Editorial Product Review:Item Description:The DSC-W300 includes a wide range of convenient features, including Smile Shutter Mode, which captures smiles the moment they happen. The compact and scratch-resistant titanium-coated body features an astounding 13.6-Megapixel resolution, 2.7' Clear Photo LCD display, Carl Zeiss 3x optical zoom lens, and Sony's Double Anti-Blur solution for crisp, clear images. In addition, it has Face Detection technology that optimizes flash, focus, exposure and color for up to eight faces, as well as Intelligent Scene Recognition that automatically detects five different types of scenes and takes a picture with the optimal camera settings. Lens Construction - 6 Elements in 5 Groups, 3 Aspheric Elements Focal Length - 7.6-22.8mm 35mm Equivalent - 35 - 105mm 9-Area Multi-Point Auto Focus - AF, Center AF, and Spot AF Shutter Speed - Auto (1/4 - 1/2,000) / Program Auto (1- 1/2,000) / Manual (30- 1/1,000) Aperture Range - Auto (f2.8-f16) / Program Auto (f2.8-f16) Filter Diameter - 74mm with Adapter Ring Color Modes - Normal, Vivid, Real, Black & White, and Sepia Red-Eye Reduction Self-Timer - 10 seconds, 2 seconds, and off White Balance - Automatic, Cloudy, Daylight, Fluorescent 1, Fluorescent 2, Fluorescent 3, Incandescent, Flash, and One Push - One Set Movie Modes - MPEG VX Fine with Audio (640x480 at 30fps), MPEG VX Standard with Audio (640x480 at 16fps), 320 (QVGA, 320 x 240, 8.3fps) Scene Modes - Beach, Extra High-speed Burst, Extra High Sensitivity, Fireworks, Landscape, Snow, Soft Snap, Twilight, Twilight Portrait, Auto Adjustment, Program Auto, Easy Shooting, Manual Exposure, Movie, High Sensitivity, Smile Shutter, and Underwater Flash Modes - Auto, Flash On, Flash Off, and Slow Synch Dimensions - 3 23/32 x 2 1/32 x 1 1/64 (94.3x59x26.8mm) Weight - 5.5 ounces (156 grams) Body only
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Buyer Reviews
Average Buyer Rating:
-
Big MP, Little Noise, Well-rounded Features
Given the list of criteria that matter most to me for a point and shoot digital camera, I seem to keep coming back to a Sony model as much as I try to explore the field when I'm in the market for a new camera. This time around as I was preparing to update from the Sony dsc-p200 I've had for 3-4 yrs, I wanted a more pocketable formfactor, optical image stabilization, closer macro focus, higher MP rating while maintaining at least the level of image quality I get from my current P&S, continued access to manual control of shutter and aperture and, finally, a wider angle + longer telephoto range.
Tall order it seems in the P&S category. At first I rejected the w300 because of its pedestrian 35-105 mm focal length, though it had everything else I was looking for, but subsequent investigation didn't turn up many other options that didn't offer some other tradeoff. When it came to evaluating the relative merits of the various tradeoffs I determined that the focal length wasn't my greatest concern, based on my photography habits. And where there are not remedies for the shortcomings of the other cameras I considered, Sony does offer the option of wider angle and telephoto lenses for the w300.
So the w300 it is and what a camera it turned out to be. Nearly doubling the the maximum resolution of my current P&S camera while not introducing any more noise to the picture, the image quality is superb. Fine details come through in lower light conditions where other 10+ MP cameras I tested would lose those details in aggressive noise. Color temperature is perhaps a little warm by default but easily manageable while framing the picture or in post-processing and isn't generally displeasing by any means. I wouldn't claim a trained eye for objective image quality but I know what I like and this represents the single most important factor in a camera purchase for me and the w300 puts a lot of others to shame in this regard. I've seen others mention that the w300 experiences some noticeable color fringing but I haven't seen it in the shots I've taken so far (600+).
I make heavy use of the burst function on my P&S cameras, so it's nice to have the expanded options the w300 has over the p200 - not that the newer options are out of the ordinary now in newer P&S cameras. In particular, the infinite burst shoot mode is fun although, besides needing to drop resolution to 3 MP for each shot, it also seems to degrade image quality. The burst modes generally perform well but occasionally stutter and seem a little less reliable than the burst mode on the p200 in that regard. Of course, this may have something to do with a higher volume of data overall while writing to the standard MS pro duo card I currently have (as opposed to one of the "Extreme" cards with higher transfer rate).
I also use the Macro focus capability of my camera heavily and I appreciate the ability to now focus as close as 5 cm. That would seem to be as close as I'll need to get to most subjects and any further cropping around the image subject in postprocessing will retain a picture with enough resolution to still make the picture suitable for larger printed shots, thanks to that 13 MP sensor.
