Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX1 Review
Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 10 megapixel JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 4Mb.
The Sony CyberShot DSC-WX1 produced images of very good quality during the review period. This camera handled noise very well, not becoming obvious until the relatively slow speed of ISO 800 and then becoming progressively worse at the fastest settings of ISO 1600 and 3200 - still, not bad for such a small image sensor.
Chromatic aberrations were virtually non-existent, with just some limited purple fringing effects appearing in high contrast situations. The 10 megapixel images were a little soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpen setting and require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, as you can't change the in-camera sharpening level.
Macro performance is quite good, allowing you to focus as close as 5cms away from the subject. Commendably barrel distortion is well controlled even at the 24mm wide-angle focal length. The built-in flash worked well indoors, with no red-eye and adequate overall exposure.
Anti-shake works very well when hand-holding the camera in low-light conditions or when using the telephoto end of the zoom range. The only real fly in the ointment is the disappointing maximum shutter speed of 2 seconds, which doesn't allow the camera to capture enough light for most after-dark situations.
Noise
There are 6 ISO settings available on the Sony CyberShot DSC-WX1. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting.
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ISO 160 (100% Crop) |
ISO 200 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 400 (100% Crop) |
ISO 800 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 1600 (100% Crop) |
ISO 3200 (100% Crop) |
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Focal Range
The Sony CyberShot DSC-WX1's 4x zoom lens offers a fairly versatile focal range, as illustrated by these examples:
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24mm |
120mm |
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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 a little soft and ideally benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. You can't change the in-camera sharpening level.
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Original (100% Crop) |
Sharpened (100% Crop) |
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Chromatic Aberrations
The Sony CyberShot DSC-WX1 handled chromatic aberrations excellently during the review, with very limited purple fringing present around the edges of objects in certain high-contrast situations, as shown in the example below.
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Example 1 (100% Crop) |
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Macro
The Sony CyberShot DSC-WX1 offers a Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is 5cms away from the camera when the lens is set to wide-angle. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.
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Macro Shot |
100% Crop |
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Flash
The flash settings on the Sony CyberShot DSC-WX1 are Auto, Forced Flash, Slow Syncro, No Flash, with a Red-eye Reduction option in the Main menu. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.
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Suppressed Flash - Wide Angle (24mm) |
Forced Flash - Wide Angle (24mm) |
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Suppressed Flash - Telephoto (120mm) |
Forced Flash - Telephoto (120mm) |
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And here are some portrait shots. As you can see, neither the Forced Flash setting or the Red-Eye Correction option caused any red-eye.
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Forced Flash |
Forced Flash (100% Crop) |
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Red-eye Reduction |
Red-eye Reduction (100% Crop) |
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Night Shot
The Sony CyberShot DSC-WX1's maximum shutter speed is 2 seconds, which is not good news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 1/8th second 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 |
Night Shot (100% Crop) |
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Anti Shake
The Sony CyberShot DSC-WX1 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 same settings. The first shot was taken with anti shake turned off, the second with it turned on. Here are some 100% crops of the images to show the results. As you can see, with anti shake turned on, the images are much 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.
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Shutter Speed / Focal Length |
Anti Shake Off (100% Crop) |
Anti Shake On (100% Crop) |
| 1/10th / 35mm | |
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| 1/6th / 140mm | |
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Dynamic Range Optimizer
DRO is Sony's solution for improving shadow detail in photos taken in contrasty light. The selectable settings are Off, Standard [D-R] and Advanced [D-R+]. The examples show the effect of the different settings.
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Off |
Standard |
Advanced |
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Hand-held Twilight Mode
Another standout feature is the Hand-held Twilight mode, in which the camera takes six high-ISO photos in rapid succession, and combines them into a single image. To test this, we took the same shot twice, once with the feature enabled, and once in Program mode. The Hand-held Twilight photo turned out to have somewhat less noise, but was noticeably softer too (the other new mode, Anti Motion Blur, works in a similar fashion).
| Manual Mode | Hand-held Twilight Mode |
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| (100% Crop) | (100% Crop) |
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Sweep Panorama Mode
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX1 allows you to take panoramic images very easily, by 'sweeping' with the camera while keeping the shutter release depressed. The camera does all the processing and stitching. The catch is that the resulting image is of fairly low resolution, and moving subjects tend to be replicated. Check out some examples below.
