Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24752 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Sony
• Model: DSCW300.CEH
• Released on: 2008-05-13
• Dimensions: .34 pounds
• Display size: 2.7

Manufacturer's Description

The W300 gives you incredible technology in an easy to use package. Its features include 13.6 megapixel resolution, a large 2.7" LCD screen,a 3x optical zoom and some of the most innovative and exciting photographic technology available from Sony. You can look forward to Intelligent Scene Recognition, Super SteadyShot, and the ability to shoot 720p HD video too. The W300 has a sleek, scratch resistant titanium body and is ideal for those who want to take their photography to the next level.

The power to catch every scene
The W300 contains the powerful BIONZ processor, which enhances image quality by handling large amounts of digital information at high speed. This reduces image noise and enables a faster shooting response. It is also fitted with Vario–Tessar lenses made by Carl Zeiss, the world renowned optical specialists. These premium lenses are highly rated by photographers for their colour precision, superb contrast and extremely low distortion levels at all focal lengths. The enormous 13.6 effective mega-pixel resolution gives you the capability to make high quality images which maintain detail even when enlarged.

Face Detection finds and enhances faces in complex scenes View larger

Enhanced Face Detection helps you keep your portraits in focus
Face Detection is very handy for shooting larger groups and scenes where faces might get lost against a detailed background. The sensor recognises faces as faces and automatically adjusts the exposure, white balance and flash settings to show skin tones at their best. Up to 8 faces can be recognised in any scene and you can even set priority for children or adults.

The high sensitivity sensor enables great pictures in low light
Look forward to stunning images taken even when the natural light is not at its best. The BIONZ sensor on the W300 is calibrated to an extremely high ISO of 6400, making it highly sensitive to any light available. Higher sensitivity enables faster shutter speed and so also reduces the blur on images, even in low light conditions. Working with Optical SteadyShot, this forms the W300’s powerful Dual Anti-blur function.

Intelligent Scene Recognition lets you concentrate on the subject
This simplifies shooting by automatically choosing the best settings for your shot from Portrait, Macro, Landscape, Twilight, Portrait, Backlight Portrait and Backlight. This is particularly useful when you don’t have time to set your camera manually in awkward lighting conditions. The Anti–Blink mode prevents closed eyes spoiling otherwise good compositions.

Super SteadyShot uses a sensor to stop hand shake blurring pictures View larger

Super SteadyShot to reduce picture blur
If you are shooting with the camera in your hand, there is always a danger of handshake spoiling your picture, even if your subject is stationary. Super Steady Shot is an intelligent image stabiliser from Sony which uses a gyroscopic sensor to rapidly change the position of the lens inside the camera if it detects camera shake. The results are crisp, razor sharp photos even in poorly lit rooms. This feature is especially important when zooming in on a subject, because the smallest shake shows up when a subject is far away.

Enhanced Smile Shutter captures every smile
Ever had a portrait or party scene shot spoiled because your subject wasn’t smiling when the shutter clicked? Then you’ll appreciate the W300’s Smile Shutter function. In Smile Shutter mode the camera automatically takes a picture when it detects a smile, so your friends and family always look their best. You just click an icon to set the level of smile required and the camera does the rest. You can interrupt Smile Shutter by pressing the shutter button at any point if a shot looks interesting. You can also instruct it to only shoot when one of several faces is smiling. You can even set a priority for children or adults.

Retouch shots on the move
If you can want to improve your shot right there and then, you can even perform simple retouching operations in camera without needing to download the image to your PC — such as cropping, altering exposure or removing red–eye. You can also make the most of the W300’s 2.7" Clear Photo LCD screen by using it for playback as well as scene composition. It’s big enough to be viewed by more than one person, and the camera even allows you to add a music soundtrack and other fun effects so you can put on a real slideshow. Back at home, the W300 has an HD output too to allow you to show your still images at their best on an HD TV screen (optional cable VHC-MHC2 required).

Browse photos by people, landscapes or smiles with the Picture Motion Browser software View larger

PMB (Picture Motion Browser) software
Managing your growing photo collection is hugely simplified by this software which comes free with the W300. Just install it on your PC and it provides a perfect archive for your shots which are all just a click or two away. You can arrange them by date, by person, and even search through them quickly. From here you can burn them to discs, send them to friends or upload them to sites in a matter of seconds.

‘Sony’, ‘Cyber-shot’, ’Super SteadyShot’ and their logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sony Corporation. All other trademarks acknowledged.

