Cons: Uses proprietary Memory Stick media, noise at ISO 400, two-step aperture
The Bottom Line: I recommend Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-W5 if you want a cool yet capable camera with good optics, 5.1-megapixels, fast operation and a large...
The Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-W5 is a 5.1-Megapixel stylish digital camera with a 3x optical zoom, a large 2.5-inch LCD screen, Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar optics, powered by 2 AA batteries. Two Sony 2100 mAh NiMH rechargeable batteries and charger are included.
The camera stores pictures on a proprietary Sony Memory Stick or Memory Stick Pro and features fast USB 2.0 Hi-Speed connection to PC and Mac computers. It has 32 MB of built-in memory to get you started. The camera is very similar to the Sony DSC-W7, which has 7.2 MP resolution.
Two Reviews
I will provide two reviews below. The first one (short version) will be targeted to people who don't want to read through multiple pages of text to figure out if the camera has what they want and if it performs well. It is targeted to a casual user rather than somebody who cares about the small details.
The second version will contain the description of the more advanced aspects for those who are interested in them. By separating this information, I hope to avoid boring casual shooters to death with information about things they might not need.
Short Review
Before getting started I had to charge the batteries that came with the camera. I found two Sony AA 2100 mAh NiMH batteries and a charger. The charger is the kind that has a separate detachable power cord. The charger works in any country (110-240 V, 50-60 Hz) and you can get a different cord for different power outlets. It also does not block other power outlets on your surge strip or the wall, unlike some compact chargers that plug directly into the wall. But it is on the bulky side and I dislike having to carry around an extra cable.
The supplied charger can either charge 2 AA or 4 AAA batteries at the time. Once I put the supplied batteries into the charger and plugged it into the outlet, the wait began. It took more than three hours to charge the batteries (and they might have been partially charged when they arrived). This is pretty slow.
The camera itself looks nice and feels sturdy and hefty in your hand. It looks and feels durable. The controls of the camera have good tactile feel and the mode selection wheel requires just the right effort to rotate.
The W5 has an on/off button on the top deck, which powers the camera on/off when depressed and held. Once powered, the camera extends its lens forward and opens the lens lid. It happens very fast and you are ready to shoot in about a second after you turn the camera on.
Once you turn the camera on, the shutdown is even faster. The lens retracts very fast, as if it was spring loaded and the camera is off.
The camera's top deck also has a rotating mode selection wheel with the shutter release button in the middle. The bottom of the camera has a battery and Memory Stick card compartment lid as well as a standard threaded tripod mount.
The rear panel of the camera houses a large bright 2.5-inch LCD monitor, control buttons and a zoom buttons. The side of the camera has a rubber-like lid that covers the USB and A/V ports. The camera does not seem to differ in appearance or controls from the Sony W7.
The camera is very easy to use. I have not read the manual, but was able to use the camera and all its features in no time. The camera can be used by any member of the family and by photographers of all levels of expertise from novices to advanced ones (albeit it will not give you much control over the shutter speed or aperture).
Current Sony cameras use menus that look almost exactly the same. If you are upgrading from another Sony model or getting a second camera with the first one being also Sony, the learning curve might be nonexistent. The camera comes pre-set to Auto mode (green camera pictogram on the mode wheel). You do not have to do anything other than point and shoot - the camera takes care of the rest.
The camera uses 5-area smart autofocus (in non-manual modes, you can also select spot autofocus, continuous autofocus or preset manual focus to 0.5m, 1m, 3m, 7m or infinity). You press the shutter release button halfway to make camera focus (the camera shows you that it focused and beeps to confirm focus) and then you take the picture by pressing the shutter release button all the way.
You zoom in and out by using the zoom buttons on the rear of the camera. The camera has an optical viewfinder and a huge, 2.5-inch LCD screen that is accurate, fluid (slightly less fluid in the dark) and works well in the sun and dim light, but smudges easily.
If you want more control, you can select one of the scene modes by rotating the mode dial on the top deck (Portrait, Landscape, Show, Beach, etc.). For even more control, you can select Program mode, in which you can select ISO (100-400), white balance (albeit with no custom setting), exposure compensation, flash output adjustment (normal, low, high), metering mode (multi, spot), sharpness adjustment, contrast adjustment, saturation adjustment, color and picture effects, etc.
