Sony DSC-W1 Review

The screen display when in the AUTO (point-n-shoot) mode. Minimal information is displayed and only a few parameters such as image size or recording mode can be changed. Upper left is the battery level that's constantly displayed. The image size is "5.0M"egapixels, the image folder is 101, there's 85 shots left and in the center are the AF target marks. The AF-illuminator is enabled and the focus mode is SingleAF.

Here's a "busy" Program AE mode screen. I have manually set the white balance to fluorescent, flash power is on low, focus and metering is spot, the color saturation, contrast and sharpness are on the "+" setting, and the exposure compensation is +0.3EV. All of this information can be cleared off the screen by pressing the Monitor button.

Pressing the Monitor button will enable the live histogram display. And you can see the AF target marks are green to indicate the focus is locked and the shutter speed and aperture is being displayed because we have the shutter half-pressed.

The Manual exposure mode lets you adjust both the shutter speed and aperture, the metering system "aids" you in correctly adjusting these values by displaying the exposure value.

Macro (close-up) focus mode allows you to shoot much closer than normal. The focus range in macro is from 3.9 inches to infinity.

After a picture has been captured it can be quickly reviewed by pressing "Left" on the 4-way controller.

Record options (in other than Auto mode):

Exposure Compensation - Offset the auto metering by +/-2.0EV in 1/3EV steps

Focus - Multi AF, Center AF or fixed at 0.5m, 1m, 3m, 7m or infinity

Metering - Multi-pattern (default) or Spot

White Balance - Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Fluorescent or Incandescent

ISO - Auto or fixed at 100, 200, 400

Picture Quality - Fine or Standard

Record Mode - Normal, Burst or Multi Burst
(The MultiBurst mode lets you record sixteen frames at high speed. The capture rate is selectable for 7.5fps, 15fps or 30fps via the menu. These 320x240 images are merged into one 1280x960 finished image. When the image is played in-camera it is animated in sequence.)

Burst Rate - 7.5/15/30 frames per second (only when Multi Burst is active)

Flash Level - High, Normal or Low

Picture Effect - None, Sepia or B&W

Saturation - Default is 0 but may be + or -

Contrast - Default is 0 but may be + or -

Sharpness - Default is 0 but may be + or -

The DSC-W1 also has six pre-programmed modes available when the Mode Dial is turned to the Twilight, Twilight Portrait, Landscape, Soft Snap, Candle, or Beach positions. Novice users can get even better looking pictures in less than "normal" conditions by using these scene modes.

When you turn the Mode Dial it displays on the color LCD like a virtual mode dial.

The recording screen in the 640x480 "VX Fine" movie mode. The frame rate is 30fps and it requires the use of Memory Stick Pro media to insure that it can stream the data fast enough from the camera. The VX standard mode is also VGA resolution (640x480) but at a lesser 16fps frame rate so it can be used with regular Memory Stick media. The length of recording is limited only by the space available on the Memory Stick in either mode.

Movie clips can also be recorded at 160x112 resolution, these movies will playback in a smaller window. The advantage is that the file sizes are smaller and more practical for e-mail purposes.

Movie mode options:

Exposure Compensation - Offset the auto metering by +/-2.0EV in 1/3EV steps

Focus - Multi AF, Center AF or fixed at 0.5m, 1m, 3m, 7m or infinity

Metering - Multi-pattern (default) or Spot

White Balance - Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Fluorescent or Incandescent

Picture Effect - None, Sepia or B&W

Image Size - 640 Fine, 640 Standard, 160 e-mail