Sony Cybershot DSCW120/P 7.2MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom with Super Steady Shot (Pink)
June 23, 2009 by Digital Master
Filed under Digital Camera Reviews
Manufacturer Description Capture smiles as they happen. The 7.2-megapixel Cyber-shot W120 features innovative Smile Shutter technology which photographs smiles as they happen. Built to impress, this model boasts a Carl Zeiss 4x optical zoom lens for high quality close-ups and Sony’s Double Anti-Blur solution for crisp, clear images. For speedy recovery, the BIONZ image processor gets you ready for the next shot. In addition, it has Face Detection technology that detects up to eight fa (more…)
My wife and I recently upgraded from our Sony DSC-P8 to a Sony DSC-W130. So far we are extremely happy. We shopped around quite a bit before settling on the new cybershot, and spent a good deal of time trying out other brands. In the end, the Smile Shutter brought us back to Sony. It sounds like there is no way it would work, but it really does. We have two young children that are remarkably hard to catch smiling. With the new Sony, all we have to do is turn on the smile shutter and the camera does the rest. So far, we haven’t missed a smile with the 3 year (with teeth) and have caught a few of the 4 month old (no teeth). It makes a difference.
The other feature that has been great so far is the burst mode. With my old camera, the missing time between shot resulted in a lot of blurring. The new camera manages to focus each shot much better. We played around with some moving targets, and the pictures came out great. One major drawback of burst mode, however, is that you can’t use flash. I took a bunch of pictures indoors and the quality was ok, but not great. The flash just turns off when you switch to burst mode.
The video recording is great on this camera. Obviously not camcorder quality or anything, but very good for what you’d expect from a point and shoot. The sound quality still isn’t that great, but much much better from my older camera. It seems like it balances the audio in the first few seconds. If the first few seconds are loud, the whole video will be softer. If you start out soft, however, you bury the needle when it gets lounder leading to some distortion. You also can’t zoom while in video mode – something they don’t tell you.
The flash recharges after about 1-2 seconds, which is great. It also is pretty effective for long distances.
I like the menu configurations, especially now that I’ve had some time to play with them.
Picture quality is great, but I’m upgrading from a 2MP camera, so it probably wouldn’t take too much to wow me. We took a ton of shots and were impressed at the level of detail when we zoomed in on our computer.
Overall, we are very happy with this camera. It has some limitations and problems, but for the money (and for being a point and shoot) it is great.
It’s just about perfect, for me. Of course, I’d like the quality and control of an SLR in a tiny package, but for something this portable it does a fine job. The onscreen descriptions of the settings are just fantastic, the ISO (low light) mode has to be seen to be believed…very little noise, even without flash. Pictures are mostly sharp, though without flash you still have to maintain a steady hand, as with any camera. Very balanced and realistic color. It’s a very intuitive camera that lets you concentrate on your composition and not worry too much about exposure, which I think is what a small point and shoot should give you. I also love the 16×9 modes for stills, haven’t done any video with it. I’d recommend getting a clear shield to stick on the screen, like I did…seems very scratchable otherwise. If I lost it I’d probably get the same camera again. I’m pretty conservative with my reviews, I’m sure many people would give this an unabashed 5 stars, and I almost did, but you still get the occasional surprise when you shoot something that should have turned out fine but didn’t for some reason….I think it’s just where the tech is at right now, but this camera rocks, no doubt.
Just bought this new from a local retailer. Did a lot of research online comparing this model to some of Canon’s compact cameras. I’m not a photography buff so I wanted something that was small and not necessarily the “best” but would still take nice pictures. I really like the features that it includes. The 4x zoom is greater than most at this price point, and even some more expensive cameras. Seems to have a lot of neat features, like the Smart Zoom (digital zoom without pixelation), multiple auto focus points, and ability to shoot 640×480 video. The face detection is pretty cool and seems to work really well. I thought about getting the DSC-W130 with its 8MP resolution and editing features, but figured that 8MP was more than I needed and I’d rather do my photo editing on the computer.
One or two “bugs” I’m aware of:
1. If you shoot using burst mode, you’ll find that you can’t turn the flash back on in any mode but Easy mode. You have to reset the camera back to factory defaults to shoot using the flash again. Even knowing this I would still buy the camera, but I’m hoping that enough people would alert Sony to this error to release a firmware update to fix it. Otherwise I would have given it five stars.
2. When you plug in the camera with the USB cable and turn it on the lens will open and then close, so be sure not to leave it face down before transferring data.
3. This camera (unlike some) does not receive power through the USB cable so it needs to have a battery with charge in order to transfer pictures. Don’t leave it on too long while it’s plugged in or it’ll drain the battery.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent!!
I’ve had it for a little less than a year and it’s the best camera i’ve had … hands down! I’ve had HP cameras before and there’s NO comparison Great pictures, fast and easy…
5.0 out of 5 stars
Satisfied with camera
As much as I’d like to be a talented photographer, I have collected cameras that are too much work to learn how to use and require more expertise than I’m willing to invest.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not bad
Came with the media card CASE, but no media card. I can only take 5 pics without one :/
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great gift!
Purchased for my girlfriend for her birthday and she loved it! (pink is a winner) Easy to use, good photo quality, and not a single complaint. Nice job Sony.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Buy!!
This was a birthday gift for my girlfriend. She absolutley loves it. With all the features, picture clarity, videos capabilities and such…
5.0 out of 5 stars
great camera
This camera is compact and so easy to use. It takes great pictures in all kinds of settings and the macro feature is awesome.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sony Cybershot Review
This camera is easy to use and it was a great value to purchase. There are a ton of preset picture-taking settings which makes it easy to shoot great pictures for any…
5.0 out of 5 stars
easy to use, great quality
I love this camera. It’s very easy to use. When others use it to take a picture for me they have no problem.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not so Great
I do not enjoy this camera. I bought it because my husbands family swears by Sony. My old Canon was 100 times better than this.
4.0 out of 5 stars
nice but buy a memory card
This is nice camera. Small and takes good pictures. Just BEWARE if you don’t have a memory card this camera only holds 5 pictures on the internal memory!!