Sony Cybershot DSC-W5

Sony is renowned for producing highly styled consumer electronics, but the DSC-W5 bucks the trend in that, however you look at it, it's not particularly attractive. The Sony Cybershot DSC-W5 provides 5.1 effective Megapixel resolution as well as a very high level of Stamina battery life, easy-to-use functions, 32MB internal memory and large 2.5-inch LCD display. The appeal of this camera is strengthened by a robust aluminium metal body, which features a superb Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens with a 3X optical zoom. As well as its several fully automatic modes for quick shooting and ease of use there are also manual exposure settings suitable for the more creative photographer.

Sony Cybershot DSC-W5

CNET have posted their a Sony Cybershot DSC-W5 and rated it a 7.0 out of 10 or Very Good. They said-

"Although this camera took nearly 4 seconds to wake up for its first shot, it was quite responsive thereafter, firing off shots every 1.4 seconds--2.6 seconds with flash--and capturing 9 full-resolution images in burst mode at about 1.6 pictures per second. At 640x480 resolution, the Sony Cyber Shot DSC-W5 was just as speedy and had room in its buffer for 100 shots in about 60 seconds. Shutter lag was minimal under high-contrast lighting at 0.5 second but became merely middle-of-the-road at 1.1 seconds when the focus-assist lamp was called into duty under low-contrast lighting conditions.

We found image quality to be generally crisp, with even exposures in both highlights and shadows. There was a distinct tendency toward clipped highlights, however. The automatic white-balance controls were easily fooled by incandescent lighting, often giving us very warm color casts indoors. Flesh tones sometimes had a yellowish hue. Visual noise wasn't obvious until we bumped the sensitivity to ISO 400, and Sony's automatic noise reduction feature, which kicks in at slow shutter speeds, helped reduce multicolored speckles from long exposures. Chromatic aberrations were also kept to a minimum."

Feature set:
* 5.1-megapixel CCD.
* 3x zoom lens (equivalent to a 38-114mm lens on a 35mm camera).
* Variable digital Smart Zoom (at 3mp res and lower), plus 6x Precision Digital zoom.
* Real-image optical viewfinder.
* 2.5-inch color LCD monitor.
* Mostly automatic exposure control, but Manual mode is available.
* Built-in flash with five modes and an intensity adjustment.
* 32MB internal memory.
* Sony Memory Stick slot (no card included), compatible with original Memory Stick as well as the Memory Stick Pro format.
* USB 2.0 computer connection.
* 2 AA NiMH rechargeable batteries and charger included.
* Software for Mac and PC.

Additional Features
* Twilight, Twilight Portrait, Candle, Snow, Beach, Landscape, and Soft Snap modes.
* Movie recording mode (with sound).
* Multi-Burst slow motion mode and Burst continuous shooting mode.
* Email (VGA) modes.
* Shutter speeds from 1/1,000 to 1/8 sec in auto mode; 1/1000 to two seconds in twilight mode; and 1/1000 to 30 seconds in manual mode (with automatic Noise Reduction below 1/6 second).
* Aperture range from f/2.8 to f/10.
* Creative Picture Effects menu (black and white and sepia).
* Image Sharpness, Saturation, and Contrast adjustments.
* Self-timer for delayed shutter release.
* Macro (close-up) lens adjustment.
* Spot, Center-Weighted, and Multi-Metering modes.
* Adjustable AF area and three AF modes.
* Auto ISO setting or 100, 200, and 400 ISO equivalents.
* White balance (color) adjustment with six options.
* DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) and PictBridge printing compatibility.