| Brand: | Sony | ||
| Average Rating |
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The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W290 camera combines style with power and intelligence. The W290 comes in 4 sophisticated colors and has a stylish look. With the W290 taking great pictures is now easier than ever. The iAuto mode goes beyond the traditional auto mode, thinking and working for you; recognizing scenes, lighting conditions, faces, and automatically adjusts camera settings resulting in clearer images, and faces with more natural skin tones and less blur. The W290 also features HD Movie mode, recording in 720p for capturing your precious moments on video. Compose, review, and share your memories on the large 3.0” (230k pixels) LCD. more info
Popularity: 2% [?]
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Great But No Viewfinder
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Image display is fine, but I prefer a viewfinder to compose my shots. Sony has decided to eliminate the veiw finder, perhaps because amateurs like to hold the camera in front of them and check the display to see what they will get from the shot. Am I getting old school?
Excellent feature packed smart camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
The DSC-W290 is a amazing little camera. Its feature packed and easy to use.To be honest, I needed a camera just to point and shoot and take excellent pictures whether day or night. The DSC-W290 fits the bill perfectly with its Intelligent mode which identifies all different shooting modes and environments automatically, day or night and adjusts appropriately. The LCD screen at the back is large and clear. The picture quality is amazing with crisp pictures and life-like rich colors. Even more amazing is the high-def video in 780i, total treat to watch on the big screen. The shoot-when-smiling mode actually works great too.
Another little thing – On the second day I bought the camera, I dropped it while it was still turned on. It fell hard, lens first on a rock and went bouncing. The impact bent the cylinder holding the lens. Once retracted it was stuck for good with the motor whirring trying to extend out the lens anytime I turned it on. It also suffered some dings and scratches. Even though it was my fault and the warranty was void as it was an accident, Sony service center repaired it for free and shipped it back within a week. I have to commend Sony on the quality and timeliness of the service provided. The camera worked like new and I couldn’t be happier with this product and Sony’s service.
Cons – The battery life is just around an hour or probably less when you are in video mode quite a bit. But you should be able to get a replacement battery for about $15. There is no zoom while in video mode.
A good add-on would be a 8Gb Sandisk memory card and a replacement battery to extend your shooting experience.
A GREAT little camera!
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
First, I’ve had many cameras in my life including 35mm ‘old’ film styles. I have 3 Sony digitals and each one was ‘ahead of it’s time’ technically. This one is no different. I’m not a photo affecionado but know good pictures when I see them. I opted for small size to throw in my front pants pocket rather than a bulky larger more powerful camera. But I too was surprised. This is one powerful camera!
Every feature of this camera is AWESOME. The high resolution allows photo editing to crop and enlarge great pictures. The BURST mode allows for fast action multiple pix. The stabilization software appears to work great, almost completely eliminating the unstable ‘hand’. The HD video movie mode is wonderful but even though the stabilization software is great be careful when ‘zoomed in’ and taking video. It will shake! Better than no stabilization BUT…it will shake.
All of the cons reported by others are true…but probably for a reason. The small buttons keep you from turning it on/off or taking pixs while it’s in the pocket along other small items like keys etc. Smile detection is for babies and kids and works very well. You need 4-5 feet focal point minimum for it to work but it does and pretty well. Those that think it’s useless never took pix of kids before.
The colors are brilliant! We went to Alaska and I took over 1500 pix and movies. Alaska offers a full range of overcast, cloudy and sunny full light days. The little W290 did well. I bought an 8G and 4G strip and used up about 20 g or more…but transferred it to a laptop to keep it managable. I never even pulled the 4G strip out! BTW…the 4G strip was only $12 on Amazon. Imagine a roll of film holding 350 shots reusable for $12! The HD video mode allows for 30 min/2G of memory.