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Sample Images
This is a selection of sample images from the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX1 camera, which were all taken using the 10 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.
1/125s · f/5.9 · ISO 400
21.25mm
Download Original
1/100s · f/9 · ISO 160
7.97mm
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1/640s · f/5.9 · ISO 160
21.25mm
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1/200s · f/16 · ISO 160
17.95mm
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1/125s · f/18 · ISO 160
21.25mm
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1/125s · f/5.9 · ISO 160
21.25mm
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1/160s · f/7.1 · ISO 160
4.25mm
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1/250s · f/5.9 · ISO 160
21.25mm
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1/640s · f/7.1 · ISO 160
4.25mm
Download Original
1/30s · f/3.2 · ISO 200
7.97mm
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1/30s · f/3.5 · ISO 800
9.52mm
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1/15s · f/5.9 · ISO 800
21.25mm
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1/200s · f/5.9 · ISO 1600
21.25mm
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1/200s · f/5.9 · ISO 160
21.25mm
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1/320s · f/5.9 · ISO 160
21.25mm
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1/320s · f/5.9 · ISO 400
21.25mm
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1/125s · f/5.9 · ISO 200
21.25mm
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1/320s · f/4.5 · ISO 1600
13.02mm
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1/125s · f/5.9 · ISO 320
21.25mm
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1/160s · f/5.9 · ISO 400
21.25mm
Download Original
Sample Movie & Video
This is a sample video from the Sony CyberShot DSC-WX1 camera at the highest quality setting of 1280x720 pixels at 30 frames per second. Please note that this 16 second movie is 16.6Mb in size.
Product Images
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Front of the Camera |
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Front of the Camera / Lens Extended |
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Isometric View |
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Isometric View |
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Rear of the Camera |
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Rear of the Camera / Image Displayed |
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Rear of the Camera / Main Menu |
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Top of the Camera |
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Bottom of the Camera |
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Side of the Camera |
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Side of the Camera |
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Front of the Camera |
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Front of the Camera |
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Memory Card Slot |
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Battery Compartment |
Conclusion
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX1 offers the same focus on image quality rather than simply increasing the megapixel count as its sister model, the TX1, with more conventional controls and a cheaper price-tag.
Sony's new Exmor-R sensor certainly delivers the goods in terms of image quality, with the promise of better low-light performance borne out in practice. Despite having such a small image sensor, the WX1 produces impressive results up to ISO 800, with noise not really becoming apparent until the relatively slow speed of 1600. Colours are accurate, chromatic aberrations virtually non-existent, the Sweep Panorama mode makes capturing panoramic images as effortless as it gets, and the super-fast 10fps burst mode at full resolution is the real icing on the cake. Only a rather limiting fastest shutter speed of 2 seconds detracts from the otherwise excellent pictures that this camera takes.
The 24mm wide-angle lens is also a great performer, with not too much barrel distortion despite the extreme angle of view, and a very versatile 5x focal range that also allows you to get close up and personal. The lens is one of the key reasons why we'd choose the WX1 over the TX1, as is the lack of touchscreen interface. While this is initially an attraction on the TX1, ultimately it's quicker and easier to navigate your way around a camera using the more conventional button-driven controls of the WX1.
Although cheaper than the TX1, $350 / £300 is still a lot to ask for the WX1 - after all, this is only a 10 megapixel point-and-shoot camera with no manual modes to speak of. Having said that, if you don't need or want the ability to fully control your camera, then the Sony Cyber-shot WX1 makes an excellent choice. Its wealth of innovative hand-holding modes makes it easy to successfully shoot regular photos, panoramas, and particularly low-light images, an area where most compacts really struggle. It may only look like yet another compact camera, but the Sony WX1 delivers impressive results in a fun and easy way.
| Ratings (out of 5) | |
|---|---|
| Design | 4.5 |
| Features | 4 |
| Ease-of-use | 4.5 |
| Image quality | 4.5 |
| Value for money | 4 |
Review Roundup
Reviews of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX1 from around the web.
imaging-resource.com »
Extremely small and attractive, the Sony WX1 has a few tricks under its hat that you'd never guess by just looking at it. The new feature this year isn't face detection or smile sensing -- though those things can be found on the Sony WX1--the new feature is low-light capability, allowing you to get shots indoors and at night that you never could before without getting blur from subject movement and camera movement. The Sony WX1 uses both an enhanced sensor, and very fast processing to achieve these tricks, and the results are impressive.
