Back when I purchased my Mavica, 640 x 480 pixels was the upper end of the range on picture resolution and there was no other choice of photo size in that camera. Since that time the measurement is now in megapixels with a whole host of different choices for picture resolutions all in the same camera. Obviously there have been a lot of improvements in digital technology in four years but comparing my new Sony DSC-S70 with my older Mavica is a quantum leap forward in technology and quality.

I purchased my Mavica to use primarily in my work, taking pictures of the industrial equipment I appraise, for which it still does a good job. But when taking portraits, the Mavica leaves a lot to be desired.

In the past four years the quality output of color printers has also taken a major leap forward, the result of which is I have a couple of good printers available to me, so I thought it was about time I got serious about purchasing myself a "better-quality" digital camera. I’ve always been one to stick with a brand I like so when I started my research I was prejudiced towards purchasing another Sony, and I had really gotten used to being able to save my photos on a floppy. I looked at some of the newer Mavicas that still save to a floppy but obviously the larger 3.3 megapixel output with up to 2048 x 1536 image size that I was wanting would not fit on a floppy, or at least that’s what I thought.

During my research I learned about the new "Memory Stick" that Cyber-shot uses to save the photos on. The memory stick is 2" x .75" x .125" thick or about one half the size of a pack of book matches. Although the Cyber-shot comes with a USB connector for accessing the files via a PC, the memory stick can also be removed from the camera and slid inside a "Memory Stick/Floppy Disk Adapter", which in turn can be inserted into a standard floppy drive. (Drivers are required to be installed on the receiving PC to use the floppy adapter and the USB adapter – and it does not work with Windows 2000.)

Okay… enough history, here’s a review of the specifics:

· Color depth is 24 bit or 16.7 million colors

· Resolution is 2,048 x 1,536 (high - 1.3 Mb file size), 1,600 x 1,200 (middle – 850 Kb), 1,280 x 960 (low – 525 Kb), 640 x 480 (extra-low – 60 Kb), 320 x 240 (video mode – 1.368 Mb for 60 seconds). I must say though, the quality of the picture of a 640 x 480 on this camera compared to the previous camera is excellent. Must be the lens.

· Image formats are JPEG (.jpg), TIFF (.tif), MPEG (.mpg) and TEXT (.gif). (The text is for taking photos of text for possible later scanning and OCR or just reading.)

· Image sensor is 1/1.8" CCD chip with 3,340,000 pixels.

· Removable memory is 8 Mb memory stick included (no internal memory).

(16, 32 & 64 Mb memory sticks are also available.)

· Computer connections are USB, AC adapter, PAL/NTSC video adapter, & audio output.

· Focal length is equal to a 35 mm camera with a Carl Zeiss™ Vario-Sonnar 3X optical Zoom lens (34 to 102 mm) & 6X precision digital zoom.

· Power supply is a lithium-ion rechargeable battery with an AC adapter with 2.5 hours battery life.

· Focusing is automatic (4 cm to infinity) or manual.

· Exposure control is program AE, aperture priority & shutter priority.

· Aperture is F2.0 to F8.

· View finder is a 2" TFT LCD monitor with diopter adjustment and LED status indicators, High Quality 16 frame/sec 1/4 VGA mode with full screen playback. And there is also a standard optical viewfinder.

· The built in flash is flash on, flash off, auto flash, and red-eye reduction. There is also a connection for an external flash too.

· Also included is a self-timer and pictures can be deleted singularly or all at once.

The Cyber-shot DS-S70 has a built-in microphone on top and a speaker on the side. It comes with an 8 Mb memory stick that’s really too small for taking many pictures. I purchased an extra 32 Mb card for $79 when I bought the camera and have had plenty of room to take all sorts of different sized still and motion images. The camera is very light and has a feel similar to a standard 35 mm camera. The onscreen user interface was a little confusing at first, so I broke down and read the manual. After that it was a piece of cake. The last picture taken can be easily viewed with one click, and if the picture is not what you wanted, with a couple of more quick clicks, it can be easily be erased or the file can be protected against erasing.