Sony has long been reputable for it’s camera’s which have been spun-off, to be included in their Sony Ericsson phones, one of which I’m a proud owner of. They take great pictures and are always on the cutting edge of technology. This camera is no exception to that rule, the W300 launched as one the only point-and-shoot camera’s with 13.6 megapixels, killing any rumours that the race for the most megapixels was dying.
Look
The camera is coated with ultra-high titanium with a high-end finish that will cover up and prevent most of the scratches and fingerprints you put its way. The camera comes in only one colour which is black so surprisingly, Sony hasn’t offered an array of colours that sometimes include pink.
Usability
For the older generation, Sony has taken into consideration that the baby boomers eyes are not as good as they used to be and can’t fully utilize the LCD screen, especially outside. My parents never use the LCD screen because they can’t see it, so they are forced to use the viewfinder. It makes it very easy for them to eliminate competition if they don’t have a viewfinder. The W300 is still in the running as it is accompanied with a viewfinder just over the 2.7” LCD screen.
The layout of the buttons and controls are always an important factor to consider when purchasing a camera. If you can’t get the right settings quick, the opportunity might have passed. The LCD screen takes a huge portion of the back of the camera so Sony was forced to place all the controls on the right and thus it may lack much freedom. So if you’ve got chubby fingers or maybe a little bit clumsy, this might not be good for you. The buttons seem to be squished together as their are a lot of them in a small compact area. The zoom is in the top right hand corner, and below that is a turn-table for the scene selection (which to be honest, isn’t used that much anyway), and at the bottom right is D-pad for menu movement and selection.
There are two buttons on the bottom for easy access to two things. The first is to review your pictures and videos taken which is much better than the timeline access where you have to push the button sideways to change from shooting mode, to slideshow mode, to video mode. The second button is to use the feature PHOTOMUSIC. It allows for a more creative slideshow letting you upload up to 8 tracks, each 5 minutes in length and play them alongside your photos.
Features
Along with PhotoMusic, Sony has included many intelligent features like SmileShutter, double anti-blur protection, in-camera retouching, and a wide array of scene modes. My favourite scene mode has to be the burst mode that can shoot 5 frames per second for those high action moments. The camera includes 13 scene modes, so you can really experiment with this camera. The SmileShutter is a useful feature as it allows you to give up control to the camera as to when it takes the picture. Obviously by the name you can tell, that when everybody you’ve selected has a smile on, the camera captures the picture. Now all we need is an eye shutter to work in combination with the SmileShutter technology so everybody is smiling and eyes open when the picture is taken. A friend of mine has a Sony camera with in-camera retouching capabilities much like this one does. It’s very handy to make simple adjustments to your photo like: cropping, red-eye removal, adding effects, and recolouring.
Conclusion
For the price of approx. $349, this camera is an absolute steal. It’s got 13.6 megapixels, Super HAD™ CCD imager and the precision-crafted Carl Zeiss® Vario-Tessar® lens. It further enhances picture quality with the Bionz Imaging Processor. Enabling high image resolution and fast reflex, this state-of-the-art processor achieves crisp, clean images by improving noise reduction. On top of that you can view your digital photos directly from the LCD screen or plug your camera into a Full HD TV for an eye-opening experience. For a point and shoot camera, I would look no further than this camera.
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