A fun, little, rugged camera that you can bring almost anywhere without worry, even underwater.The Japanese manufacturer brings a little extra to its U series with the U60. The lineage's recreational fun series just got more entertaining and enjoyable. New this time round is its waterproof feature, allowing this camera to enter water up to a depth of 1.5m.
Unlike the more traditional vertical and squarish shape we've come to expect of digital cameras, Sony has opted for an upright design with regard to the U60. The unit has a slight tilt just similar to the handgrip on the remotes of some radio-controlled cars. Don't be put off by the unusual design. We found this concept suitable for one-hand use which will invariably be required of such a "fun" camera.
Like the rest of the U series, this Sony has a fixed focus lens with no form of zoom--whether digital or optical. Unlike the other Sony U series cams, the U60 does away with a sliding lens cover, giving it greater leeway for spontaneous or unpremeditated shots. For protection of the lens, a rubber ring surrounds it like a hood.
The controls found on the U60 are both simple to use and easy to understand. There's a grand total of only six buttons and one dial found on this unit--one being the shutter itself! The rest of the buttons operate the bare essentials such as power, navigation, and the toggling between shooting and playback mode.
The biggest rave for the U60 is undoubtedly its waterproof feature. Similar to the Olympus Ã,µ[mju:] digital (where you will find rubber gaskets on the openings), this Sony goes one up by providing an O-ring like the ones found on waterproof cases. Continuing with the same design principle behind such underwater cases, the U60 has only one opening at the bottom of the unit which features a simple lock to prevent accidental uncapping. Under that waterproof layer, you'll find the usual external connection for the USB cable, along with the batteries and the Memory Stick slot enclosed behind yet another trap door.
Unlike the cameras we've been receiving lately, this Cyber-shot does not offer much means for creative freedom. However, it does provide various scene modes to accommodate some of the more common shooting scenarios, including a novel underwater mode depicted by a little fish icon on the LCD screen. The underwater mode adds more "reds" into the captured images, though at such shallow depths you really don't lose that much of the red spectrum anyway.
To target the outdoors individual, the Japanese manufacturer has also incorporated a hybrid LCD that allows you to view images in both bright outdoor conditions as well as indoor or lower-light environments. However, we didn't find the screen to offer much better performance over Sony's other displays.
Besides the shooting modes, the U60 allows for short 15-second video clips of a rather low 160 x 112 resolution. The snippets are stored in MPEG1 format so you won't need an additional player other than Microsoft's Media Player.
Other notable features include a durable rubber wrist strap, "AAA" batteries with two spares included, and a standard 8MB Memory Stick.
In our tests, we found the U60 to be really durable. To put things in perspective, this is one camera you won't have to worry about if your five-year-old gets hold of it. We've dropped the unit on the beach more than once, hauled it through the waves, and the unit came back unscathed.
Everything seemed great initially until it came time to take photos of objects. You really have to get up close and personal to the subject. So if you want to take good pictures of fishes or something that moves, you either have to be really quick or totally lucky. Aspiring wild life photographers should steer clear of this camera. On still life, the 10cm macro function performed reasonably well.
In terms of image capturing performance, we found the U60 to start up incredibly quick--a common trait for fixed focus cameras. According to the manufacturer, the U60 has a startup time of only 1 second. This puts it a split second ahead of Casio's Exilim EX-S series. Battery performance was also pretty good. We managed to average about 200 shots under intense shooting (with a mixture of flash settings) as well as some video clips under the sun and surf before its heart gave out.
For image quality, the U60 delivered usable photos though these were a little too soft for our liking. The 2-megapixel sensor prints up to 8R size. However, due to the inability to zoom, you'll often find yourself cropping the images more than usual. As such, don't go in expecting anything more than 4R outputs. We also detected slight barrel distortion in a few of our test shots but the problem wasn't as drastic as Casio's EX-S3. The U60's automatic white balance, on the other hand, proved adequate as it was able to handle most lighting conditions, although under indoor lighting conditions, we found the images to be slightly noisy. The colours captured looked natural and the metering generally gave well-exposed shots. In short, this camera is suited more for the rigours of the outdoors than the boring office environment.
While this camera isn't one you'll bring if you're finding Nemo (it's rated for only 1.5m), it does offer outdoorsy types something usable while still remaining affordable. Even though the image quality isn't something you'll brag about, this Sony gave us peace of mind by functioning under all the elements.
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-U60
Company: Sony Australia
Price: AU$599
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 1800 017 669
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