And if you want even more control, you can switch to the Manual mode, where you get to control aperture and shutter speed directly. The shutter speed can be set between 1/1000 and 30 sec (automatic noise reduction engaged under 1/6 sec).
The flash mode can be selected by pushing the arrow up button on the rear panel, the macro mode can be selected by using the arrow right, the timer by arrow down and the review of the last picture by arrow left.
The camera is extremely fast in operation. The camera takes less than a second to power itself on in either review or shooting mode. It feels almost instantaneous. It can capture images at about 1.2-1.7 per second in burst mode. In single-frame mode, the camera could snap pictures as fast as I could push the shutter release button - about one a second. The focusing takes much less than a second and the shutter lag (the time between the moment you push the button and the moment when the picture is taken), when pre-focused, is almost unnoticeable.
The zooming is a different story. It is rather slow and the camera makes rather annoying buzzing/insect-like sounds, but the zooming is smooth and lets you fine-tune your composition very well.
The camera has a 3x optical zoom (38-114 mm equivalent focal length) with f/2.8 maximum aperture at wide angle, f/5.2 at telephoto, which is rather good.
The camera lets you select the resolution for your images between 5M (2592x1944), 3M (2048x1536), 1M (1280x960) and VGA (E-mail) mode (640x480). You also get a choice between Standard and Fine quality. The Fine mode uses about 6:1 compression and the Standard uses about 11:1. Obviously, the Standard file size is half that of the Fine: about 1.3 MB vs. 2.5 MB at the highest resolution.
The built-in 32 MB memory can fit about 12 photos at the highest resolution and best quality or 24 photos with Standard quality. You will definitely need to get a memory card (Memory Stick or Memory Stick Pro).
Fully charged batteries last about 150-200 minutes (about 300-400 photos), which is very good. You can turn the LCD backlight off to conserve the battery power.
The camera produces very good photo with well-exposed, sharp, contrasty and richly-colored images. The flash does not create a cool cast, unlike some other cameras.
The camera has excellent auto white balance. Some cameras have trouble with incandescent lighting in automatic white balance mode and have to be explicitly set to Tungsten or Incandescent mode. Not so the W5 - it handles the incandescent light easily, avoiding yellow-tinted photos automatically. The photos in the incandescent light are slightly warm, but I don't mind. After all, you wouldn't want them to be cool.
The photos are rather sharp with only very small amount of softening in the corners of the frame - a non-issue as at most print sizes the corners are usually cut off. Again, this will not be noticeable in printed pictures however since corners normally don't make it to the print due to the aspect ratio difference and other factors. Plus, the blurriness is so small, you have to enlarge the image to 100% on the computer screen to notice it.
The camera lets you select automatic ISO or set ISO 100, 200 or 400. The image noise is slight at the ISO 100 in the shadows, gets more pronounced at ISO 200 and gets worse at ISO 400 (and some fine detail get softer to diminish noise). Still, if you are printing 6x4 or 5x7 pictures, the noise should not be visible at all and will only be slightly visible at ISO 400 with larger prints. With 5.1-megapixel shots it produces, you can print your photos at up to 11x14 inches with good detail (ISO 100 or 200).
Recommendation: I recommend Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-W5 if you want a cool yet capable camera with 5.1-megapixel resolution and huge LCD screen that produces excellent photos with print sizes of up 11x14 inches. It is extremely fast and easy to use.
Full Review
Features and Specifications
- 5.1-megapixel CCD
- Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar 3x optical zoom lens
- 35mm equivalent lens focal length: 38-114mm
- 2.5" color LCD
- Resolution: 2592 x 1944; 2048 x 1536; 1280 x 960; 640 x 480
- MPEG Movie VX with audio
- 14-bit DXP A/D conversion
- five-area multipoint autofocus and continuous autofocus
- shutter speed: (30 - 1/1000 seconds)
- variable ISO sensitivity and selectable ISO 100, 200 and 400
- macro mode
- built-in flash
- built-in mono microphone and speaker
- USB 2.0 Hi-Speed interface (backward-compatible with older USB 1.1 interface)
- compatible with Memory Stick and Memory Stick PRO (32MB Memory built-in)
- audio/video output for connection to a TV
Supplied Accessories
- rechargeable 2100 mAh NiMH Batteries
- AC charger
- USB cable
- A/V cable
- wrist strap
- software CD-ROM (for Windows® and Mac)
- manuals
More on Features and Controls
The camera has a low-light focus assist illuminator that helps it focus in low light. It focuses very fast in both bright and dark environments.
