[Q:] Sony DSC-W1 Anybody use this camera yet? Any thoughts?

Please let us know your thoughts on Sony's new DSC-W1 Digital Camera.

Good Points and Bad Points.

Thinking of buying one.

Thanks.

I own a Sony DSC-W1 since two weeks. Pictures look great and I have
started testing right now:

1. At the wide angle position of the zoom lens, there is a cushion-like
distortion, which is irrelevant at usual pictures. For architecture you
have to think about it. It is the price for the small lens.
2. The camera fits nicely into the pocket and operates fast. Almost not
shutter release delay.
3. Extra low noise.
4. Very important for an everyday's snapshot camera is the possibility
for spontaneous photographing. Normally, the accumulator is out of power.
A pack of normal batteries are always around or can be bought.
5. The are manual settings possibilities, as speed, aperture, distance,
sharpening, contrast and color saturation, which I often use. It is
important for postprocessing that the sharpening can be reduced. It can
be done far better by Photoshop.
6. Files are only in JPG. I'd liked a raw format in addition. JPG files
are compressed at a ratio of 1:6 (fine). When you convert into TIFF at
normal pictures, even specialists cannot tell if it was originally TIF
or JPG.
7. I am not quite shure about focussing. There are only 5 positions (0.5
m, 1 m, 3 m, 7 m and infinity). My depth of field calculator tells me,
that distances of 0.7 m or 1.8 m are not sharp??? My tests will be
focussed on that in future. At the moment I could not agree to my
calculator??
8. Flash is powerful enough to take pictures from groups sitting around a
table, which is not the case at the Sony T-1.

All in all, the W-1 is a phantastic little camera, which minor draw
backs. A small camera is always a compromise. This is a good one. I would
buy it once more.

AFH

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Please let us know your thoughts on Sony's new DSC-W1 Digital Camera.

Good Points and Bad Points.

Thinking of buying one.

Thanks.

Please let us know your thoughts on Sony's new DSC-W1 Digital Camera.

Good Points and Bad Points.

Thinking of buying one.

Thanks.

I just returned from a short trip to Las Vegas - my first chance to
use my new Sony DSC-W1 extensively. The outdoor pictures were great at
every distance. I took several aerial shots from the top of the Eiffel
Tower and I thought they had very good detail for such a long
distance. The colors were perfect. Running the photos through any
automated color correction resulted in little or no change. I kept all
of the settings at the default and full automatic. There are some
manual settings you can change but I chose to test the point and shoot
functionality at it's easiest. It is very quick from power on to first
picture and from picture to picture. I didn't miss any shots at all.

The indoor shots in the casinos were just a little dissappointing. The
casinos are for the most part fairly dark and the flash was incapable
of lighting up such large areas. In a living room it would be fine. I
did not try to compensate at all but I think that might have helped.

I also took several night shots of the strip and they were also just
slightly dissappointing. Again, I did not compensate for the darkness
but kept the default setting. I wish I had experimented some with the
settings for night.

In the very bright sun (101 degrees in the shade) the LCD was a little
difficult to see. I probably should have turned up the brightness but
did not want to affect battery life. The DSC-W1 uses NiMH AA batteries
and they performed extremely well. I took about 189 photos over three
days with LCD on all of the time and lots of zooming. The battery
power icon showed no degradation until the 3rd night after reviewing
all of the photos on the LCD.

As far as pocketability, I wandered up and down the strip with the
little W-1 in my pocket and it was barely noticeable but always ready
at a moment's notice. This is only my second digital camera. My first
was a Fuji 2600 (good in it's time) and what a tremendous difference.
Originally I didn't even want to consider Sony because of the
proprietary memory stick but I am glad I did. It stacks up well
against any of the other currently available 5.1 mp cameras and at
$100 less (MSRP) you can afford the memory stick. There is also the
advantage of using AA NiMH batteries. A package of 4 2300mah NiMH
batteries at Meijer's was only $9.99 and they lasted forever.

I was very close to going with the Canon S500 (a fine camera) but
decided the larger LCD (2.5") and other extras like scene modes made
the Sony a better deal. The pictures may be just slightly less clear
than the Canon but I believe I made the right choice.