Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W200 Review
Review Date: January 28th 2007
Author: Mark Goldstein
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Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 12 megapixel
JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around
4Mb.
Noise
There are 6 ISO settings available
on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W200 which you can select at any
time if the camera is in the Program or Manual shooting modes. There
is no discernible noise at the slowest setting
of ISO 100, but noise and slight loss of detail is
already apparent at ISO 200, particularly in the shadow areas.
At ISO 400 image quality has deteriorated quite a lot as
the
camera blurs detail to try and hide the noise, and ISO 800
is an emergency option only. The fastest speeds ISO 1600 of 3200 seem to have been included to make the spec sheet look good, and should really be avoided at all costs.
Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for
each
ISO
setting:
Sharpening
Here are two 100% crops which have
been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand
image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the
camera images are just a little soft at the default sharpening
setting, with further sharpening in a program like Adobe
Photoshop
not really neccessary. You can change the
in-camera sharpening level if you don't like the default results.
Chromatic Aberrations
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W200 suffered from some obvious chromatic aberrations, especially purple frining,
although the effects only really appeared in areas of high contrast, as shown in
the examples below.
Macro
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W200 offers
a Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that
is 5cms away from the camera. The first image shows how close
you can get to the subject in Macro mode (in this case a
compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.
Flash
The flash settings on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W200 are Auto, Forced Flash, Slow Syncro and No Flash with Red-eye Reduction available as a main menu option. These shots
of
a white
coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.
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Forced Flash - Telephoto (105mm) |
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And here are some portrait shots.
The Auto setting caused some quite obvious red-eye, which the Red-eye
reduction mode replaced with slight green-eye!
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Auto
(100% Crop) |
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Red-eye
reduction (100% Crop) |
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Night Shot
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W200's maximum
shutter speed is 30 seconds in the Manual shooting mode,
which is excellent news if you're seriously interested
in night
photography.
The
shot
below was taken using a shutter speed of 25 second, aperture
of f/5.6 at ISO 100. I've included a 100% crop of the image
to show what the quality is like.
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Night
Shot (100% Crop) |
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Anti Shake
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W200 has an anti-shake mechanism, which
allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds
than other digital cameras. To test this, I took 2 handheld
shots of the same subject with the ISO speed set to 100.
The first shot was taken with anti shake turned off, the
second with it turned on. Here is a 100% crop of the image
to show the results. As you can see, with anti shake turned
on, the images are sharper than with anti shake turned
off. This feature really does seem to make a difference and
could mean capturing a successful, sharp shot or missing
the opportunity altogether.
Overall Image Quality
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W200 produced
images of below average quality during the review period. It offers an extensive ISO range of 100-3200, but only
ISO 100-200 is really usable, with noise appearing at the relatively slow speeds of ISO 200 and 400, and lots of noise and blurring
of detail at the higher ISO speeds of 800 and faster. Chromatic aberrations appeared in more shots than I would have liked, with some obvious purple fringing effects
appearing in high contrast situations. Macro performance
is just about average,
allowing you to focus as close as 5cms away from the subject. The built-in flash worked well indoors with good overall
exposure, and the W200's Red-eye Reduction setting also reduced the effects of red-eye quite effectively, albeit replacing it with a subtle green halo. The night photograph was excellent, with the maximum shutter
speed of 30 seconds providing lots of potential for creative night
photography. The 12
megapixel images are very slightly soft straight out of
the camera, so they don't require further sharpening in
an application
like Adobe Photoshop. The anti-shake system worked well to reduce the effects of camera-shake at slower shutter speeds. Overall a fairly disappointing performance from the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W200.
 PhotographyBLOG
is a member of the DIWA
organisation. Our test results for the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W200 have been submitted to DIWA
for comparison with test results for different samples of
the same camera model supplied by other DIWA
member sites.
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