Read the full review »
reviews.cnet.co.uk »
Lightweight and fun to use, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX1 is a great, fast-performing snapshot camera that falters slightly in terms of photo quality.
Read the full review »
Specifications
Lens
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Optical Zoom |
5x |
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Precision Digital Zoom |
Approx.10x(Total) |
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Smart Zoom |
up to 28x (with VGA) |
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F |
2.4-5.9 |
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Focal Length (f= mm) |
4.25-21.25 |
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Focal Length (f=35mm conversion) |
24-120 |
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Macro (cm) |
Wide: Approx. 5-Infinity, Tele: Approx. 50-Infinity (in Auto Mode) |
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Filter Diameter (mm) |
NO |
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Conversion Lens compatibility |
NO |
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NightShot |
NO |
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NightFraming |
NO |
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Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar Lens |
NO |
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Sony G |
YES |
Image Sensory
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CCD Type |
Exmor R™ CMOS Sensor |
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Size (Inches) |
1/2.4 |
Camera
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Effective Pixels (Mega Pixels) |
Approx.10.2 |
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Bionz Processor |
YES |
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Face Detection |
YES |
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Smile Shutter |
YES |
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A/D Conversion (DXP) (Bit) |
12 |
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Clear RAW NR |
YES |
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Auto Focus Method (Single) |
NO |
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Auto Focus Method (Monitoring) |
NO |
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Auto Focus Method (Intelligent) |
YES |
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Auto Focus Method (Continuous) |
NO |
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Auto Focus Area (Multi Point) |
YES |
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Auto Focus Area (Centre weighted) |
YES |
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Auto Focus Area (Spot) |
YES |
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Auto Focus Area (Flexible Spot) |
NO |
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Manual Focus |
NO |
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Focus Preset |
NO |
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Focus Preset (m) |
NO |
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Aperture Auto Mode |
YES |
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Aperture Priority Mode |
NO |
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Aperture Manual Mode |
NO |
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Shutter Speed Auto Mode (sec) |
2" - 1/1600 |
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NR Slow Shutter |
YES |
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Hand Shake Alert |
YES |
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Exposure Control |
+/- 2.0EV, 1/ 3 EV step |
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White Balance |
Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent1,Fluorescent2,Fluorescent3, Incandescent, Flash, One Push, One Push Set |
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Automatic White Balance |
YES |
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Light Metering (Multi Pattern) |
YES |
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Light Metering (Centre weighted) |
YES |
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Light Metering (Spot) |
YES |
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Sharpness Setting |
NO |
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Saturation Setting |
NO |
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Contrast Setting |
NO |
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ISO Sensitivity (REI) |
YES (Auto, 160, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200) |
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Scene Selection |
High Sensitivity, Soft Snap, Landscape, Twilight Portrait, Twilight, Gourmet, Pet, Beach, Snow, Fireworks, Underwater |
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AF Illuminator |
YES |
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Flash Mode |
Auto, Forced Flash, Slow Syncro, No Flash |
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Distance limitations using Flash (m) |
0.2-5 (wide), 0.5-2 (tele) |
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Pre-flash |
YES |
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Red-eye Reduction |
YES |
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Auto Daylight Synchronized Flash |
YES |
Super SteadyShot
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Super SteadyShot capability |
NO |
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SteadyShot capability |
NO |
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Optical SteadyShot capability |
YES |
Auto Focus System
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AF Illuminator |
YES |
Built-In-Flash
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Flash Mode |
Auto, Forced Flash, Slow Syncro, No Flash |
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Red-Eye Reduction |
YES |
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Auto Daylight Synchronized Flash |
YES |
LCD/ Viewfinder
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LCD Screen Size (inches) |
2.7 |
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LCD Total Dots Number |
230.400 |
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LCD Monitor Type |
TFT |
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Auto Bright Monitoring |
YES |
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Optical Viewfinder |
NO |
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Electrical Viewfinder |
NO |
Recording
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Recording Media |
