Digital Camera Review

Digital Camera Review

Digital camera manufacturers seem to be adding to the confusion surrounding the "need" for megapixels by equipping compact consumer models with increased resolution. Sony's version of this powerful compact camera is the Cyber-shot DSC-W7, a 7.2 megapixel digital camera in the "Wide LCD" series. Sony also packs in popular features such as a 2.5-inch LCD screen, 3x optical Carl Zeiss zoom lens, and 32 MB of internal memory. After the success of the earlier W1, Sony decided to expand the camera into an entire series marked by their large LCDs. The W7 packs in a lot of megapixels on its 1/1.8-inch Super HAD CCD and couples it with a Real Image Processor. Automatic, manual, and scene modes are all located on the mode dial, which is housed on top of the thick, durable metal alloy body. The boxy camera retails for $449.95 and is offered in black and silver casings.
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Picture Quality/ Size Options (6.0)
The Sony W7’s current image size can be switched with the delete button, which is also labeled with a vague icon of what looks like a stack of boxes. The following options appear: 7 M, 3:2, 5M, 3M, 1M, VGA (E-Mail). All of these options are available in Fine or Standard compression. The equivalent aspect ratio of the previous list are as follows: 3072 x 2304, 3072 x 2048, 2592 x 1944, 1280 x 960, and 640 x 480, respectively. This range should offer versatility for photographers who want to shoot everything from 11 x 18-inch prints to standard 4 x 6 snapshots to pictures that can be easily posted on the web.

Picture Effects Mode (7.5)
The W7 has two color effects and three image parameters that can be toyed with to embellish pictures a little and avoid the computer and an extra half hour in Photoshop. Photos can be shot in Black & White and Sepia tones — and both actually look quite nice for in-camera effects. These are in addition to the default color mode, of course. The following image parameters are all available with Normal and one-step + or — options: Saturation, Contrast, and Sharpness. The Sony W7 offers live views as users scroll through the options and most can be clearly seen; the only exception is the Sharpness mode, which is difficult to see on the 115,000-pixel LCD screen.

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