Introduction

Ease of Use

On paper, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX200 looks to be a camera designed for the happy snapper. Looking at the camera with its sharp edges and brushed steel front, it also seems to be geared towards the photographer that desires a camera that looks good too. On the front is a long telephoto zoom lens. The glass is Sony G grade which is higher than standard Sony glass. It has been brought over from Konica Minolta when Sony acquired the photo imaging side of the company back in 2006. So what you have is a capable zoom lens with significantly better quality glass used in the construction.

Simplicity appears to have been the forethought of the designers when creating the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX200. The top plate has only the power button and shutter release with zoom rocker combo. The back is similarly bereft of buttons compared to other digital compact cameras in this price range. A wheel has taken over the navigation pad usually found. The wheel can obviously be rotated, but it can also be pressed in at the four right angle points to move up, down, left and right through menus or to choose the modes that are indicated on the camera's casing. A switch is located above it to flick between normal shooting, panoramic shooting and video. Below the wheel, the Main menu button sits slightly above the delete/help guide button with playback slightly to the left.

Front	Rear

A metal casing surrounds the interior while a shiny, glossy plastic covers the operational area of the back of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX200. The battery door is slim and long which should make it flimsy and flexible, but Sony have added a length of metal on the underside to strengthen it. They've also added a small lock to prevent it snapping open. Unusually, the HDMI port is exposed to the elements and this sits on the bottom alongside the plastic tripod bush. For some reason, Sony have decided not to place the HDMI slot next to the USB port on the right shoulder. If they had it would then be covered.

Sony aren't known for their simple menu systems and the Cyber-shot DSC-WX200 is no different. They've tried to compact it all down to one area with sub-menus, but that can be more confusing. Press the menu button and you're taken straight into the Main menu. Here you can adjust the resolution, ISO or white-balance as well as play with the metering, focus, continuous shooting or smile shoot options. If you wish to go deeper and adjust features such as the date & time, language and such, you have to locate the toolbox icon at the bottom of the list and select it. The menu in here is far more comprehensive. There are five main tabs down the left side of the screen for Shooting, Main, Network, Memory and Clock settings.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX200 is wi-fi capable and the functions can be adjusted in the Main menu under Network settings. You can WPS Push to force locate a hot spot, access settings, edit the name or format all settings if you wish. More “on the spot” wi-fi functionality is done in the quick menu. Choosing where to transmit the images to is done in the Playback menu when you're looking at the pictures you've taken. One cool feature of the wi-fi is being able to link the camera to your smart phone. You can then use the phone as a remote so those outstretched arm 'selfies' will be a thing of the past.

Front	Top

Sony mention on the website for the WX200 that the camera shoots approximately 10fps (frames per second). While the camera certainly took 10 shots, it only managed eight of them in a second. The ninth was just over and the tenth frame was at 1.32sec. While it's only a quarter of a second difference, it could mean getting the shot or not. Generally if you're using a burst mode, it's to make sure you get a something fast and special.

Start up time is pretty quick, though. We managed to get the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX200 switched on, focused and taking a picture in just over 2sec. That's around half a second quicker than average, so if you're shooting the kids (with the camera, of course), you can at least rely on the camera starting up and being ready quickly.

Looking back at the pictures you've taken is performed by pressing the arrow button located in the bottom right corner of the camera. This can be done whether the camera is on or off. If you're only reviewing and not shooting at the time, it's best to leave the camera off, then the lens won't stick out, keeping it protected. You can alter the information about the picture available to read by pressing up on the wheel and choosing between basic info, no info and extensive info.

Smartphone Connection	Side

The latter shows not only the battery status, date & time, memory card number and resolution, but also the white-balance chosen, selected ISO, shutter speed, aperture, any exposure compensation, flash status and even a histogram. A histogram is a chart that illustrates the exposure of the camera. The left side shows the shadows, the centre is for mid-tones and the right side shows highlights. The more shadows are in the shot, the more the left will have peaks and so on. The ideal exposure will display a central peak – like a hill.  You can scroll through the pictures by rotating the wheel, although this isn't as precise and should be reserved for moving through a lot of pictures to find a rough point before using the left and right buttons of the wheel to move through with more finesse.

The Playback menu allows you to have a bit of fun with your pictures. There are several options for using the wi-fi feature including sending images to a smart phone (the resolution will be reduced to cope) or viewing them on a smart phone. You can view them on a television or a computer. There are also several editing options such as Beauty effect, Retouch and Picture effects. You can also create a slide-show if you wish. Other features include the ability to rotate, protect and place in print order. You can also access the In-Camera guide and the Set up menu.

In the box, you'll find the camera, dedicated lithium ion battery, USB cable and AC adaptor to charge the camera. You'll also get a Manual and CD software to view the pictures with.

Image Quality

File sizes on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX200 are around 5Mb each. The WX200 has no provision for adjusting the compression, so we only shot at the highest resolution. The only time the resolution changes on these photographs is when the camera adjusts them automatically.

Noise

Just how well this camera performs at noise control is all down to your personal outlook on its importance. We have to bear in mind who the target audience is with the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX200 and if we approach this section with that as our primary motivation then at ISO 100, the pictures look great. They're smooth, sharp and nicely exposed with no colour cast. If we approach it as the photographers that we are, the photos are analysed at full magnification. Doing this will show some colour noise in the darker areas. That's bad for a low ISO setting. It gets a little stronger as we move through the settings with slight specks of salt & pepper noise appearing at ISO 400. To be fair, things stay roughly the same for those four settings. It's not until ISO 800 that things take a turn for the worse.

