A classy compact, but with a high price and some image problems

So many features and so much quality, in such a tiny body. Astounding

The best compact Sony yet, with bags of features squeezed into a very stylish package.

The 5-megapixel DSC-V1 offers a great combination of features and performance in a relatively small body. While it’s smaller than its prime competitors – the Canon G5 and the Nikon 5400 – there are even smaller models in this month’s company.

Sony’s high-end cameras have consistently impressed us at PC Authority, but just recently they’ve fallen short of Labs Winner status. The DSC-F717 changes all that, with its heady mix of image quality, features and design propelling it to the top of the pile.

Sony has a reputation in the PC Authority Labs for providing both quality and reliable products. The DSC-P32 is no exception.

The Sony DSC-F707 looks unusual: attached to the camera like an oversized appendage is the very large Vario-Sonnar lens, providing the F707 with excellent image magnification via the 5x optical zoom and 38-190mm variable focal length, coupled with 10x digital zoom.

The Sony DSC-P3 is a neat and very compact device with dimensions unheard of a year ago when we did our last digital camera roundup (Digital Darkroom, May 2001, p 42) especially for a 2.8 megapixel camera.

Sony is no doubt a technological behemoth, an innovative market leader in everything electrical, and fun. For Sony, digital photography is no exception, the DSC-S70 being the 3.3 megapixel entrant in the highly successful Cyber-shot range.

If there was an award for functionality in this comparison, Sony's CyberShot DSC-F505 would win it hands down, not least contributed by its use of the new Sony Memory Stick technology.