Sony's compact DSC-W50 Cyber-shot reviewed

The Cyber-shot DSC-W50 is a decently priced 6 megapixel shooter from Sony with claims to higher light sensitivity and not a lot else to brag about, at least on paper. DCRP has put the camera through its paces, and they find it a fine camera for most situations, though it does suffer under odd lighting conditions, and lacks manual control. Of course, at $241 it would be rather to surprising to find much in the way of manual settings. The camera was quick to start up and snap pics in most situations, though focus speeds aren't so hot in low light and telephoto situations. As for the promised light sensitivity, the camera does perform at up to a 1000 ISO setting, but color saturation drops and noise shoots up at 800 ISO, so you probably won't find much luck with those settings. Overall the W50 seems highly recommended if you can steer clear of the night life, and if the Sony name holds much weight with you it's hard to beat the price.

[Via Digital Cameras Blog]

[Ravi @ Mar 31st 2006 5:10PM]

Looks nice but I think the P200 has deeeper colors. Or maybe its just me.

You guys really dont like sony do ya? (referring to the last sentence)

[Matt Sayler @ Mar 31st 2006 5:45PM]

"Of course, at $241 it would be rather to surprising to find much in the way of manual settings."
Unless you're a Canon A610.. http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Canon/canon_a620.asp
(review of the 620, which is just the big brother).

[Drew @ Mar 31st 2006 7:40PM]

Your summary makes this product sound a lot worse than it actually is.

"if the Sony name holds much weight with you"

Actually it does. Sony makes very good cameras and although your review seems to mention everything possibly wrong with the camera and throw in very little about what's good, the following was taken from the actual review:

"Camera performance was very good in almost all areas"

"Battery life was excellent."

"Outdoors and in good light, the W50 did not disappoint. It took sharp photos with accurate color, very low noise, and minimal purple fringing. As far as noise goes, the camera performed well for an ultra-compact through ISO 400."

"Overall, I'd recommend the Cyber-shot DSC-W50 to most everyone

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W50 is a stylish ultra-compact that takes very good quality photos in most situations."

#2: You should be comparing this camera to the digital elph series. That would be like comparing this camera to the DSC-W5

Just a little note.. most digital cameras have a hard time focusing in low light conditions.

[Kamalot @ Mar 31st 2006 8:18PM]

#2 is comparing the camera features & quality based on price, and that seems more than fair.

[Drew @ Mar 31st 2006 8:32PM]

I agree... I would personally go for the A series as well but the market for this camera is the same as the one for the Digital Elph cameras. Sony was striving for a slim and pocketable rather than a somewhat bulkier A model.

[Deluxe @ Apr 1st 2006 9:21AM]

Engadget seems to do that a lot for Sony products, report the bad and omit the good. Reverse for Apple products.

There's no such thing as un-biased opinion on websites like these.

[Matt Sayler @ Apr 3rd 2006 10:37AM]

"I agree... I would personally go for the A series as well but the market for this camera is the same as the one for the Digital Elph cameras. Sony was striving for a slim and pocketable rather than a somewhat bulkier A model."

And adding the ability to do more manual work makes it more bulky how?