The Sony DSC W35 is one of the cheaper pocket sized digital cameras. At 118g without batteries or memory card it is also one of the more lightweight digital cameras available. At 23mm there are slimmer cameras around than the DSC W35, but it will still slip into most pockets.
In terms of features it is along the lines of many simple, point and shoot cameras. It has seven megapixels and a three times zoom lens. The lens is a Carl-Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens. These are good quality lenses, but they are not necessarily any better than the lenses used by other leading brands such as Canon.
As well as being able to make large prints having seven megapixels at your disposal offers you two other advantages. The first is that you are able to crop or trim images and still be able to make decent sized prints. The second is that the camera is able to use a feature called Smart Zoom. This increases the amount of zoom available to you. To use Smart Zoom you do need to shoot at resolutions lower than seven megapixels. In my tests I have not noticed a decrease in quality when Smart Zoom is used as compared to optical zoom. This places it ahead of the digital zoom that is also available with the DSC W35.
Power is supplied through a lithium ion battery. This type of battery needs to be used with pocket sized cameras as standard AA batteries are too large for the slim design. Sony suggests you should be able to take 380 shots before the battery needs to be recharged. Whether or not you are able to hit this figure depends to a large degree on how you use the camera. Shooting movies and excessive use of flash will mean that the battery needs to be recharged more often. You will find a battery and everything you need to charge it in the box.
One accessory that is not in the box is a memory card. This is because Sony have built 56 megabytes of storage into the DSC W35. Although this is a generous amount compared to that offered by many other brands you will still need to pick up a memory card with a decent capacity before you do any serious shooting. When you buy a card make sure it is a memory stick duo or a memory stick duo pro card. These are the only types of card compatible with the camera.
The LCD on the back of the camera is 2" in size. If you like the look of this camera, but would like a larger screen then try taking a look at the Sony DSC W55. That is a very similar camera, but with a larger 2.5" screen.
One useful feature that is becoming increasingly rare on this type of model is a viewfinder. Even if you don't think you are likely to use a viewfinder on a regular basis it is still a bonus to have one as they can help out in certain situations such as when bright sunlight is falling on the LCD screen. This is because bright sunlight falling on the screen can make it very difficult to see.