Sharp edges start to be attacked by salt & pepper noise that's becoming more aggressive. Noise reduction software kicks in at ISO 1600 as though it was caught on a break for the first four settings. Sharp edges begin to soften here and darker areas lose detail due to smoothing. This noise reduction carries on, but colour noise worsens until the noise reduction simply can't keep up any more. Unusually, ISO 6400 sees a massive change in colour cast. We didn't change any settings, but just that one image has a strong orange cast to it. The highest setting of ISO 12,800 simply looks like an oil painting because of the amount of noise reduction has smoothed out all sharp edges and fine detail in the image.

ISO 100 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)
ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)
ISO 1600 (100% Crop)	ISO 3200 (100% Crop)
ISO 6400 (100% Crop)	ISO 12800 (100% Crop)

Focal Range

The 10x optical zoom on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX200 spans from a decent 25mm wide, to a satisfying 250mm zoom in 35mm terms.

25mm	250mm

Sharpening

Because of the low level noise issues, we wouldn't recommend adding any additional sharpening to the pictures from the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX200. It only exacerbates the noise issue already present.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)
Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

The appearance of chromatic aberration on the images from the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX200 is rare. We had to really hunt it out in the sample pictures. We think that the camera has a CA removal system of some kind, because when it appears it's very faint. But it could just be testament to the quality of the G lens. We did get a lot of light bleeding over, which can look like CA, but it actually a type of lens flare. It can still be a problem, though.

Chromatic Aberrations 1 (100% Crop)	Chromatic Aberrations 2 (100% Crop)

Macro

The close focusing of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX200 is around 5cm. That's a pretty average distance for a digital camera and it means that you can get in reasonably close without casting shadows or suffering from much barrel distortion.

Macro	Macro (100% Crop)

Flash

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX200 suffers some vignetting at wide-angle and it's still apparent at full zoom. The flash is intelligent, so it works with the ambient light to stabilise it. We didn't find any issues with red-eye, but the camera has a doesnt red-eye reduction system available, should you need it.

Suppressed Flash - Wide Angle (25mm)	Forced Flash - Wide Angle (25mm)
Suppressed Flash - Telephoto (250mm)	Forced Flash - Telephoto (250mm)

And here are some portrait shots.

Forced Flash	Forced Flash (100% Crop)
Red-eye Reduction	Red-eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night

For the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX200's night shot test, both the Program mode and the Night scene chose ISO 100 for the smoothest possible results. However, Program selected a slightly longer shutter speed to create a lighter image. The Night scene result is the closest to the actual light available at the time. Flicking the camera into Auto ISO selected ISO 500 as the camera will assume you're hand holding it.

Night Scene	Night Scene (100% Crop)
Night Program	Night Program (100% Crop)
Night Program Auto ISO	Night Program Auto ISO (100% Crop)

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX200 camera, which were all taken using the 18 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample Movie & Video

Product Images

Front of the Sony CyberShot DSC-WX200

Front of the Sony CyberShot DSC-WX200 / Lens Extended

Side of the Sony CyberShot DSC-WX200

Side of the Sony CyberShot DSC-WX200

Rear of the Sony CyberShot DSC-WX200 / Turned On

Rear of the Sony CyberShot DSC-WX200 / Wi-Fi Menu

Rear of the Sony CyberShot DSC-WX200 / Main Menu

Rear of the Sony CyberShot DSC-WX200 / Scene Menu

Rear of the Sony CyberShot DSC-WX200 / Picture Effects Menu

Rear of the Sony CyberShot DSC-WX200 / In-Camera Guide

Rear of the Sony CyberShot DSC-WX200 / Smartphone Connection

Top of the Sony CyberShot DSC-WX200

Bottom of the Sony CyberShot DSC-WX200

Side of the Sony CyberShot DSC-WX200

Side of the Sony CyberShot DSC-WX200

Front of the Sony CyberShot DSC-WX200

Conclusion

For a simple point and shooter, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX200 fulfils its brief. Don't buy this camera with high expectations of developing your photographic skill. It's a sexy little number for the happy snapper crowd who want something good looking to take pictures with. It's not bogged down with technological advancements or menus of creative features.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX200's menu system can be confusing when you first start using it. The initial menu is easy enough to understand, but once you get into the Main menu, things start to get complicated for someone who just wants top take pictures of the kids. Maybe a little too complicated? Still, there's a handy shooting guide to assist you in the day to day trappings of taking pictures.

The Exmor R sensor is a disappointment. We noticed noise at ISO 100, albeit at full magnification. This is a sensor designed to be better and more responsive in low light. If it's better in the dark, it should be amazing in the light. So why isn't it? It could be that if you're looking to buy this camera, then you're not that bothered. But is that a reason to not at least try?

We do like the wi-fi options available on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX200. It's great (although not new) that an app can be downloaded onto your smart phone and used to take photographs. Hopefully, it will rid the world of those self portraits that adorn 80% of Facebook profiles.

So the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX200 is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, it looks great, feels great, has a lovely lens, decent zoom range, records FullHD video and is wi-fi compatible. On the other hand, it has debatable ISO performance, a confusing menu and there's no way of developing your photography if you decide you love it. Essentially, it boils down to cosmetics. If you want a nice looking camera with a good quality lens, from a well known name, then the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX200 could be for you.

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4.5
Features	4
Ease-of-use	3.5
Image quality	3.5
Value for money	4

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Listed below are some of the rivals of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX200.

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX200 from around the web.

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