View Full Version : Sony DSC-W300 review (simple and hands-on)


MichaelLangner
05-08-2008, 05:35 PM
Hi guys,

Now that I got my hands on a W300, I can say that it's really quite a great little camera.

Looks:
The titanium coating and the glossy bezel give it an immensely classy look. The main body is pretty resistant to fingerprints, but the glossy bezel and glossy seam merging the front and back of the casing are fingerprint magnets. Well worth polishing though, it's a good-looking cam.

The back of the camera is dominated by the really big, very sharp screen. The rest of the controls are laid out in a normal Cybershot way, but more on those in the next paragraph.


Controls:
The camera is very very responsive and in general the controls are laid out really logically. My only gripe is that the function settings wheel is a bit small, but not any smaller than the competition so I can't really say it's a fault. Maybe just used to the A700 controls. :)


Performance:
From what I can tell so far, it's a very very fast, snappy camera. Boot-up time is fast, shutter lag is very fast. For ISO performance of the 1/7 sensor I'll post sample pics later on. :)

karlosamson
05-08-2008, 05:45 PM
haha the w300 eh? we'll be subjecting one to 3 hardness tests: keys & coins, backpack jog, and floor slide, just to see how tough it really is.

MichaelLangner
05-08-2008, 05:50 PM
Go right ahead, but you can't use mine! ;)

MichaelLangner
05-10-2008, 01:24 AM
Here you go...

2 things are clear. Up to ISO 800, you can actually quite easily get good, clean pics. Good enough to print. ISO 1600 is still decent, ISO 3200 is really pushing it.

Also, the obvious "native" sensitivity of the sensor is ISO 100.

And for a PnS with a small lens and sensor... Not bad!!!


First pic is at ISO 80, second at ISO 3200, then the (poorly made, but still good enough I guess) compilation.

ISO 80
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c359/rashkae2/DSC00004_base.jpg


ISO 3200
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c359/rashkae2/DSC00010_base.jpg


Compilation
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c359/rashkae2/compilation-1.jpg

jeffreybuot
05-22-2008, 08:19 AM
hi michael, thanks for this review... ISO 3200 is nice indeed. im also looking this in sony summer brochure and it was mentioned there that it comes up to ISO 6400... im sure i read it as W300 :) can you confirm that?

if this is true... wow..

MichaelLangner
05-22-2008, 10:30 AM
hi michael, thanks for this review... ISO 3200 is nice indeed. im also looking this in sony summer brochure and it was mentioned there that it comes up to ISO 6400... im sure i read it as W300 :) can you confirm that?

if this is true... wow..


ISO 6400 is not supported, really. It's up to 3200, which is already a full-blown ISO boost. Not worth the degradation in image quality, but up to ISO 1600 is not bad at all!