Christopher J Osborne

Introduction

If you just want to see some photographs, skip straight to the results section.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 was launched in February 2003 towards the top of their range of consumer digicams. It had a 5mp CCD sensor, a 4x zoom lens, 'Hologram AF' assisted low-light auto-focussing, plus their signature 'Nightshot' and 'Night Framing' functions. The V1 was a natural competitor to the high-end 5mp digicams from other manufacturers, such as the Canon Power Shot G5 and the Nikon Coolpix 5400. It was, however, considerably smaller than either of those cameras. It also featured a stylish silver metal body. But whilst it placed a greater emphasis on style than it's competitor, it was still obviously a serious camera aimed at photography enthusiasts, with its plethora of external controls.

The main price you paid for the compact dimensions was in the specifications of the lens. The Canon G5 features a similar 4x zoom range, but that was combined with a much faster maximum apature of f/2.0-3.0 compared to f/2.8-4.0 on the Sony. While the Nikon 5400 features a similar maximum aperture, but this time with an unusually wide-angle zoom lens (with a 28-116mm zoom range). So you pays-ya-money and you makes-ya-choice I suppose, but it has to be said that the Sony certainly features a compelling combination of a useable zoom range, high-end specification, and very compact dimensions.

In early 2003 5mp was still the de-facto standard resolution for high-end enthusiast digicams, but such was the pace of development in the world of digital cameras at this time, the first 8mp cameras were being launched before the end of the year (Sony themselves launched the F828 in August 2003) and by the start of 2004 8mp had taken over as the de facto standard.

Buying a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 in 2025

I found the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 relatively easy to find on eBay. With compact digicam prices in general on the rise, you're unlike to find one at a bargain basement price, but it's far from the most sort-after and valuable digicam either. I paid £42 for mine in very good working order and nice condition (though the pop-up flash seems to have a little bit of a knock which means it no longer sits quite flush with the camera body in its closed position). This included a 128mb memory stick card, and a battery, and a power brick that allows in-camera battery charging.

Take note that in common with other Sony cameras from this era, the V1 uses Sony's proprietary Memory Stick memory cards. No other manufacturer used these cards, so you're unlikely to have any lurking at the bottom of your gear cupboard (unless, perhaps, you're a long time Sony user), and they can be a quite hard to find. So either hope your seller has included one or budget for buying one on eBay (the biggest size you can use in the V1 is 1Gb).

Using a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 in 2025

Many of tha handling aspects of the V1 are typical for cameras of this era. For example, note that the mode dial has separate positions for things like set up mode and play back mode, which means when you're in these modes, you can't just half-press the shutter button to instantly go into back in to shooting mode. And also typical of early 2000s cameras is the simple tunnel-type optical viewfinder. The viewfinder will zoom as you zoom the lens, but framing accuracy isn't great (so you only get around 85% coverage) and there's no information beyond 3 LEDs just outside the viewfinder to indicate things like the successful acquisition of focus and flash recycling status. Most of the time you will want to use the monitor to frame your photographs, and doing so is essential if you want to take manual control of things like shutter speed and aperture, though the monitor is almost comically tiny! (I found that even with my glasses on I sometimes had difficulty using the monitor to change settings.) And you'll be glad you have the optical view finder for those occasions when the sun completely washes out that tiny monitor! And the signature Sony start-up chime is very vintage, and either completely adorable or really annoying depending on your mood

But it has to be said that the controls on the back of the camera are actually very well designed. The jog dial in particular gives great access to things like shutter speed and apertures when you want to take some manual control. And although the camera is pretty slow by modern standards (start-up and shut-down both take 3-4 seconds). But by the standards of the time, this is actually a pretty snappy camera, and I never felt overly frustrated by the speed of operation. Of course the fact that there is no RAW mode (RAW files always take an absolute age to write to card on cameras of this vintage!) helps with the impression this is a quick little camera!

Over all I found this camera really nice to use. Things like the squinty tunnel-type view-finder, postage stamp sized rear monitor, and charmingly vintage Sony beeps make the camera feel properly vintage, yet the well designed controls and generally reasonably snappy performance make the V1 genuinely useable, even today. And the 4x zoom lens gives a nice little bit of extra reach compared to the 3x zoom typical of the previous generation of digicams.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 results

Expect all the usual vintage digicam foibles, like blown highlights and very noticeable chromatic aberrations in high contrast situations (look at the first image of the leaves!), but over-all I really enjoyed the results from this camera… see for yourself…

Infrared photography with a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1

Two features that the V1 shared with the F828 were 'Nightshot' and 'Night framing' modes. Nightshot mode flipped the IR-Cut filter (that protect the sensor from the infrared light that normally spoils image quality) out of the way of the sensor and then uses a built in infrared light emitter to allow photographs to be taken (within the limited range of the IR emitter) in total darkness. The resulting images have a monochrome green 'blair witch project' look. Night framing mode used the same system to frame shots in the dark, but the IR-cut filter was moved back into place when the photograph was taken and the photograph actually taken using the normal built-in pop-up flash.

But you can use the so-called 'Sony infrared magnet hack' to move the IR-cut filter without engaging Nightshot mode, which effectively temporarily converts you camera for infrared photography. But there are several problems! The first is that you can't fit filters to the V1 without an adapter. The required adapters come with the optional V1 conversion lenses: The 0.7x wide-angle VCL-DEH07V conversion lens comes with an adapter that allows the use of 52mm filters, while the 1.7x telephoto VCL-DEH17V conversion lens allows the use of 58mm filters.

The next problem is that the V1 doesn't have a RAW mode. White balance is important factor in getting infrared shots right. On a camera that can record RAW format files you can fix the white balance fairly easily in post-processing. But on the V1 you need to get it right in camera. I haven't yet found a white balance pre-set that gives me the results I am looking for, and I haven't yet got around to tacking setting a custom white-balance on the V1 (though this is possible).

The final problem doesn't really have a fix: I found the V1 was unable to focus properly with either of my infrared filters (a standard R72 filter and an 'IR Chrome' filter). My F828 was able to focu perfectly with my R72 filter, and although it had some problems with my IR Chrome filter, I found I could fix these by ensuring the aperture was set to f/5.6 or smaller and letting depth-of-field cover any focussing errors. But this didn't work, at least not reliably, on the V1.

Over all, I would say that if you're looking for a low-cost way to experiment with infrared photography, you should skip the V1 and hold out for an F828. You can see some of my infrared results from the V1 below. Compare these with those I was able to get from the F828 on my infrared photography with the Sony F828 article.

A normal visible light shot for comparison.

Shot with the infrared magnet hack and an R72 filter, together with a black and white conversion in Adobe Lightroom.

Shot with the infrared magnet hack and an IR Chrome filter and white balance set to the flash pre-set.

Links

• Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 contemporary review (on dpreview.com)
• Sony Cyber-shot DSC-V1 Operating instructions (PDF)