I have this a camera for about 3 months now. Enough time for me to say something. I'm a previous owner of point shoot camera. From 300, 640, 1, 3.2 mega pixel of various make & models (all ps). I have been to digital photo world since my first kid was 2, now she's 9. My main concern for a camera is the picture quality which is no doubt, this camera has clear sharp pictures. I don't care much about mega pixel. I've seen sharp and clear pictures taken with only 1 mp. I had mine set to 5 mp. This is not a pro or slr camera but picture quality is very close enough. Ergonomic, compactness beats the slr. Appertures, shutters, iso, focus can be adjusted manually just like the slr's.

These are the things I like with this camera, speed, you will be amazed how fast this camera responds between shoots, long battery life, we spend the whole day one of the amusement park here, did not bother changing my battery. most of my pictures taken with fill flash with the lcd monitor on. I got used to bring a couple of spare batteries. Dual media is great. I have 1 gig cf ultra and 1 gig ms pro loaded. I don't need to worry about running out of memories. Everything is great about this camera, my only complain is the on-board flash. It seems like you're getting enough light to a certain distance but this can be fix buy investing an external flash which I plan to buy in the future. (32 or 1000 ?) I don't know yet!

You will never go wrong with this camera. With this price, I paid more with my old sony 3.2 mp p-5 camera when they first came out.

I Own a Sony DSC-F828, and really wasn't looking for another camera, but the fact of the matter is that since the 828 is essentially a SLR camera, once you had the flash Etc. you got yourself one heavy piece of equipment!So seeing as we had a new baby coming along I found my self in the market for something lighter, but I was determined that it have as much of the power and capabilities as my 828.This was a tall order! The first camera wasn't a Sony at all it was the Canon G6 wich all in all was a fine camera and one I considered seriously until I saw the V3 on sony's web site. I sell camera's at BestBuy as one of my many jobs and I can tell you that that for every G6 we sell we sell 4 V3's heres why. First of all is the general design of the body, the G6 is essentially a box with a lens stuck on it! While the V3 is smaller and more contoured in shape and feel. One minus here, and I'm sure you've heard about this before... the eye piece on the V3 is poorly placed, and virtually useless, but with that big beautiful 2.5 LCD screen on the back you wont need it! As far as optics the G6 and V3 are just about dead even both having 4X optical, I give this one to Sony also because next to Canon I fell Ziess lenses are superior in optics and quality. (just an opinion) Next moving to flash ability, as far as on board flash this one goes to the Canon, the onboard with the V3 is useless for anything more than 5 or 6 feet away the Canon fared slightly better, both cameras equip with a hot shoe for an external flash, an when you slap the Sony X-32 flash on the V3 the results or nothing short of astounding again blowing the G6 out of the water! Another quick note on the V3 flash, if you plan on buying the V3's lense hood from Sony or here at Amazon include an external flash in your budjet! The hood does cause shadowing!! Word to the wise. As far as function the V3 has a extremely fast start up time, 1.1 or 1.3 seconds,The G6 was a little slower. Getting into speed hear me when I tell you this...if you want a camera faster than this you need to start looking at SLR's. This ain't no Nikon 2600 or a Canon A85, the V3 and G6 are both extremely fast cameras, again I found the V3 to be faster ( remember because of my job I get to do hands on comparisons) On virtually every other score I found the V3 to be the better of the two cameras heres a quick list of some of the biggest advantages the V3 has:
1.BIG LCD screen!! At last you can see what your shooting! Don't bother with the eye piece however, it just about useless!
2.Easy to read and navagate menus. If you want to start messing around with shutters and apatures this is your camera.The scene settings are great too, but I recomend using "P" mode for most of your picture taking! (just remember to have a tri-pod ready in low light!)
3. Video, video, video Sony is the undisputed king of on board digital camera video! Great sound, great Resolution It aint DVC, but it ain't bad either! You can get upto 44Minutes worth on a 1GB card (stick)! NO MORE CLIPS!!
4. Decent battery life. About 220 minutes per charge. Im not sure about the G6 (A friend of mine owns one, and he said he got about the same.)
5. Dual memory capability! A huge plus here! The ability to carry twice the memory ready and available right on the camera!Just flick the switch!If you are a volume picture taker this is a Gift from above for you. One minus however the V3 can't use Micro-Drives. (Maybe on next years model!?!?) The V4?
6. Picture. The V3 takes clearer shrper pictures than it's counterpart, bottom line. Not to mention the fact that you can crop your shots within the camera, and even select the resolution of the new image!! Fantastic! Beat the snot out of the G6 in ambient and low light settings. The G6 does have better ISO response, but not by enough for me to reccomend it over the V3.
7. A sane, Useful array of shutter speeds, and apature settings. I hate it when a camera adds a 40 or 60 second shutter delay, or a 1/2000 shutter speed, and then charges you 300 or 400 bucks for your trouble! Most mortal picture takers like you and me don't need these! (hell Im a professional photographer and I rarely do) the V3 shutter speeds range from 30 seconds all the way up to a scorching 1/1000, the apatures are set up likewise, It's a nice selection of speeds, allowing the use some really nice creativity options!
the apaturesThe Bottom Line, and what is it?
Sony has again set the new standard for so called point and shoot cameras, by increasing functionality and power while maintaining a compact size.Just search through Amazon here and you will be astounded at all the extra's available for this little camera! I like to call these new cameras Hybrids because they combine a little of both worlds. Sony proved they are the masters at this when they released the DSC-F828 which in my opinion is one of the most amazing digital cameras ever made! Tempramental but amazing! And that is where I can best describe the V3, It has many of the features and most of power of its predacessor (F-828) but is much more user friendly and tolerent of misgudgement on the photographers part. With the G6 like the 828 I found I have to work for great shots (not that I mind working) but with the V3 they just seemed to happen. The camera seems to act like an extension of yourself, and that is what any great camera should do. So to Sony I say Bravo again!! I bought one for my father, one for me and every damn accessory for it I can lay my hands on! If your ready this could be and will be the last digital camera you'll ever have to buy. To the Canon people out there don't get mad, the G6 is a fantastic camera in every sense of the words, but the V3 is an experience in photography not just another tool for taking snapshots!Sorry!
This is (if you'll excuse the pun) the best buy!

