Sony Cybershot DSC-W200 > Reviews (7)

I bought this camera to replace my 7 megapixel DSC-P200 which was suffering from excessive dust on the sensor which was ruining otherwise perfect images. I was attracted by the 12 megapixels of the W200, but upon comparison between the 2 cameras, it is almost impossible to tell the difference in image quality. The main difference is the High Definition output, meaning the images are much brighter and colourful on the computer screen than non HD cameras like the P200. Although the images are not true High Definition on regular computer screens, they are still of better quality than non-HD models.

I am quite an investigative shopper and spend hours and days reviewing and comparing models and specifications. It has always proved useful and I hope to pass on my findings from endless researching, and lately testing of the Sony Cybershot DSC-W200.

The all metal body is very light, well balanced and stylish and only available in silver colour. One thing that I immediately noticed upon comparison with the P200 is that there's no dedicated area to rest your thumb, which I thought would pose a problem, but the slightly indented mode dial fulfills this purpose without incident. The buttons are a bit small, but manageable and well laid out.

The W200 can produce extremely large photos and prints, but 12.1 megapixels seems too much to be crammed into a camera like this and isn't any better than 7 megapixels quality wise, it simply means you'll get a larger image.
It is apparent that the compression on the images is too high, this is to reduce the file size and cannot be selected by the user which would have been preferred.

The cheaper Sony W90 has an 8 megapixel sensor, and can be purchased for less than the W200 but doesnt incorporate an 'M mode' or manual setting.

In the manual mode it is possible to adjust all of the features of the camera including shutter speed, aperture and ISO great for photographers wanting greater control over their images.
The shutter can be set to open for over 20 seconds, which is a really long time with the ISO set to 400, and I got great pictures of cars headlights from a dual-carriageway bridge at night which created a very clean black and ungrainy image. Setting the ISO to 800 produced slight grain for such a long shutter speed but was purely due to lack of light.

The Sony remembers these settings, which the Canon Ixus series doesnt'. The Sony keeps all the settings you used in manual mode even when you change modes and change the battery. The Canon resets all settings to default when going from manual to automatic mode.

The W200's Face Detection works well as long as it can see both eyes and recognizes multiple faces in a group. It tends to be inconsistant, in a group of 3 or 4 people it would usually choose one, occasionally all three faces, and a couple of times none, all under identical conditions.

High sensitivity allows for shooting without a flash in very low light, setting the ISO to 3200

Super SteadyShot image stabilization minimizes blur, and works in a similar way to Nikon's Vibration Reduction and Canon's Image Stabilisation which are only availiable on SLR lenses and have not made the transition to Point and Shoot models.

In-camera retouching and red-eye reduction is included as a tool, but in my opinion is a waste of time as the majority of users have a computer and photoshop or equivalent software which will do a much better job, as I have the found the in-camera option often only corrects one eye!!

Talking of red-eye, this camera has a problem of creating images with red-eye when using flash even with the red-eye reduction flash setting activated. This was not a problem with the P200 as the flashbulb was offset a small distance away from the lens, meaning the light is not bounced directly from the retina of the eye into the lens which creates the problem.

The 2.5-inch LCD screen makes viewing exceptionally easy, except when outdoors in bright sunlight when taking and viewing photographs is almost impossible, although this is a problem with most digital cameras, and not specifically this model. There is a Brightness Up setting which is practically indistinguishable from its standard state.

High Definition output lets you share your photos and videos on compatible HDTV screens, although images still appear more colourful and vibrant on non-HD screens than non-HD model cameras.

I hope this review was informative and I endeavour to add more details as I learn more from the camera!

Specification:

• 12.1 megapixels
• 3x optical zoom / 6x digital zoom
• Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar Lens
• Super Steady Shot image stabilization
• Face detection technology
• HD Ready output
• MPEG VX Fine video recording
• Auto and manual exposure
• ISO 80-3200
• 2.5-inch LCD
• Memory Stick storage (31MB internal)
• Lithium-ion battery