Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W290

Viewfinder

There is no viewfinder on the W290; photos are composed on the LCD screen.
 

LCD

The back of the W290 is home to the 3-inch LCD screen, which has 230,400 pixels. In our brief time with it at the PMA show in Las Vegas, the screen looked clear and bright, but we were not able to test it in the desert sun.
 

The large LCD screen on the back of the W290

Flash

The small flash is located on the front of the camera, next to the lens. We sometimes find that flashes that are too close to the lens lead to excessive red eye, but we didn't see an issue with this in our limited testing at PMA.
 

The small flash of the W290

Lens Mount

The W290 has a built in 5X zoom lens, with a focal length that's equivalent to a range of 28 to 140mm on a 35mm film camera. That's a decent range for a compact camera, but we'd like to see a bit more at the wide end of the range; 25mm gives you a much better angle of view for landscapes and large groups of people.  When not in use, the lens telescopes back into the camera body and a small cover slides over the front element of the lens.
 

The lens of the W290 in the out position

Jacks, Ports & Plugs

The W290 has only one port on the camera itself; a single socket that, with the included multi function cable, offers video and aoudio outputs and a USB connection. An optional camera dock will also use this connection.
 

Battery

The W290 gets its juice from a small battery that fits into a cavity at the bottom of the camera body. The InfoLithium G battery has a claimed battery life of about 300 minutes.
 

The battery of the W290

Memory

Like most Sony cameras, the W290 uses Sony's own Memory Stick Pro Duo memory cards, and Sony claims to have tested capacities of up to 16GB. Most other manufacturers are now using the newer SDHC memory cards, but Sony is holding fast in  using their own type.