Digital water sports

Life

1 April 2005

Here’s a camera suitable for an active lifestyle: Sony’s Cyber-shot DSC-U60 lets you snap photos in rugged, outdoor settings while skiing, hiking or even snorkelling. Yes, the U60 is waterproof – in fact, it’s capable of surviving a swim in up to five feet of water.
We dunked the 2-megapixel U60 in a swimming pool for our own tests; the resulting photos may not have been perfect every time, but they certainly were unique.

The U60 is small and easy to use. You can hold its vertically orientated body with one hand while operating such controls as the shooting mode and the settings menu. The solidly built camera comes with a large rubber wrist strap, a plastic housing and a lock-equipped bottom cover that closes tightly to protect the USB port, batteries and media card. The biggest complaint: The right-tilted LCD forces you to tilt the camera in order to frame a straight shot. Otherwise the orientation of your image will also be slanted.

The U60 carries a 33mm (35mm film equivalent) fixed lens and a built-in flash, but no zoom capability or optical viewfinder. It runs on two included AAA nickel metal hydride rechargeable batteries, comes with a charger and packs a meagre 8Mbyte Memory Stick that can hold up to 15 maximum-resolution images. However, you can always invest in a higher capacity card if you feel the need.

Sony didn’t design the U60 for serious underwater photography (the company suggests that you limit the U60’s swim time to about 30 minutes at a time). But if you enjoy water sports or just want a camera that you can knock around a little, the affordable U60 makes a fine choice.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-U60 EUR349

Resolution: 2Megapixels
Media: Memory Stick, 8Mbyte
Lens: Fixed, 33mm
Battery: Two rechargeable AAA batteries, included with charger