Sony W80

Cellphones are yet to match standalone digital camera’s performance and hence a digital camera has become an indispensable item in our life.Sony recently launched W-series of digital camera which hold have much in store.Sony W80 is one of them that has impressive specs but specs don’t guaratee performance!

Sony W80 specifications:

• Sensor resolution: 7.2 Megapixels
• Optical Sensor Type: Super HAD CCD
• Optical Viewfinder
• Upto 3200 ISO
• Optical Zoom: 3x
• 2.5″ TFT Display
• Optical Image Stabilisation
• Face detection
• Li-ion battery

W80 is a 7.2 Megapixel camera which even supports optical image stabilisation.The dimensions of the camera are pretty small and will fit easily in your pocket.The 2.5″ LCD display is bright and has two levels of brightness.The display clarity is good even in low light conditions.An optical viewfinder has also been provided which is rare to find in a digital camera.The standard dial is used for navigation between different modes as is standard with Sony digital cameras.The Li-ion battery is capable to taking 340 shots in a single charge which is very good.

The bundled package includes besides the camera and bettery you will find the charger,wrist wrap,USB+AV cable,manual and a CD-ROM with all the softwares.The charger takes mighty 4 hours to charge the battery completely.Sony although sells a faster charger at a premium.Sony’s proprietry Memory Stick Pro and Memory Stick Pro Duo cards are compatible with the camera.

The camera features a 3x optical zoom coupled with 2x digital zoom.The optical image stabilisation feature on this camera is amazing and you hardly manage to take blurry photos.This is great for beginners who most of the time end up with blurry shots.Optical image stabilisation works great even in low-light conditions.The flash is average and hence makes low-light shots grainy.

Face detection is another feature of this camera which works just as shown in the advertisements.It is capable of detecting upto 8 faces in auto and soft snap mode which results is more detailed and well focussed faces.Red eye reduction is not great as you do end up with red eye shots sometimes but you can remove them with the inbuilt red eye removal feature in the camera.

Start-up times,shutter speed,focus times is amazing as comapred to other digital camera.The camera starts up in a flat 1.5 seconds and has negligible shutter lag when taking photos.With burst mode you can take pics at 2.7 frames per second which is impressive.The bionz processor used in this camera has made it a fast performer.Menu navigation is not easy.Sony has messed up the menus and buttons and it will take you a long time before you become comfortable with it.

Coming to the main point the picture quality.The camera takes great shots in daylight but is not at the same level when taking pictures in low light conditions.The macro shots are decent.Overall it has good picture quality but not great.

Pros:

• Optical image stabilisation
• Small dimensions
• Excellent camera performance
• Good battery life
• Good daylight pictures

Cons:

• Slow charger
• Weak flash
• Limited manual controls
• Poor navigation menus
• Average low light pictures

Final Thoughts

Sony DSC W80 turns out to be a good performer but is plagued by a number of issues.The poor manu navigation system,waek flash and average low-light pictures are some of its downsides.On the brighter side the camera produces good daylight pictures and is a fast performer.Optical image stabilisation is a big boon.To sum it up the W80 is a good camera for beginners,others will notice the lack of manual controls and will demand higher quality pictures in low light conditions.