SONY Copy Digital Camera

Keep it in your trousers
 

The DSC-W350 is available in silver, black, blue, gold and pink versions. Its body is lightweight and compact enough to squeeze into most trouser pockets or handbags. The front is made of metal, with tiny concentric ridges adding a slight texture that improves grip. Those who have hesitated to purchase Sony cameras in the past because of their reliance on Memory Stick media will be pleased that the 2010 Cyber-shots accept SD and SDHC cards. The slot and battery compartment are protected by a lockable door, which you'll have to open regularly to remove the battery for charging. Although the internal memory is limited, it does host a small piece of software for quickly uploading photos and movies to sharing sites when the camera is connected to a Windows or Mac computer

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The DSC-W350's colours are bright, natural and reasonably accurate (click image to enlarge)

The controls are straightforward. On top are the power and shutter-release buttons. They sit flush with the body and, although they're easily pressed, they'll require most users to look to locate them. The remaining controls are on back, to the right of the reasonably bright, but not great, LCD display. A zoom rocker sits above the thumb rest. On the right edge of the body sits a vertical slider for moving from shooting stills to panoramas to movies. Playback, menu and delete buttons, and a circular direction pad, handle all other tasks.

In addition to navigating menus, the direction pad can change the flash and timer functions, alter the display information, and activate the smile-detection feature. Sony's menu systems remain fairly logical and uncomplicated compared with its cameras prior to 2009's interface changes.

Hands-off snapper
The DSC-W350 is well-suited for snapshot photography and shouldn't be considered by those who like to fiddle with plenty of settings. That's not to say that Sony doesn't give you some control, though.

The quality of the panorama photos isn't great, but it's a cool feature that can be enjoyed for what it is -- an easy and fast way to shoot scenery (click image to enlarge)

'Program auto' lets you adjust the ISO, white balance, autofocus points, light metering and exposure values, as well as control the extent of Sony's 'D-range optimization', which is used for rescuing shadow detail. The 'intelligent auto' scene-recognition mode delivers reliable results without any adjustments, but there are still a couple of options available to you, such as exposure and setting the face-detection priorities. An 'easy' mode takes away all options except for image size (large or small), and enlarges on-screen text.

Mixed performance
The DSC-W350's shooting performance is mixed, but at least its shutter lag is below average. In bright conditions, the time from pressing the shutter release to capture is 0.4 seconds. In low-light conditions, the lag only goes up to 0.7 seconds. The camera is also pretty quick for its class in terms of continuous shooting, at 1.9 frames per second. From powering it on to taking the first shot takes an okay 1.9 seconds, too. But the wait between shots is fairly long: 3.1 seconds without the flash, and 3.9 seconds with. These times make the DSC-W350 best suited for portrait and landscape shots, rather than photographing moving subjects.

The photo quality is very good for a camera in this price range, but there are some issues. The camera is capable of consistently fine-quality snapshots, particularly outdoors in daylight. Sensitivities go from ISO 80 up to ISO 3,200, but usability for prints above 8 by 10 inches drops off at ISO 200. This is because, even at ISO 80, photos viewed at full size have noise that only gets more pronounced as the sensitivity gets higher. Add to that the watery effect of Sony's noise suppression and you end up with pictures that appear soft. If you're planning to make prints larger than 4 by 6 inches, keep the ISO as low as possible. If you're okay with having some noise in exchange for getting a shot, photos up to ISO 1,600 can be usable for small prints or for online use, as long as you're not doing much cropping.

Speaking of cropping, ideally a 14.1-megapixel resolution should buy you a fair amount of room for cutting down your images. But the W350's photos are generally soft and lacking in fine detail when viewed at full size, with the exception of those taken in macro. If you're one to crop in a great deal on subjects and then want to create prints of 13 by 19 inches, you probably won't be happy with this camera (or any other compact at this price, really). Also, despite the camera creating photos of 45 by 60 inches, Sony only recommends prints of up to 13 by 19 inches with the W350.

As for the wide-angle lens, Sony's kept the barrel distortion in check, and there's no sign of pincushioning at the long end of the zoom, either. The amount of purple fringing is normal for a camera in its class. Centre sharpness is fairly good, but subjects off to the sides are noticeably softer.

Colours are bright and natural and reasonably accurate, although blues seem to be pumped up slightly. Exposure is generally good, leaning towards underexposed, but highlights are prone to clipping.

Video quality is good, too, and on a par with that of a pocket camcorder. You also get use of the 4x zoom while you're recording. Unfortunately, if you want to view HD movies and photos directly from the camera on a high-definition TV, you'll need to pony up for a proprietary component cable that connects to the multi-use terminal on the camera's bottom.