Ready to get the party started? Sony is – the Party-shot IPT-DS1 is ready to turn MC by taking all your party snaps, leaving you to schmooze the room. But does it get the job done? Find out in our Sony Party-shot IPT-DS1 review.
The Sony Party-shot made its grand entrance last year, and reaction at the time was a mix of world-weary eye-rolling and curiosity to – quite literally – give it a spin.
Its chief party trick, so to speak, is relatively simple. A combination of motion-sensing on the rotating device itself, along with established on-camera tech like face detection and Smile Shutter, combine to turn your Sony compact into a hands-free photographer that will seek out pics all on its own so you don’t have to.
Setting it up is simple enough – the camera clips onto the Sony Party-shot , you flick the power switch, and off it goes, completely taking over the camera’s functions. A Menu button lets you control the degree of swivel, and how big the smiles have to be before the camera is told to take a shot (we’re not joking).
As you’ve probably gathered by now, the Sony Party-shot is pure gimmick, but Sony doesn’t really claim otherwise. And like all such gizmos, the key question tends to be a simple one: “does it work?”
The simple answer is yes. Set the Sony Party-shot up in a corner and you can set about working the room, with it happily whirring and snapping away in the background. It’s powered by a pair of AA batteries, which are good for 10 hours of action, plus there’s a mains socket if juice runs low.
The photos it takes completely changes the process of looking back over your pics at the end of the night. As you’d expect, the delete button gets more action than normal, as for all its technical wizardry a good-eye isn’t listed anywhere on the Party-shot’s list of features.
But to give it credit, it does a surprisingly good job composition-wise, and delivers a good, varied selection of images. You also get far more candid snaps than you typically would, which can be both rewarding and painful. Just like when using face detection on the camera alone, things like hats and glasses can cause issues, but that’s not really the Sony Party-shot’s fault.
Our biggest issue with the device is that it only worked with Sony’s TX1 and WX1 compacts at launch, with the HX5V and TX7 having been added to the list at CES, but that’s still a pretty small – and expensive – group. And at £130, the Sony Party-shot itself is by no means cheap.
So, party animal or party gimmick? Well, both really. The novelty value means the Party-shot is as likely to star in the show as document it, but that’s no big real: it’ll happily capture every “ooh” and “aah” from the gasping crowd.
