Sony DSC W50 Review

The Sony DSC W50 is a six megapixel digital camera with a 3x optical zoom lens. It follows on from earlier highly acclaimed models in the DSC W series, but Sony have made one important change. The DSC W50 is a lot slimmer and will fit quite easily into a pocket. This makes it much easier to carry around with you.

In terms of features this is a pretty straightforward digital camera and is suited to anyone who is looking for a point and shoot digital camera with a decent build quality.

On the whole I felt that the test shots I managed to take with the DSC W50 were very good without quite being top drawer.

Starting off with the outdoor landscape type of shots there were a number of good points. For a start colours are strong. Next I was very impressed by the way the camera was able to handle both the brighter areas of the shots as well as the darker areas. This camera outperforms the vast majority of digital cameras in this area. Whereas many cameras are unable to capture sufficient detail from the white areas of the boats and the wooden slats on the building the DSC W50 does exceptionally well. The sharpness of each image is always a critical factor in my assessment of the overall quality of a digital camera. This is an area where the camera does better than most, but just falls short of the very best. One clear plus point is the fact that the sharp focus is retained up to the edge of the photo. Many digital cameras can achieve sharp focus in the centre of an image, but then fall away towards the edges. In terms of where I feel the DSC W50 could have done better is on the roof of the building in the first test shot.

Both the indoor and outdoor portraits have many good points. The images are clear and sharply focused. This really does apply to the indoor portrait where the shot is a lot sharper than I have managed with most digital cameras I have tested. The DSC W50 does a very good job in bringing out the detail in the shot. For the outdoor portrait I have adjusted the white balance setting to cloudy to match the conditions the picture was taken in. This helps to improve the warmth of the portrait a little. There is a degree of red eye showing up in the indoor portrait. The picture was taken with red eye reduction switched on, but the camera was still unable to overcome the problem. It is a shame because the DSC W50 manages to produce a very well lit shot in less than perfect light.

My indoor test in poor light produced a very good result. The picture again shows just how well the camera can overcome low light. Although this picture is taken in more or less complete darkness the result is well lit and sharply focused.

The test for colours is another one that produces a pleasing result. The colours have a natural feel to them. There is plenty of depth to the colours and this should bode well for just about any type of photo you take. No one colour dominates and the balance is spot on.

The macro shot is o.k. If you are planning to use this camera for the occasional macro shot then you should be able to produce some very acceptable photos. If you are more serious about macro and close up photography then you would be better advised to look elsewhere. There are other digital cameras that are able to take macro shots that are that bit sharper.

You can set the ISO level to 1000 on this camera. This can help in lowlight conditions, especially when you are unable to use flash. In truth as soon as you begin to increase the ISO level picture quality starts to suffer. At ISO 400 there is a clear deterioration in quality. Once you crank this setting up to ISO 1000 quality really starts to dip and I would suggest using this only as a last resort.

It took 0.18 seconds to take a single shot. This is a fast time and the camera performs better than the vast majority of its competitors. I was able to take five shots in 5.18 seconds. Again this is a very good time and suggest you should have little problem in firing off a number of rapid shots.

You can compare this camera to other models by taking a look at the Shutter Lag Comparison Table.

The 3x optical zoom lens has a focal length equivalent to 38-114mm in 35 mm format. In addition to this there is a smart zoom feature offering 13x zoom and a digital zoom offering a further 6x zoom. It is worth noting that the smart zoom decreases the amount of megapixels you can shoot at while the digital zoom reduces picture quality.

The lens aperture works in a range of f2.8 to f5.2. For close up photography the camera can focus from 2cm away from the subject.

The LCD screen is 2.5" in size. This size has almost become the standard for pocket sized cameras. The screen is made up of 115,000 dots. A number of useful indicators are displayed on the screen. These include battery remaining, storage remaining and an exposure warning. A histogram is also available. The good news is that Sony have squeezed an optical viewfinder onto the DSC W50. These are becoming increasingly rare on the smaller models.

To help you take the best possible shot there are a number of predefined scene modes. By choosing the most appropriate scene before you take a picture you help the camera to use the optimum settings for the type of photo you are about to take. The scene modes available are Twilight, Twilight Portrait, Soft Snap, Landscape, Beach, Snow and High Sensitivity.

