Day to Day Usage Review for the W300 (Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W300)

Member Name: alistairgd

Product:	Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W300
Date:	31/01/09 (274 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Compact, Quality, Reliability

Disadvantages: Battery Charging

The W300 has a lot to live up to, it is the first compact digital camera to exceed 13MP, and it's from Sony. I'm not going to spend too long on things like picture quality because you can see comparison photo's elsewhere and at 13.6MP with a quality lens and Sony build, you know you are going to be taking awesome photos anyway.

What I am going to focus on is the day to day use of this mini marvel, the sort of information that you just don't get from camera review sites that spend a day with the camera analysing the smallest details and drawing graphs. It's the day to day detail that should really help prospective buyers with their decision, and there are a couple of real bone crunchers with this camera in my opinion.

Price and Form Factor

The W300 is a top end compact, that means it sits in a dangerous place, a lot more expensive than mid range compacts, and almost at the price point of a low spec full DSLR camera. People get into a right fizz faced with this dilemma, compact or DSLR, but the answer is really quite simple, and it comes down to form factor.

If you are comfortable carrying about a fairly bulky camera in a big case, perhaps with spare lenses then I'd say go for a DSLR, however if like me you like the freedom a pocketable camera offers, go for a high end compact like the W300. You can clip these things onto your belt with a quality case and you don't even know it's there, until you need it. With a DSLR, it's going to be a hastle to carry.

The actual W300 is very cool, it's a dark titanium finish that is extremely robust. I know this because mine got dropped (with the lense open) from the top of my house stairs, bounced all the way to the bottom, bounced into the hardwood floor of the kitchen, and there was not a single mark or malfunction with it - impressive for sure.

The LCD screen on the back is large and bright. I played it safe and bought a screen protector for it off ebay.

Features (AKA Gimmicks)

The Sony W300 does have a bunch of features that will keep what I would call high end hobbyists happy, but there are also a set of quick and easy features that are easily accessible for the point and shoot crowd. For example, oh the fun we had with the setting that automatically adds a smile to a face! Simply browse your photo's in the cameras slideshow setting and select any photo with a face on it, then you have quite a few photoshop type effects you can apply. The one that adds a smile to a blank expression is fun, and actually works incredibly well. Whether or not you would really use it is up to the end user, but the technology is very impressive.

The easy to navigate menu system has many many options and effects like that, some are good for showing off to friends, but perhaps will not get used too much. Others will help you take really stunning photos for sure.

Day to Day Usage

This is where I have to mark the camera, and Sony, down. As usual battery life is a major factor and can indeed be a deciding factor for many people, especially anyone who has been burned by constantly having their camera run out of charge at the wrong moment.

I don't have an issue with the battery life as such, it seems to be about the same as most other camera's that use Lithium Ion batteries. What is really bad though is that in order to charge the battery you have to remove it from the camera and place it in the supplied charging unit. This gets to be a pain. First of all there is always the chance you will misplace the charger, secondly why oh why can't we charge the battery while it is in the camera? In my old Fuji Finepix, when you put it in the docking station to transfer photo's - it would start charging, this is the way it should be! So, big minus point there.

Next, the system for connecting to a PC USB port is very flimsy. The proprietary cable connection on the base of the W300 just does not seem firm or solid, there is far too much movement in the connection to offer any sort of confidence and I find myself treating it with kid gloves always worried that the connection is going to break.

There really should be a charging/docking station for a camera at this price point. And there is! Except it is over £50, yes it has a cool feature that lets you view the photos on your HDTV, but we should not have to spend so much money just to get a decent charging set up.

Photo and Movie Quality

Like I said, there are plenty of sources for checking the picture quality of various cameras. I would summerise by saying that indoors can be a bit iffy, I've had some quite grainy results indoors, but outdoors you can achieve some stunning photos that will quite happily be printed out on large photo paper and still look fantastic.

The movies are pretty good. With compacts it is quite usual to see low frame rates that make the movie replay a little bit juddery or blocky if there is a lot going on, but with the W300 the movies are perfectly acceptable.

Software

To finish on a positive note, the bundled software for transferring your photos is really very good. The photo transfer is fast, and the software is instinctive to use and has some neat options. For example there's a slider that changes the size of the photo thumbnails for easier, or quicker, viewing.

Overall

It's true that you should never focus on the megapixel count when choosing a new camera, but with the W300 you get an amazing 13.6 megapixel, a great lens, and superb Sony build. If only they had thought out the battery charging system it would be a no brainer.

Summary: Great camera, but slight flawed package due to no docking station.

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