Box Contents

Customer Reviews

Point and Cyber-shoot
I bought the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W300 to compliment the big Sony Alpha A700 DSLR I also own. The A700 is a fantastic camera, but just too big and awkward in some situations. What I didn't want to lose though was too much of the quality of the DSLR. As a pocket-able alternative the DSC-W300 does not disappoint, it's small, robust, and produces brilliant pictures. Most people picking up this camera will probably go straight into the easy modes, but dig deeper and there's a whole host of interesting options. For me the top functions were absolutely brilliant low-light non-flash modes (better than the A700!) and that when changing shooting modes if reflects the colour balance on the LCD viewfinder (which you can turn of and use a physical viewfinder if preferred or you want to extend battery life).
I've seen criticism of the camera's 3x optical zoom; this is only an issue when using the camera at it's full 13.6 mega-pixel range. Drop the resolution and the magnification (albeit via digital means not optical) increases correspondingly.
Short-comings: My only niggles concern the camera's movie modes. Firstly the maximum resolution is just 640x480, although the frame rate is good. Secondly you need to pick your zoom level before you start shooting, as once you've started you cant change it.
Overall an amazing bit of kit, capable of producing some amazing photographs.

Fit For The Job.
I must start by saying that this camera (DSC-W300) is the first digital camera I have purchased. I have some experience with 35mm SLRs, but I wanted a versatile piece of kit that would enable me to upload pictures to the internet, print directly from the camera, and add images to my PlayStation 3 console.

The first thing I should note, and as indicated by the above comments, is that I think compact cameras are fundamentally utility devices. There are many people on the internet who criticise this model's unsuitability for longer-distance and wide-angle photography, and the lack of many video modes. On the first point, I would say this: compact cameras are designed for high quality close-up images (family and friends groups, primarily) and are not designed for vary-focal images (e.g., someone standing 300 yards in front of Mount Fuji and expecting both to be in focus perfectly). On the second point: movie modes on a still camera are a lovely bonus for a camera but are an add-on that should not be counted towards any final evaluation of the product. Sorry to sound snotty, but those are the basics.

So, does the W300 add up for the basics? Clearly, the Carl Zeiss lens is going to deliver on the bread and butter family snaps that is always going to be the brief for compacts. The 13.9 megapixel rating is useful, although the 8MP setting offers fantastic quality images that can be converted to 16:9 1080p for viewing on televisions. It is true that the .9 of a MP seems to have been lost in the implementation of actually taking photos, as the highest setting is the flat 13MP!

There are the usual ISO presets, automatic and night settings, as well as smile detection technology. Again, the brief of a compact camera has been observed well by Sony, weighing easy-of-use against range of use. This is again apparent in the neat Movie Mode: the 640 "fine" and "standard" image settings are perfectly acceptable for on-the-fly movies showing the drunken antics and practical jokes that are the stock-in-trade of the light-hearted situations that the W300 predominantly deals with. The MPEG-1 video format is also compatible with Windows Media Player and the PS3, among others.
The software that comes with the W300 enables the user to add their photos to a calendar on their PC, and even add location details for each picture via internet maps. The standard easy-to-use image manipulation features are there, again underlining the pick-up-and-play nature of compacts. Videos can be converted to WMV, too.

On the downside, the zoom is only x3, meaning for the occasions when it is needed it is not as versatile as, say, some of the Panasonic models. Secondly, the battery life is not quite what I expected (quoted in the manual at 150 minutes -with LCD panel switched on- for taking pictures alone), and the charge time for a full battery is a whopping 330 minutes. These are the only significant drawbacks to the camera that I have found thus far.

Build quality is excellent, as expected from a Japanese-made product. The LCD screen is more durable than I had expected, and its 2.7" size is more than large enough for viewing back and editing any images.

My first impressions of this product are very positive. As a compact camera the DSC-W300 is a very capable camera, with many of the intelligent design features expected from Sony. However, for those wanting a decent amount of zoom or other quasi-SLR features, it may be best to go for another model, or just take the plunge and go for an SLR instead.

Top of it's Game
Wow, this thing is just so far head of everything else. It's a gorgeous bit of kit , & not too slim , like some of the compacts, but it is still small. The Titanium coating on the stainless steel body is gorgeous & makes it tougher & more scratch resistant.The menu system is a dream plus very easy to use. Having just upgraded from a "Big"Fuji 6800 that I bought in 2000, this seems tiny & hi-tech. Other than all the mega pixels , the main draw point for me was the inclusion of an optical view-finder which can extend your shot capacity per battery charge by having the screen off. The Fuji had one , but it is almost impossible to find a compact with one these days. I hate composing your shot on the screen, I must be old fashioned I guess, but I love having the big screen to browse through the menu, & what an array of options.Black & white was a new one to me but one I hope to use a lot , as I like to draw, & to draw in pencil from a B & W subject matter is far easier to transpose to the correct shades. Smile recognition is a sticky one though & I have a feeling this may not work all the time, but then again who knows ? Overall ? WOW ! Brilliant. Top Dog.