Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W200 Review
Review Date: January 28th 2007
Author: Mark Goldstein
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Conclusion
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Ratings
(out of 5) |
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| Design | 3.5 |
| Features | 4 |
| Ease-of-Use | 3.5 |
| Image Quality | 3 |
| Value for Money | 3.5 |
On paper the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W200 promises to be one of the more interesting compacts around for the keen shutterbug. Ultimately, however, it's let down by a combination of poor image quality, mixed responsiveness and strange implementation of some key features. The 12 megapixel sensor may give you bags of resolution to play with, but it comes at the cost of noisy images at the slow speed of ISO 200 and quite a lot of unwanted chromatic aberrations. The optical anti-shake mechanism is a welcome inclusion that partly makes up for the noise problem, but the face detection system is very poorly implemented. A fully manual shooting mode is again great to see, but I can't help feeling that Aperture- and Shutter-priority modes would have made more sense for the W200's target market. The optical viewfinder is useful when the sun is out, but the low-resolution LCD screen is completely out-of-place on this class of camera. The marketing blurb promises HD connectivity, but there's no cable supplied in the box. In short, it seem that for everything that the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W200 gets right, it also gets something very wrong. When there are so many other similar cameras to choose from, it makes recommending the W200 very difficult, especially given the premium price-tag that this camera comes with.
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