Do not buy Canon G6. Buy this one instead. I have done the research and paid the price for you.

When I buy cameras, the most important thing to me is picture quality. I have owned two digital cameras (3 MP and 5 MP, both are Sony) and I was upgrading to 7MP.

I narrowed my search to Sony V3 and Canon G6. I thought G6 may deliver better picture qualify because it has a bigger lens. I found out in a hard way that in this case, SIZE DOES NOT MATTER!

Here is the story: I bought a G6 about 3 months ago (at $599.99). I compared it side by side (same objects same conditions) with my 3MP Sony DS75 and astonishingly saw that my three-year-old Sony DS75 beat the G6 both in resolution and color of the pictures. I was very disappointed and decided to compare the G6 and V3. I brought my compact flash card to a local chain store that sells both the G6 and V3. The sales person was kind enough to let me take dozens of picture at the store using my compact flash card in both the G6 and V3. I compared the pictures at home. Every single shot (in door) by the V3 was better.

What about ourdoor pictures? I bought the V3. After coming home, I take many outdoor pictures using both the G6 and V3. Again, the V3 outdoor pictures have much better resolution and color. I was totally convinced that the G6 was just a piece of junk.

Another thing for the G6: It does not have date/time stamp unless you print in out in a Canon printer. Years from now, I don't want to check the time I create the picture file to figure out when the pictures were taken. If date/time stamp is important to you, another reason to forget about the G6.

I returned the G6 (paid 15% restock fee). I have taken over a thousand pictures with my V3 and I am very happy with it. Picture quality is much better with the V3. An excellent product.

-Well lets just start by saying that I am an amature photographer looking to take the next step up. I've shopped the market and for the price, nobody beats the Sony in picture quality, build quality, ergonomics (ease of use), or lens quality. Nobody. It's a sleeper, and before buying the new Canon Rebel, I accidently stumbled upon this camera. Mind you I already have an older generation Sony i've long since out grown. Right away I noticed something very special about this camera, its lag time (hardly) and giant 2.5" super accurate LCD screen. One of the fastest digital cameras on the market including the pro DSLR's. From there I realized that everything fit my hand well and seemed in the appropriate spot. Being an avid outdoor person, lots of mountain biking etc... I wanted a compact lightweight camera with a heavyweight punch. That is what this camera is. I almost settled for the much larger DSLR's out there. Glad I didn't. Small enough to fit in a jersey pocket, and super lightweight (for what you get) I hardly feel it when im out there. Yet I can stop and take pics all day (3hour battery life avg. on a single charge, very impressive!!)if I want too. The 1Gig memory stick was very affordable (got mine for $109.00) and I have yet to fill it up on a single outing taking upwards to 300 pictures at a full 7.2 meg resolution!!! Did I mention how good the pictures are? There are alot of reviews on this camera out there, that speak highly of the picture quality with one snag. There are alot of claims about the camera automatically going to a high F number in bright sunlight. This however is easily remedied using the camera's built in Aperature priority mode, or manual mode. So I wonder if any of the reviewers actually owned this camera? Even though that seems to be the only complaint from the lot, i've yet to experience what they claim as "reduced image quality, poor image quality" in bright light conditions using the automatic modes (Ill keep trying however, there may be some truth to it). However, i've already taken upwards of 1000+ pics with it and have yet to see the Sony duplicate that claim. On the contrary the little Camera really seems to shine in bright light conditions, taking for me the most crisp, clear, and color filled pictures to date. You can say I am happy with it and look forward to learning everything it is capable of, the next step is you! Ill save you from the specs/additional features as you can go see them for yourself as im sure you will be more than pleased/satisfied. I've seen it on price war sites as low as $439.00, for that price its a steal, for the $569.00 I got it for it was a real good investment and worth every penny.

I was looking for a camera to take better pictures of my daughter, who is only 5 months old and has a hard time staying still. Wanted a fast camera but not a DSLR. I can tell you that this camera is almost as fast as a DSLR, and has a ton of manual controls to allow for fine adjustment. I was basically a P&S guy, but the camera is so intuitive that I am having fun learning the manual controls and am taking much better pictures as a result. I also looked at the Canon G6 (I was also a big Canon fan), but the camera is too slow for my needs. I am VERY happy with this purchase!