The built in flash unit has a maximum range of 4.2m. This falls to around 2.2m when the zoom lens is in use. The maximum range is slightly above average for this type of digital camera. The flash modes available to use are Auto, Forced Flash, Slow Synchro and No Flash.

You can shoot movies up to the capacity of the memory card. The maximum resolution is 640x480. The top speed is 30 frames per second. This will produce TV quality movies. Sound is recorded with each movie, but you cannot use the zoom while shooting a movie.

The aspect ratio you take photos at can be changed to suit your own requirements. The standard aspect ratio is 4:3. This is suitable for displaying photos on a computer monitor. There is also a 3:2 aspect ratio. This is compatible with 6x4" prints. By selecting this ratio the photo will not be trimmed during the printing process for 6x4" print size. There is also a 16:9 aspect ratio this is ideal for viewing on a wide screen television. The drawback of using this ratio is that it is only available in a low resolution (approximately 2 megapixels). This means that although it may be great for viewing on a television the absolute maximum print size you can make is 6x4". Even then you may not be satisfied with the quality of the prints produced.

All focusing is carried out automatically by the camera. There is no manual focusing facility. You do have the ability to choose between multi point and centre weighted focusing though.

To help you get the best colour tones there are white balance settings for Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent and Incandescent. You can also allow the camera to set the white balance automatically. If there is one feature worth checking out it is white balance. Setting the correct white balance control can make a big difference to your photos. There are also some options that allow you to adjust the colour. These are for black and white, sepia, rich colour and natural colour.

Among the more advanced features are exposure compensation (+/-2.0 EV, 1/3 EV step), three types of light metering (multi pattern, spot and centre weighted) and ISO sensitivity (Auto, 80, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1000). You can also adjust levels of sharpness, saturation and contrast. Shutter speeds are set by the camera in the range of 1 - 1/2000 seconds.

There are also two burst modes you can use. The first one allows you to take three consecutive quick shots. The second is called multi burst and takes sixteen photos and stores them in one single image.

Sony supplies all the necessary cables and software to connect the DSC W50 to a television set, computer and PictBridge compatible printer.

To increase the capacity of the lens both wide and tele conversion lenses are available separately.

Sony cameras score highly for ease of use and the DSC W50 is no exception. In fact if you use this camera in automatic (default) mode then there is nothing you need to do apart from load the battery, compose your photos and press the shutter button. When you do have to dip into the menu system I find the Sony menus very easy to come to terms with. You will find all the key controls such as zoom, flash and macro at your fingertips on the back of the camera.

You can pick up a Sony DSC W50 for around £165. This compares to around £200 for a Canon IXUS 60, £145 for a Casio Exilim EX-Z60 and £275 for a Nikon Coolpix S6.

As you can see there are some very large price differences between different six megapixel pocket sized digital cameras. Taking this into account I would say the Sony DSC W50 is very competitively priced.

In many ways this camera is just about as standard as you will find for a small digital camera. It has a typical rectangular shape with a shiny silver finish. Although there is nothing to really differentiate this camera from the hordes of other cameras available it has a simple, clean design nonetheless.

It will fit into just about any pocket with dimensions of 88.9 x 57.1 x 22.9mm. It weighs in at 127g.

A lithium ion battery (NP-BG1) is used to supply power to the camera. Sony supplies both a battery and charger with the DSC W50. Sony estimates you should be able to take around 300 shots before the battery needs to be recharged.

The camera comes with 32mb of storage built into it. Therefore a memory card is NOT supplied with the camera as standard. Although Sony are more generous than most with the amount of memory they build into a camera I was only able to take 15 photos before the memory was full. Therefore you will almost certainly need to buy a memory card to go with the camera. It is compatible with Memory Stick Duo cards. It is very important to ensure the memory stick you buy have Duo in its name as standard memory sticks are too large for this camera. Click here to save money on Memory Stick Duo.

Viewfinder
Ease of use
Lack of shutter lag

Red Eye

Overall I like the Sony DSC W50. It takes good photos, is easy to use and is small enough to slip into a pocket. It is one of only a small number of pocket sized digital cameras to offer a viewfinder and it is also very competitively priced.

Sony DSC W50 Front View

Sony DSC W50 Back View

Sony DSC W50 Top View

Sample Menus

Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information on this site, please make sure you double check the feature set and specification at the point of purchase.

Sony DSC W50