Product Description

10.1 Effective megapixels resolution for clear enlargements up to A3 size 5x Optical zoom Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens with 30mm wide angle for panoramic landscapes and large group shots Smile Shutter waits until the subject smiles before firing the shutter with adjustable smile threshold setting Enhanced Face Detection with high-speed subject tracking for clearer portraits Intelligent Scene Recognition automatically selects correct shooting mode depending on subject Large 2.7-inch (230K dot) Clear Photo LCD HD Output compatible with PhotoTV HD displays for optimised still images on Bravia TV Bionz processor for enhanced image quality and fast response Double Anti-blur with Super SteadyShot image stabilisation and High Sensitivity ISO 3200 for clearer handheld shooting in low light D-Range Optimiser adjusts exposure and contrast in high contrast and backlit scenes

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13004 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Sony
• Model: DSCW170S.CEH
• Released on: 2008-04-30
• Dimensions: .31 pounds

Manufacturer's Description

W170 The Sony DSC-W170 matches point-and-shoot ease-of-use with advanced features to pack a powerful punch. The sophisticated, compact body features an enviable 10.1 megapixel resolution, Carl Zeiss® 5x optical zoom lens, and Sony's Double Anti-Blur solution for crisp, clear images. For easy viewing and sharing, the large 2.7" LCD displays your shots in vibrant colour. In addition, Face Detection technology, Smile Shutter, and Intelligent Scene Recognition elicit stunning detail from special moments.

10.1 MP Super HAD CCD More megapixels give you more detail and definition when you make big prints or crop in tight on your subject. The advanced Sony Super HAD (Hole Accumulated Diode) CCD design allows more light to pass to each pixel, increasing sensitivity and reducing noise.

Carl Zeiss® 5X Optical Zoom Lens 5X optical zoom gives you the power to get even closer to the action -- a real benefit for distant landscape views and dramatic portraits

Smile Shutter Mode Smile Shutter technology captures smiles the moment they happen - without the need to press the shutter. The mode can be set to capture when your subject laughs, smiles or even grins, and like Face Detection is able to differentiate children and adults to set priority.

Face Detection Face Detection technology automatically controls focus, exposure, colour, and flash to help reveal faces in shadows, make skin tones look more natural, reduce red-eye, and eliminate harsh facial glare, so your photos bring out every expression on every face in every shot. Now with adult or child priority so you can determine who the focal point should be.

Intelligent Scene Recognition Mode Intelligent Scene Recognition mode automatically detects 5 different types of scenes and selects the appropriate camera setting: Backlight, Backlight Portrait, Twilight, Twilight Portrait, Twilight using a Tripod. Intelligent Scene Recognition has two different modes, advanced and auto. In Advanced mode, if the camera detects the particular scene, it will take one more picture. In Auto mode takes a single shot, arbitrarily deciding on the proper setting.

In-Camera Retouching Add creative effects to photos after you shoot using any of 9 filters, including a "radial blur" effect and "retro" colour tint and trimming function, as well as a soft edge filter to soften backgrounds, cross filter to place starry "dazzles" at highlight points, partial colour filter to mute surrounding colours, or even a fish-eye filter to create interesting fish-eye lens effects, and unsharp maskunsharp masking to sharpen the image.

2.7" Clear Photo LCD Display A large, bright 2.7" Clear Photo LCD display (230K pixels) includes an antireflective coating that provides for excellent visibility to help you compose, view, and share photos with superb clarity and colour reproduction, even in bright sunlight.

PhotoTV HD PhotoTV HD compatibility allows the camera to be connected to a PhotoTV HDcapable Sony BRAVIA HDTV via the optional HD output adaptor, for highly detailed, high-definition color images displayed in unprecedented realism and full HD quality.

BIONZ BIONZ image processor delivers speed and precision for enhanced image quality.

Dynamic Range Optimizer Powered by the exclusive Sony BIONZ high-speed processing engine, Dynamic Range Optimization preserves image data in bright highlights and reveals more detail in shadows or backlit areas -- for great results even in difficult lighting conditions.

Sony Double Anti-Blur Solution The combination of Super SteadyShot optical image stabilization and high ISO sensitivity helps compensate for shaky hands, minimizes blur, and allow flashfree shooting to preserve the mood.