I can't speak to the stuff like facial recognition and smile shutter as they aren't of primary interest to me and I haven't really used them other than in an in-store demo for my wife. It certainly handled a transition from a feigned grimace to a slight smile in smile shutter mode but that's all I can offer here.
I prefer the minimalist menu UI of my p200 and the other Sony cameras of the time, but the w300 is not alone among new Sony models or among other camera brands in bringing more flash and better than 8-bit iconography to the menu navigation system. There's simply going to be some adjustment required, so not a knock against the camera, since everything seems to be organized logically enough.
As much as I tried to make a break from Sony's digital cameras this time around, it still ended up being a Sony model that had the best combination of features that appealed to my photography tastes. I think the w300 more than holds its own among the top competitors in this class. This also seems like a respectably future-proof P&S camera unless something remarkable happens in optics in the next few years.
Customer Rating: -
Very satisfied with this camera
I got this camera just in time for my vacation and I can say that I am very pleased with this camera.
I wanted a camera that can produce good image quality for both outdoor landscape and indoor low light. And so far the W300 does not disappoint. I used Sony DSC V1 before. Although the V1 can capture good image quality, taking shots in low light produces shaky images most of the time. The anti blur feature of the W300 solves this problem.
Browsing the menu and manipulating the parameters (aperture and shutter speed) are a breeze. This is useful for amateur photographer like me to play around and experiment with different settings.
If there is anything that I really wish it has, is the wide shot (16 x 9) capability.
Customer Rating: 
-
Great camera
This is a really nice camera. It's really compact, takes good pictures, and the titanium coating makes it really durable.
The only thing I could add to the positive sentiments already expressed on this page is that I have dropped my camera, and it has come away from the incident unscathed. Granted, I dropped it onto carpet, but it was over 3 feet, and the camera was on at the time (i.e. the lens was protruding). Zero damage. Great camera =)
Customer Rating: -
Fit For The Job.
I must start by saying that this camera (DSC-W300) is the first digital camera I have purchased. I have some experience with 35mm SLRs, but I wanted a versatile piece of kit that would enable me to upload pictures to the internet, print directly from the camera, and add images to my PlayStation 3 console.
The first thing I should note, and as indicated by the above comments, is that I think compact cameras are fundamentally utility devices. There are many people on the internet who criticise this model's unsuitability for longer-distance and wide-angle photography, and the lack of many video modes. On the first point, I would say this: compact cameras are designed for high quality close-up images (family and friends groups, primarily) and are not designed for vary-focal images (e.g., someone standing 300 yards in front of Mount Fuji and expecting both to be in focus perfectly). On the second point: movie modes on a still camera are a lovely bonus for a camera but are an add-on that should not be counted towards any final evaluation of the product. Sorry to sound snotty, but those are the basics.
So, does the W300 add up for the basics? Clearly, the Carl Zeiss lens is going to deliver on the bread and butter family snaps that is always going to be the brief for compacts. The 13.9 megapixel rating is useful, although the 8MP setting offers fantastic quality images that can be converted to 16:9 1080p for viewing on televisions. It is true that the .9 of a MP seems to have been lost in the implementation of actually taking photos, as the highest setting is the flat 13MP!
There are the usual ISO presets, automatic and night settings, as well as smile detection technology. Again, the brief of a compact camera has been observed well by Sony, weighing easy-of-use against range of use. This is again apparent in the neat Movie Mode: the 640 "fine" and "standard" image settings are perfectly acceptable for on-the-fly movies showing the drunken antics and practical jokes that are the stock-in-trade of the light-hearted situations that the W300 predominantly deals with. The MPEG-1 video format is also compatible with Windows Media Player and the PS3, among others.
The software that comes with the W300 enables the user to add their photos to a calendar on their PC, and even add location details for each picture via internet maps. The standard easy-to-use image manipulation features are there, again underlining the pick-up-and-play nature of compacts. Videos can be converted to WMV, too.
On the downside, the zoom is only x3, meaning for the occasions when it is needed it is not as versatile as, say, some of the Panasonic models. Secondly, the battery life is not quite what I expected (quoted in the manual at 150 minutes -with LCD panel switched on- for taking pictures alone), and the charge time for a full battery is a whopping 330 minutes. These are the only significant drawbacks to the camera that I have found thus far.
Build quality is excellent, as expected from a Japanese-made product. The LCD screen is more durable than I had expected, and its 2.7" size is more than large enough for viewing back and editing any images.
My first impressions of this product are very positive. As a compact camera the DSC-W300 is a very capable camera, with many of the intelligent design features expected from Sony. However, for those wanting a decent amount of zoom or other quasi-SLR features, it may be best to go for another model, or just take the plunge and go for an SLR instead.