Memory Stick™ Duo, Memory Stick PRO Duo™. Memory Stick PRO Duo™ High Speed (No Speed Advantage), Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo™(No Speed Advantage), Internal memory (11MB) |
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Recording Format |
JPEG |
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Memory Stick™ Pro Interface |
Parallel |
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DCF (Design rule for Camera File System) |
YES |
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DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) |
YES |
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Burst Mode (shots) |
10 |
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Burst Interval (approximately sec) |
0.1 |
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Still Image size (12 Mega 4000 x 3000) |
NO |
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Still Image size (10 Mega 3648 x 2736) |
YES |
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Still Image size (8.0 Mega, 3264 x 2448) |
NO |
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Still Image size (5.0 Mega, 2592 x 1944) |
YES |
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Still Image size (3.1 Mega, 2048 x 1536) |
YES |
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Still Image size (VGA, 640 x 480) |
YES |
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Still Image size (16:9 mode, 1920 x 1080) |
YES |
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Still Image size (16:9 mode, 3648 x 2056) |
YES |
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Still Image size (16:9 mode, 4000 x 2248) |
NO |
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Still Image size (3:2 mode, 4000 x 2672) |
NO |
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Still Image size (3:2 mode 3648 x 2432) |
YES |
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Still Image size (3:2 mode 3456 x 2304) |
NO |
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Panorama |
(7152 x 1080) / (4912 x 1080) / (4912 x 1920) / (3424 x 1920) |
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Moving Image Size (MPEG VX Fine, 640x480, 30fps) |
NO |
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Moving Image Size (MPEG VX Standard, 640x480, 16.6fps) |
NO |
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Moving Image Size (640x480 30fps) |
YES |
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Moving Image Size (QVGA: 320x240 30fps) |
NO |
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Moving Image Size (QVGA: 320x240 8.3fps) |
NO |
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Moving Image Size (1440x1080 30fps Fine Approx.12Mbps) |
NO |
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Moving Image Size (1440x1080 30fps Standard Approx.7Mbps) |
NO |
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Moving Image Size (1280x720 30fps Fine Approx.9Mbps) |
YES |
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Moving Image Size (1280x720 30fps Standard Approx.6Mbps) |
YES |
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Moving Image Size (640x480 30fps Approx.3Mbps) |
NO |
Playback/ Edit
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HD (High Definition) Playback |
YES |
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Slideshow Playback |
YES |
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Slideshow with Music |
YES |
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Trimming |
YES |
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Resize |
NO |
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Playback Zoom |
YES |
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Divide (MPEG) |
NO |
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Cue & Review (MPEG) |
YES |
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Index Playback |
YES |
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Image Rotation |
YES |
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Auto Image Rotation |
YES |
>General
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Battery Remaining Indicator |
YES |
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Histogram Indicator |
YES |
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Exposure Warning Indicator |
YES |
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Disk / Memory Stick remaining indicator |
YES |
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PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol) |
YES |
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Print Image Matching |
YES |
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PictBridge |
YES |
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Shop Front Mode |
YES |
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Start up time (approximately sec) |
1.6 |
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Menu Language |
English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Turkish, Greek, Croatian, Romanian |
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Bluetooth Function |
NO |
Jacks
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Multi use Terminal with HD |
YES |
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Multi use Terminal |
YES |
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AV Out |
NO |
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Digital I/O (USB) |
NO |
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USB 2.0 Hi-Speed |
YES |
>Power/ Others
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Battery System |
Lithium G |
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Supplied Battery |
NP-BG1 |
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Stamina (battery life) with the supplied battery(s) in normal shooting condition |
350 shots, 175min (CIPA standard with LCD screen on) |
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Battery for Clock |
Manganese-Lithium (MS614SE) |
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Weight (g) |
120 |
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Weight with Accessories (g) |
149 |
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Supplied Software |
Picture Motion Browser Ver.4.3.00(Windows only) |
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Supplied Accessories |
Rechargeble battery pack (NP-BG1), Battery Charger, Multi Connector Cable(USB, AV), Power Cord, Wrist Strap, CD-ROM |
Dimensions
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Width (mm) |
90.5 |
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Height (mm) |
51.8 |
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Depth (mm) |
19.8 |
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