The Sony Cyber shot DSCW80 is an excellent value for money proposition given its price. It’s a good compact camera, easy to carry and use. The controls, user menus and interface of the W80 are easy to navigate and set, especially for those who been a Sony user for long. The rechargeable battery life lives up to the entire day unless one is shooting the videos, of course. Since, the lithium ion batteries don’t have a memory effect it eliminates the concern over partial recharging. The internal memory is 31MB, but again would need a replacement with a memory stick PRO for those little extra photos.
The movie mode is refreshingly good but may appear to be a little dark at auto settings. Needless to mention, movie mode eats up a lot of storage space on the memory card. But, the W80 also offers an additional option for taking images at lower resolution. This saves the precious memory space on the card. The W55 has a 7.2 mega pixel sensor that delivers high quality images. But, not all images need to be taken at that resolution. Users can decrease the resolution for indoor and family photos and can save disc space. The shutter lag is very small allowing photographers to capture near perfect images in quick succession. Additionally, the camera takes just a bit over a second to turn on. It is easy to operate both in automatic and manual modes and especially useful for those who just want to point and shoot without having to bother about the technical aspects.
A touch of the Home button opens up to the user-friendly GUI and lets the users select functions by simply moving a cursor vertically or horizontally to the appropriate icon. The function names and the on-screen Function Guide display make it easier to learn camera setup operations. The W80 with its optical capabilities fair well over other snapshot cameras in the product range. The image quality is very good, though a little disappointing in poor light conditions.
The Sony W80 allows user to manually set controls and switch between various scene modes and program modes for better command over automatic settings. In silver and black, the DSC-W80 is a one up choice for the fashion conscious photo shooters who want style and technology bundled in a single package.
Product Description
Recreate the moment with the incredibly lifelike pictures you’ll take with the DSC-W80 7.2 mega pixel Cyber-shot(R) digital camera. Your friends will be impressed with its combination of high fashion and advanced performance. With features like Face Detection to bring out the most natural tones in faces and HD output for presentation, sharing pictures becomes an experience to remember.
The convenient in-camera retouching and red-eye reduction expands your creativity while the double anti-blur solution allows low-light shooting without flash. And the Carl Zeiss 3X optical zoom lens lets you view the action very closely through the large 2.52 LCD screen. HD Output – view DSC-W80 still photos in spectacular high definition clarity and detail on your HDTV screen.
HD Slide Show with Music – photos come alive on HDTV screens, accompanied by your choice of visual effects and any of four preset musical selections stored in memory or your favorite MP3 tunes downloaded from PC to your camera for use as background music. 9-Point Auto Focus – can measure auto-focus precision at 9 points on your screen. D-Range Optimization – preserves image data in bright highlights and shadows. In-Camera Retouching – lets you add creative effects to photos after you shoot ( e.g. – soft edge filter, partial color filter and fish-eye filter.)
In-Camera Red-Eye Reduction Large 2.5? LCD Screen with optical viewfinder Simple Setup Controls 31 MB Internal Memory Built-in slot accepts optional Memory Stick(R) Duo or Memory Stick(R) PRO Duo media. 14X Smart Zoom® Feature Sony Smart Zoom – intelligently crops into the central portion of interest in your photo. MPEG Movie VX Fine Mode – Captures VGA (640 x 480) audio/video clips at high frame rate (up to 30 frames per second)
Technical Details
7.2-megapixel CCD captures enough detail for photo-quality 15 x 20-inch prints
Carl Zeiss 3x optical zoom lens; 2.5-inch LCD display
High Sensitivity Mode (ISO 3200) allows for shooting even in low-light conditions
In-camera red-eye reduction and retouching functions
HD output; HD slide show with music feature
