Viewfinder (4.0)
For Sony, an optical viewfinder is a blast from the past: a traditional hallmark of the W-series that Sony decided to keep while adding digital essentials like the enlarged LCD screen. The viewfinder itself can’t really be seen from the front, as its small size and circular shape make it resemble an auto focus lamp. While it’s not completely accurate, the viewfinder is far better than that in most compact models. It shows more on the bottom and left sides of the frame, which photographers may have to crop later, but won’t cut off people’s heads in portraits. The viewfinder zooms with the camera, retaining similar accuracy in telephoto and wide shots. While it’s difficult to locate and the LCD screen is more convenient, the optical viewfinder is a good option for low-battery moments.

LCD Screen (4.5)
One of the sacrifices Sony made to ensure the W30’s low price is the LCD screen. It is only 2 inches in size and has a measly 85,000 pixels of resolution; its refresh rate is slow enough to look like a live flip-book, and solarizes when above, below, or at the side of the viewer.

Nonetheless, the LCD screen provides a more accurate view of the subject than the optical viewfinder and gives the user more options. A display button next to the LCD screen can be used to turn the screen off, view only the live image, overlay the shooting information, or add a histogram. Overall, the LCD’s screen quality is poor, but fair at the price, and the shooting options are useful.

Flash (7.0)
Although the flash’s poor location in the top right corner makes it vulnerable to stray fingers, it works well when not blocked. When the ISO is set to auto, the flash is functional from 6 inches to 13 feet 8 inches wide. At the top ISO 1000 setting, the flash is effective from 2 ft. 7 in. to 24 ft. at the lens’s widest focal length.

An option in the recording mode lets users adjust the flash’s output one step up or down. The top of the multi-selector scrolls through the following flash modes: Auto, On, Off, and Slow Sync. The red-eye reduction, which triggers four or five smaller flashes before the main one, can work in any of these modes via the option in the setup menu.

Zoom Lens (6.0)
The redesigned W-series has the lens surrounded by a large, shiny flat rim, which is much more attractive than the design of previous models. Along with the upgraded look, the lens technology retains the same high quality. The W30 has a Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar telescoping lens that extends from 6.3-18.9mm – the equivalent of 38-114mm in the more traditional 35mm format. 6 elements in 5 groups, with 3 aspheric elements, form the 3x optical zoom lens, which has a wide aperture of f/2.8 at the 6.3mm focal length and f/5.2 in telephoto. It is impossible to manually select the aperture; the camera selects from f/2.8-f/7.1 in wide and f/5.2-f/13 in telephoto. Sony also sells a VAD-WB adaptor ring with a 30 mm filter diameter that fits onto the W30. No Sony conversion lenses are on the market yet, but they’re undoubtedly on the way: where there is a lens adaptor, there must be something to adapt to.

Physical Tour Page 4 of 12 Design / Layout Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W30 Digital Camera Review Navigation