Sony DSC S650
The Sony DSC S650 is a seven megapixel starter digital camera. It has a standard three times zoom lens. It is easy to use and likely to appeal to anyone looking for a less expensive camera from one of the leading brands. The DSC S650 is on the large side to fit into a pocket, but is compact enough to be carried around without a problem.
Image Quality
 click for larger test photo |
 click for larger test photo |
 click for larger test photo |
 click for larger test photo |
 click for larger test photo |
 click for larger test photo |
 click for larger test photo |
 click for larger test photo |
The DSC S650 produced quite a strange set of test photos. For once I was more impressed by the indoor shots in poor light than with any of the other test photos I took.
My biggest gripe about the outdoor scenic type shots is the focusing. The pictures are simply not as sharp as I like to see. This is not just towards the edges of each shot but even towards the centre I feel the shots could be sharper. This is true of all three shots, one with the zoom lens half extended, one with the zoom not used at all and the final shot with the lens fully extended.
Another issue I have is that many of the test shots could have been brighter. This is true of all the outdoor test shots to some degree, but especially the second test without the zoom in use.
The glare of the sun also causes the camera a problem. The shots were taken on a very sunny day, but there is still a level of detail lost that I think could be improved on.
Colours are strong. This can be seen in the skies and with the darker green foliage in the outdoor shots. The test shot for colour shows the strength of the blue, but unfortunately areas that should be white have a blue tinge and areas that should be yellow have a green tinge as the blue mixes in.
Next up is the outdoor portrait. This is another photo where I feel it could have been brighter. I have no problems with the skin tones, but I would like to see the entire photo lightened up a notch or two.
Oddly the two lowlight photos are the best. Perhaps the camera works at its optimum with the flash on. The indoor portrait is well focused although it could also be lighter. There is no evidence of red eye in the shot.
In extreme lowlight the camera is able to focus well again. In this test the camera is fairly close to the beer bottles and the camera is able to lock onto the subject and focus successfully.
Focusing is not a problem with the macro shot. Again the problem is a lack of light.
Looking at the two test shots taken with higher ISO settings they are a big disappointment. Whilst it is rare for a camera to do well in this test the results show a lot of noise and deterioration even at ISO 400. At ISO 1000 the photo hits the dreadful mark.
Shutter Lag and Recycling Times
The shutter lag delay for taking a single photo was 0.41 seconds. This is just above average. For five photos it took a respectable 8.30 seconds. Turning the flash on and repeating the tests is a whole new ball game. Times increased dramatically to 2.21 seconds for a single photo and 22.67 seconds for five photos. Sometimes it seemed to take an age to get the camera to focus with the flash turned on.