To me a 4 STAR is perfect. Nothing probably deserves a 5 STAR so that’s why I gave it a 4. It is a well engineered, well thought out highly technical camera but EASY to use. You don’t need to even hardly read the manual. Just keep an extra battery and memory strip…as with all cameras. You will love it so much you will USE this one! Good luck!
Best in class. Great pictures and HD videos. But still has some flaws.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
All in all a great camera that takes great photos and videos. I think it’s one of the very best point-and-shoots. Consumer Reports thought its predecessor the Cybershot w300 was the best in its class. The w290 costs at least $100 less than its discontinued predecessor and only gives up some unnecessary features and about 1.5 megapixels. I actually appreciate the reduction because, at 12.1 the pictures are still great but the files are about 10% smaller.
The software’s ability to identify faces and adjust to scenes is very good. (The smile detection feature is extremely cool for showing friends but not terribly useful.) The very large screen looks terrific when playing back photos and videos. While it’s reason for being is to take great photos, I must say I’m a huge fan of having an HD video recorder in my pocket.
I love the w290 but it isn’t perfect: It is not as small/sleek as a Canon Elph but I think the pictures and especially videos are much better – and that’s why I love the Cybershot. The fact that the Sony is about $100 less expensive than a comparable Canon Elph was an added bonus.
Downsides: In low light pictures are sometimes fuzzy or noisy. This is generally most noticeable if you review the photo and zoom in close. Without zooming in its less noticeable.
Having to use Sony’s proprietary accessories is annoying(eg camera does not take a standard mini USB; you also have to use a memory stick instead of the typical SD card) and was almost a deal breaker, but the quality of the camera and pix/videos won me over. I used the money I saved to buy my memory stick and still had plenty left over.
Like all other cameras I found with HD video, this one doesn’t let you zoom while recording and the files are massive – making them tough to email to friends and family.
Despite these flaws, I still think this is the best point and shoot in its class and highly recommend it.
No zoom while recording kills it
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
I don’t care how great the quality or photos are, not being able to zoom while recording is a big problem. I’m very disappointed Sony decided to take this route because I have Sony digital cameras from 2004 that allowed you to zoom while recording so I do not understand why they took this huge step backward. I’ve sold my camera for this reason and told people to stay away. All the Kodaks that have been doing HD video since 2007 have been able to use full zoom while recording.
SONY 12.1 Mega Pixel
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
It is a great camera and glad that I bought it. It is a little heavier than most point and shoot cameras which is good because it tends to be more stable as a result. I wish that it had a level somewhere on the camera so that you can be sure that you are shooting correctly. There were a few times when I thought I was level but was not. It seems like an easy item to include in the view finder. I am still learning all its features but so far it has met my needs. It is a small camera that is capable of shooting great photos. It was also easy to order it through Amazon.
Don’t waste your money on this model, get the next model up the Sony WX1
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is what I’ve been hearing from all these 1-3 star reviews.
Great outdoors, Bad indoors. Sony finally solved that problem with the WX1 it has a: 10.2-megapixel Back-Illuminated “Exmor R” CMOS Sensor Producing Stunning Images in Low Light. Finally. A good all around camera!!!!!!Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX1/B 10MP “Exmor R” CMOS Digital Camera with 5x Optical Steady Shot Stabilized Zoom and 2.7-inch LCD (Black)
Check it out!
its okay but expected more from sony
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
i have been an ardent fan of picture quality of sony cameras and that was the reason i bought this camera. this piece is compact (fits nicely in jeans pocket), looks great, feels comfortable in hands (the large screen makes it up for very small menu, display and delete buttons), has intelligent auto mode but the picture quality is not what i expected … i have had this camera for about a week now and all the photos i took were taken outside in full daylight … in no way do i mean that the photos were bad but they were not very good … so i am a bit disappointed
Sony DSC-W290
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
My first Sony Cyber-shot “standalone” camera as I had Sony Ericsson mobiles with build-in Cyber-shot cameras, as I was happy with the performance from the Mobile Cyber-shots I purchased the DSC=W290 as my “old” canon 800IS was ready to be changed.
