Sony Cyber-shot DSC-S500
- 6.0 MP CCD sensor
- Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar 3x optical zoom, 32-96mm equivalent
- 2.4" LCD, 110,000 dots
- 25MB internal memory
- Memory Stick Duo / Memory Stick PRO Duo support
- Macro focus from 5cm (wide)
- 2x digital zoom
- Powered by 2x AA batteries
The S500 is one of the earliest cameras in this archive, and its 6-megapixel resolution places it firmly in the first wave of genuinely affordable digicams — the point where digital photography stopped being a luxury purchase and started being an impulse one. Sony's Super HAD CCD design was built to maximise light capture per pixel even at this modest resolution, and it shows in daylight: colours are clean, if a little cooler and flatter than the punchier Canon and Nikon compacts of the same era. Low light is where the age is most visible — noise arrives early and the small sensor struggles without flash. The Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens is a genuine step up from generic compact optics of the time, giving sharper, more contrasty results than the price point suggested. A 3x zoom covering 32-96mm is modest by later standards but was entirely typical for 2005. Two AA batteries and 25MB of built-in memory mean it can shoot without a card at all, a reminder of how early this sits in the digicam timeline. For anyone chasing the rawest, earliest end of the 2000s digicam aesthetic, the S500 delivers exactly that.
Sample photos
