Sony Cybershot DSCW300 13.6MP Digital Camera Review

Posted on October 24th, 2008

Sony Cybershot DSCW300 13.6MP Digital Camera Product Description

The DSC-W300 includes a wide range of convenient features, including Smile Shutter Mode, which captures smiles the moment they happen.

1. The compact and scratch-resistant titanium-coated body
2. 13.6-Megapixel resolution, 2.7″ Clear Photo LCD display
3. Carl Zeiss 3x optical zoom lens
4. and Sony’s Double Anti-Blur solution for crisp
5. clear images
6. Face Detection technology that optimizes flash, focus, exposure and color for up to eight faces
7. Intelligent Scene Recognition that automatically detects five different types

Positives of Sony Cybershot DSCW300 13.6MP Digital Camera

• Looks and feels like a real Sony high-quality product.
• Has a good 2.7″ display which you can still use even in a direct sunlight, however with less visibility than the T100′s one in the same light condition.
• An optical viewfinder is a big plus – it is tiny and cuts a significant bottom part of the picture but might be very helpful on a bright sunny day and especially for the beach photos.
• The menus organized as the same way as in T100 plus several new features like the ability to choose the noise reduction level, to invoke the picture’s dynamic range compression so you can have more details in shadows on the highly contrast scenes, contrast and sharpness adjustments, etc.
• The colors are great – as the same as provided by T100 but with slightly more saturation.
• I read many enthusiastic reviews on the Kodak cameras especially regarding their colors quality, so about a month ago I purchased their new 12 MP V1273 still camera with HD video feature.
• V1273 really could take the real 720p HD video, but the colors on still photos were far away from that Sony’s level, so I just returned back that camera to Kodak.
• To be consistent I have to say, that the poster-size printing I ordered from Kodak Easyshare web-site of some pictures taken by my T100 camera were of a very good quality.
• The movies taken by W300 are almost the same good VGA quality as of T100 but with remarkable lower noise which comes at the cost of slightly less sharpness.
• The sensor of Sony’s W300 camera seems to have the stated 13.
• 6 MP resolution, but you can not really see that because of the low lens quality and here is where most of the problems come.

Problems with Sony Cybershot DSCW300 13.6MP Digital Camera

• The biggest issue of the new DSC-W300 camera is its poor lens which is a root cause of all its quality problems.
• The thing is – you can not take a full-size 13.
• 6 MP pictures.
• At most wide lens angle (1X) the actual picture’s resolution is not equal from side to side: it is high in the center with a big degradation to the edges in both directions.
• Imaging a circle in the middle of your picture with the diameter approximately 60 percent of the picture’s width.
• The actual resolution inside that circle is remarkably higher than on the same picture taken by T100, so I believe it is around 12-14 MP, but everywhere outside that circle the resolution gradually degrades and near the edges it is noticeably less than of my T100 with its 8 MP so I could estimate it as dropped down to 5-6 MP.
• If you are to take a shot of a group of people occupying the whole width of your frame then I guess those on the sides would not be happy with their blurred faces in comparison with the ones in the center.
• On the other hand, if you take a full-body portrait of someone with the vertical frame orientation, then most probably his/she’s face would happen to be in that relatively blurred area.
• When you apply the full zoom (3X) but NOT the digital one, the image resolution becomes equal across the frame and everywhere is lower than provided by my T100, so it looks like 5-6 MP on the whole picture.
• I’m not sure if it’s exactly the zoom or maybe AF problem, but it is the same on different photos.
• And one more thing: when you apply zoom on T100 you can set any gradation you wish, but on W300 when you release the zoom button it does not stop immediately and continues changing on its own for a while so it hard to get the zoom degree you want.
• It is not mentioned in the camera description, but unlike T100 in W300 you can not use zoom while capturing movies.
• I would assume if Sony provided an appropriate lens like the T100′s one then W300 might be one of the best P&S cameras because that picture resolution issue was one and only I experienced while everything else was very good.

Customer Reviews

I bought this camera because I need a compact camera that I can fit into my pocket. The camera does have good quality material, it gave me a solid feel when I hold it in my hand. However, the downside is the picture quality. This is a 13MP camera, the picture is bit blur unless I turn the noise reduction feature to its highest level. The speed of the camera also is bit slow, my son have to hold his position for extra second after I press the shutter. The connection cable is not the universal USB cable, which is make it little inconvenience. Finally, I wish it accept SD card.

Of all digicams I have used, including Canon DSLRs, this little Sony did the best job at retaining highlights at standard auto-exposure settings in contrasty sunlight shooting situations. I don’t agree with others’ comments that the lens is “poor.” The lens at mid-zoom and telephoto is fine. At wide-angle, though, the edges are noticeably soft; the center is okay. 13.6 megapixel is really overkill in this kind of camera. You can use the 8 mpixel resolution setting, have plenty of resolution for prints up to 11×14 inches, and get lower noise.

Tags: Sony Cybershot Digital Camera
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