You can use the exposure compensation in the Program mode and it comes in handy in some situations. There are a bunch of scene modes as well, which help the camera tweak the focusing and exposure settings according to the type of scene.
Manual Focusing
The camera lets you select among 0.5m, 1m, 3m, 7m or infinity.
More on Image Quality
The camera produces contrasty photos that have a pleasing color with slight oversaturation (by default) and a slight warm cast. The dynamic range of the photos seems to be slightly limited, especially in highlights (as in other consumer-level digicams). In harsh lighting conditions, the highlights can be blown out. Overall, the dynamic range is rather good, comparing to other compact cameras. The high default contrast will please consumers.
I was not able to find much chromatic aberration (purple fringing) in the areas of high contrast. There is a small amount of blurring in the corners of the frame, but it does not extend far into the image.
White Balance
The W5 has auto white balance or you can choose among several presets including flash white balance (gives pictures too warm of a cast), halogen, incandescent, sunny, cloudy, etc. The camera has no custom white balance setting (using a grey card). The camera's automatic white balance favors warmer color casts, but does a good job overall, even with incandescent light.
Camera Sounds
The camera itself is rather quiet in operation, aside from the zoom mechanism that makes buzzing/insect-like sounds. You can customize the sounds it makes through its speaker and their volume.
Build Quality and Ergonomics
The camera has a solid feel and good build quality. The major controls are within easy reach and the tactile response is good overall.
Menu System
I have not read the manual, yet was able to use the camera in all modes. I like Sony's menus less than recent Canon menus or Panasonic ones. But they are certainly usable, it just takes more time to do the same thing with Sony menus than it does with Canon or Panasonic.
LCD
The W5 has a large 2.5-inch non-articulated (fixed) LCD screen and an optical viewfinder. The LCD coverage as about 100% - you can see exactly what will be recorded. The LCD is bright, fluid (unless it is dark), has good visibility in sunlight or darkness and very good resolution, which helps you confirm the focus.
The camera also has an optical viewfinder, that is on the tight side. You will not see everything that will end up on the picture you take, but it is a usual situation with zooming optical viewfinders and is preferred to the opposite (having thought something will be in the frame and then not finding it in the resultant picture).
Computer Connectivity
The camera uses USB 2.0 Hi-Speed connection to transfer pictures to a computer. You can also remove the Memory Stick memory card (if you use it) and use a memory card reader (if you have one).
I used the camera with the USB cable supplied. I did not need to install any USB drivers on my Windows 2000 SP4 computer. The file transfer was very fast at about 2,500-3,000 KB/s using built-in memory. You might be able to get faster speeds with Memory Stick Pro. This is very fast!
I have not used the software that was provided with the camera since I have Adobe Photoshop CS2.
Histogram
The camera can display a live histogram in the shooting mode as well as in the review mode to show you if you have overexposed the highlights or underexposed the shadows. I useful feature when you don't trust the LCD.
Reservations
I wish the camera has less noise an ISO 400. Still, you can print 5x7 or 6x4 at ISO 400.
I dislike the fact that the camera uses expensive (and Sony-exclusive) Memory Stick media. SD cards would be a much better choice for us, consumers. But Memory Stick is much better choice for Sony. That way they can make more money.
Also, the camera uses a two-step exposure control, which means you only get two aperture settings per focal length in the Manual mode. Not a big deal with small-sensor digicams, but Canon has real aperture control in their A510 and A520 cameras.
Bottom Line
I recommend Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-W5 if you want a cool yet capable camera with good optics, 5.1-megapixels, fast operation and a large LCD screen that produces excellent photos with print sizes of up 11x14 inches.
5.1 MP CCD captures enough detail for photo-quality 13 x 17-inch prints 3x optical zoom; 2.5-inch extra-large display Features Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar...More at Amazon Marketplace
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