Basically I am NOT happy with the performance, slow in been ready from shot to shot, face detection does not work all the time, skin tones tend to be yellowish, auto focus is not 100% correct.
I will not recommend the DSC-W290 to others and I am to go back to Canon as my “old” 800IS performce better than this Sony.
Much Improved Over DSC-W1 (As Expected)
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is a very nice camera for it’s class. It takes very good photos, is quick to focus and has low shutter lag. It also has all of the features that one finds on these cameras now, including optical image stabilization and an effective auto-smile detection feature. The battery seems to last well, though I didn’t pay attention to how many shots I got over how many days.
I haven’t dropped it, but it seems well built. The LCD display is protected (a little anyway) by a thin layer of glass or Plexiglas. I would purchase this again if a similar need came up.
easy to get a messy image in-doors
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
For out-doors picture, with good light conditions, the pictures are great and sharp. Amazing video capture.
But I was really disappointed when taking pictures in-doors. In its Intelligent Auto Ajust Mode, the camera usually picks a high iso configuration when there’s not a bright light inside a room (and I mean really bright), resulting in a bad quality picture. Looks like you’re using a 0,5 Megapixel camera.
Too bad I didn’t know much about the ISO settings before buying this camera. High ISO yields bad quality pictures, because the idea is to obtain a brighter picture in low light conditions. I wish I had bought a lower ISO camera.
Nice camera
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I had some trouble getting used to this camera but now it takes lovely pictures when I have it at the right setting.
Great camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I can’t believe this Sony camera is so easy to use, takes great picture and it costs much less than in the military base. I would recommend to anyone.
Impressive pixel count no guarantee of good pictures
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
Soft! Soft! Soft! In bright sunlight the 12.1 megapixel DSC-W290 with its wide-angle zoom lens does reasonably well, The ‘Steadyshot’ feature helps at max zoom. The 28mm equivalent end of the lens travel produces some nice panoramic shots. The color rendition has the usual pleasing Sony balance. HOWEVER, bring it indoors and it doesn’t perform anywhere near as well as my old 5.1 megapixel Sony DSC-P93A. All settings of automatic and manual focus, with and without flash, produce very soft, dark images. Using the DSC-W290 and the DSC-P93A side by side, I took about a hundred exposures at a recent child’s birthday party. The 5.l megapixel P93A produced excellent, sharp pictures of fast-moving four-year-olds. I had only 5 out of fifty-seven images to delete. Fifteen of the images were notably good. The W290 produced only 2 images out of forty worth saving.
My conclusion: don’t buy a camera on the basis of its pixel count. Lens quality is more important, and so is the processing software. In my weeks of using the W290, I found only two advantages over the old P93A. One is the excellent battery life. Pack two spares and you could tour the world if you exploited the second advantage, the ability of the W290 to use multigigabit memory sticks. The P93A only recognizes 1 gigabit of memory. Video performance of the W290 was good indoors and out, but I have a Canon videocamera so I didn’t give that feature much weight. If you already have a pretty good digicam, don’t buy the Sony DSC-W290 or any other of the new 12.1 MP and up cameras unless you can try it out first. You might be surprised to find that where it counts, that is, in the quality of the pictures you get, your old one does as well or better.
I’ll keep the W290 as a handy outdoor image collector; its small size and good battery life are enough to prevent me from leaving it on my dashboard for someone to steal so I can collect the insurance.
Nice camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I love this camera. Finding the right case was tough, though. After trying several ones in Sears, I bought a nice one that fits perfectly and has room for a battery: Caselogic Pocket Video Camcorder Case (TBC-312). This case model comes in two sizes though. The camera fits in both but I liked better the smaller one. If you are looking for a case, I recommend you to visit a camera/electronic store and try some cases by yourself. It’s the only way you can be completely sure about this. I spent too much time looking for the right case online and could not find it.