High Sensitivity (ISO 3200) Mode With high sensitivity of ISO 3200, you can shoot effectively in low light without flash to preserve the mood, while the Sony Clear RAW Noise Reduction system helps suppress the colour noise that can degrade low-light shots.

STAMINA Battery Power Provides extended battery life and shooting capacity when using a fully charged Lithium Ion battery-- enough to cover that long weekend or holiday.

Box Contents

Customer Reviews

Everybody's smiling with the W170
I've already got an alpha 100 D-SLR, but there are occasions when its just not the time to lug a great big camera round with all the different bits that go with it. So I thought that this would be a good everyday sort of camera. I was wrong.

It's a fantasic camera! I could end up using it more than my D-SLR as the pictures are of the same quality, but in such a small case!

The last compact digital camera I had was another Cyber-Shot, the P-10, but its 5 years old now, and how its all changed. Everything is so fast, from turning it on, to focusing, to zooming, to taking as many pictures you want in a row, its all instant!

However, I really think the best points of this camera are the functions that do it all themselves. Face detection and the Smile Shutter. No longer is face detection a gimmick, everything is adjusted to make those faces look the best they can, focus, exposure, white balance, and flash are all adjusted. And it plays a role in the Smile Shutter, the most fantastic thing you will use for a long while.

Just focus the camera, press the shutter, and smile! It really works, and is so fun to use, you can also set the camera to child priority, so that the camera will only fire when the children in the photo are smiling, I hear sighs of relief from parents everywhere!

But using the Smile Shutter you will always get great people pictures, as i've found, after the first smiling picture, the subject laughs so much at the camera that it just keeps going!

All of this, and a lot more, in something you can fit in any trouser pocket, what an age we live in.

Ok, a couple of tiny gripes. The camera is slower to focus when zoomed in to the max 5x's, but only by about a second. The other is that in my 5 year old camera, the infoLITHIUM battery used would tell you down to minute how long you had till it ran out, all of my Handycam's do this too. This camera CAN do this, but you have to purchase an infoLITHIUM battery seperatly, would have been nice to include it in the box.

Overall though, its a supurb piece of kit, and i'm sure it will capture many moments, probably 95% with smiling happy people due to the Smile Shutter, to come.

Aren't these cameras getting good?
I've been addicted to the cheaper Sony cameras for some time - not that there is anything unreliable about them, it's just the one daughter who thinks they should bounce off concrete and have some magic retrieval system for when they are left on buses in another country.

The last camera I had was the DSC-600, which was good, but did distort noticeably on wide-angle shots.

The gadgetry on the W170 is good. There are a few features which I have been impressed with:

* The ISO setting lets you take blur-free pictures without grain in low light settings like church interiors. Not sure why it does not automatically kick in in its auto mode as it is so effective.

* The focusing works well, with the feedback squares picking out what it is thinking about, and the shutter press easily distinguishes between the pre-focus and the picture take. Biasing towards faces seems to do the trick. Out of the 500 or so pictures I took across a couple of weeks, I never had a focus problem, which is a first for me.

* The simplified menu system with big graphics makes it easy to know how it is set up. Also, there is an integrated menu so you can find all the options rather than trying to remember how to get into the menu to pick up a particular feature.

* The lens is a big wide angle lens - a proper 28mm equivalent which any 35mm camera person will know is the mainstay of that format. Though there is some pincushion distortion, it is reasonably well contained, especially compared with others.

* Super bright large screen, visible even on bright days.

* Super long life battery - over 300 shots means that you don't need a spare as there is always time to charge up before it runs out (unless you really, really want to bore someone).

* It remembers which way round you held the camera - no more rotating pictures on your computer!

Minor negatives - poor, small, viewfinder (but not really needed with the screen working so well), custom battery (but probably do not need a spare as it works so well), non-standard complicated USB cable with delicate looking camera connection. Arguably, the Sony Cyber-shot W150 Digital Camera (8.1MP, 5x Optical Zoom) 2.7 inch LCD - Silver would have done just as well - I don't need the extra couple of million pixels but as the W170 is now cheaper than the lower spec model...

All in all, another gem from Sony.

Outstanding
I've had my W170 for about a week now it really is an outstanding camera. I view my pictures on a 37" HDTV and the quality is amazing. Small enough to fit in your pocket, packs the punch of cameras costing twice the price.