Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-W300

Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-W300 is yet another W-series high-resolution, compact, point-and-shoot digital camera.

Intro:
Sony DSC-W300 is one of the most pocketable digital cameras available on the market at the moment. It has excellent Carl-Zeiss Vario Tessar lens, 2.7-inch LCD screen and plenty of features facilitating taking great pictures, such as: red-eye reduction, face and smile detection, image stabilization and others.


Sony DSC-W300 pros:
+ Sony BIONZ high-speed image processing engine
+ Sony 13.6 Megapixel effective
+ Super HAD CCD image sensor
+ Zoom-coupled optical viewfinder
+ MPEG Movie: 640×480 VX Fine w/audio at 30fps (Memory Stick Duo Pro required)
+ 9 Area Multi-point AF system with 1.96 in. minimum focus distance
+ “Smile Shutter” mode
+ 2.7″ Clear Photo (230,000 pixels) LCD Screen with Auto Brightness
+ Built-in flash with Auto, Fill, Red Eye Reduction and Slow Synch
+ Live histogram display in capture and playback
+ Good battery life

Sony DSC-W300 cons:
- Only 15MB of internal memory
- Only 3x optical zoom (other models in the W series have even 5x zoom)
- Some buttons are too small and you may accidentally push 2 at the same time


The design:
Sony DSC-W300 measures 94.3 x 59.0 x 26.8 mm (3.7 x 2.3 x 1.1 in) and weights 187 g (6.6 oz). It is made of high quality plastic and ultra-hard titanium which makes it quite resistant and just perfect for a family with small kids. The back of the camera is dominated by the 2.7” 230,000 pixels LCD screen. On the right of the screen is the mode dial and a few buttons. Unfortunately, due to the very compact size of the camera and quite a large screen some of the buttons there are a bit too little and people with bigger fingers might accidentally press two buttons at the same time. But that is the price you have to pay if you want a compact digital camera. On the top of Sony DSC-W300 is the shutter release button, as well as the speaker and power on/off button. On the bottom is the multi connector I/O port and USB 2.0 port.

Performance:
Sony DSC-W300 has the highest resolution of all W series, but unfortunately, some other models have better optical zoom, so depending on your priorities you have a few models to choose from. Sony DSC-W300 has a 9-point AutoFocus system, Face Detection with priorities so you may set either Children Priority, or Adult Priority. Another interesting feature is the Smile Shutter mode which detects if the subjects are smiling and when they do the shutter is automatically released. Sony DSC-W300 has surprisingly good video mode and can capture movies in 640 x 480 resolution at 30fps. For such a small camera with small lens the Sony DSC-W300’s image quality is very good. Colors are well retained and with good exposure. The color balance is good and images are sharp, although at 100% you might notice some zoom. But you hardly ever watch photos at 100% and their quality is better than enough for printing, or watching at a HD TV.

Menus / ease of use:
As always with Sony the menu structure is very logical and you will most probably not have to consult the manual to find what you might be looking for. For beginners there is the Auto mode which limits the possible settings and automatically adjusts everything from color mode to white balance. The ergonomics of Sony DSC-W300 is good but, as I mentioned before, certain buttons are a bit too small so you might end up trying to push the right button a few times, at least at the very beginning. All in all, Sony DSC-W300 is an excellent entry-level digital camera for a family use.


Key Sony DSC-W300 features and specifications:
Sensor
• 1/1.7″ Super HAD Type CCD
• 13.9 million pixels total
• 13.6 million effective pixels
Movie clips
• 640 x 480 30fps
• 640 x 480 17fps
• 320 x 240 8fps
File formats
JPEG (Exif 2.21)
MPEG 1 movies
Lens
7.6-22.8mm (3X)
35-105mm (35mm equiv)
Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar
Image stabilization
Yes, optical
Conversion lenses
• VCL-DH0774 Wide (Optional, requires adapter)
• VCL-DH1774 Tele (Optional, requires adapter)
Digital zoom
2x (6x total inc optical)
Focus
9 point AF
AF area modes
• Multi-point AF
• Center-weighted AF
• Spot AF
• Fixed distance focus (0.5m, 1m, 3m, 7m, infinity)
AF assist lamp
Yes
Focus distance
5cm-∞ (wide), 34cm - ∞ (tele)
Metering
• Multi Pattern
• Center weighted
• Spot
ISO sensitivity
• Auto
• 80
• 100
• 200
• 400
• 800
• 1600
• 3200
Exposure compensation
+/- 2EV in 1/3EV steps
Exposure bracketing
Yes, +/- 0.3, 0.7 or 1.0EV
Shuttter speed
30 sec to 1/2000
Aperture
f/2.8-5.5
Modes
• Auto adjustement
• Easy shooting
• Program auto
• Manual exposure
• Movie
• High sensitivity
• Extra high senstivity (3MP)
• Extra high-speed burst (3MP)
Scene modes
• Twilight
• Twilight portrait
• Soft snap
• Landscape
• Beach
• Snow
• Fireworks
• Smile shutter
• Underwater
White balance
• Auto
• Daylight
• Cloudy
• Fluorescent 1 (White fluorescent)
• Fluorescent 2 (Natural white fluorescent)
• Fluorescent 3 (Day white fluorescent)
• Incandescent
• Flash
• One push custom set
White balance fine tune
No
Self timer
Yes, 2 sec, 10 sec
Continuous shooting
Up to 5fps (3MP), 1.9fps at full res
Image parameters
• Normal
• Vivid
• Real
• Sepia
• Black and White
• Color filters (Red, Green, Blue, Warm, Cool)
Flash
Range 0.2-5.5m (wide), 0.4-2.8m (tele), Auto ISO
Viewfinder
Yes
LCD monitor
2.7″, 230K dots
100% field of view
Connectivity
• USB
• AV - HD(1080i) (with optional accessory)/ SD
Print compliance
PictBridge, DPOF
Storage
• Memory Stick Duo / Pro Duo compatible
• 15MB internal memory
Power
• Lithium-ion NP-BG1 battery
• BC-CSG Charger