras it uses Sony's proprietary Memory Stick (whereas the WX50 shoots the standard SDHC memory cards). 

Its screen is very low resolution with cold color representation (the actual photos the camera takes are much more vibrant then what is displayed on the preview screen) and has a very dim backlight; about on par with the display on the GE camera I reviewed (its abysmal).  This means its really hard to shoot in bright sunlight with no brightness or contrast settings I could find for the internal LCD screen. There was a lot of guesswork and mostly blind shooting when I was taking photos of the snow sculptures with it

The DSC-S950 is the epitome of basic. It even lacks a lot of the extra scene modes the WX50 had as well as the AI. It can not shoot in RAW nor Manual modes. It also struggled with White Balance on occasion, turning one of my friends into Shrek during a dinner outing I had it with at.

Three things makes this camera better then the GE camera I reviewed however:  Its sensor is vibrant and contrast rich when its spot on with the WB. The build quality is a lot better, and it uses a rechargeable LI-ION battery pack which is pretty standard for a pocket camera; its not a gamebreaker but it is something to consider.  On a computer the photos were a lot better then the preview screen would show, and lacked the haze and poor color saturation the GE had.  As far as handling and shooting I had a lot of the same or slightly different frustrations with this camera.

There is about a half second delay between when you press the shutter button and the shutter actually fires. Which is super annoying and means I have a lot of blurry photos since my hand had moved assuming the camera had already taken the shot.  It also means this camera is about the worst thing you could have when trying to take photos of something in motion as the subject will be in a slightly different position then when you had intended to take the photo.

Not surprisingly this camera did not handle indoor lighting that well at all.  But this was fairly common for pocket cameras of this era especially one that was not high end like a Panasonic LX3 or Canon S90.

The 4x zoom without a fast aperture also makes it meh to me; and while Zoom is not everything nor a dealbreaker when the rest of the camera is underwhelming it solidifies the case of it not being memorable in any way.

I do have to give it credit that its Macro mode was decent, and did a better and more consistent then the WX50 for the simple fact you could force Macro focusing.  It did a fairly decent job of the photo of the stadium miniature on the first attempt. But with the shutter delay you need to train yourself not to move the camera prematurely especially with Macro photography as even the slightest bit of handshake blur is extremely noticeable.

That said, the Sony Cybershot S950 wasn't the worst camera in this challenge by far (nor will it be the worst; I have far more terrible cameras then this to endure). Overall its just very underwhelming.

It can still get some nice photos as long as you don't preview them on its rather limited and meh rear screen and use it mostly for photos of things that are not moving with some pre-planning involved.  

So yes, it would work just fine for a family gathering where you want everyone to look and smile at the camera on each shot. But for Street Photography it was a bit frustrating to use because that half second of shutter delay is more then enough to miss a moment.

I did manage to get a few photos that turned out decent enough.  Having a CCD sensor meant the contrast and colors are boosted a bit but its far as vibrant of a CCD as something like the Olympus XZ-1 or Canon Powershot ELPH 190 (which will be on next week's review)