Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W290

Auto Mode

The W290 has two auto modes; the easy mode and the Intelligent Auto mode. The former is a full auto mode; everything but the image size and the flash mode is controlled by the camera, and the on-screen menu only offers these two controls. The intelligent adjust mode provides a bit more control for the user, as settings such as white balance, metering, etc can be controlled.
 

The mode dial on the W290

Movie Mode

The W290 ups the ante for video recording on a compact camera; it can record high definition video at up to 720p resolution. That's an improvement on the standard definition video that most capture, but it is lower in resolution than cameras such as the Sony HX1 and the Canon XS1, which can record full 1080p video. Also missing is the digital video output that many of these cameras have; the W290 has an analog high definition component video output that allows it to connect to most HDTVs, but may be slightly lower quality. The videos it captures are stored as MPEG4 files, which are relatively easy to edit and upload to the Internet, etc. Videos of up to 29 minutes in thegth can be captured by the W290.
 

Drive/Burst Mode

The W290 is no speed demon when it comes to shooting lots of images quickly; it can only manage about 1.8 frames a second. With a suitable memory card, it can keep shooting at this speed for up to 100 images, though.
 

Playback Mode

The usual selection of preset controls are present; images can be viewed as slideshows, as thumbnails (up to 9 on the screen at once) or zoomed in up to 10X. Videos can also be viewed, and there are a few basic image editing tools, such as a crop and resize option.
 

Custom Image Presets

Sony seems to believe in quality rather than quantity when it comes to scene modes; the W290 has a list of 11; High Sensitivity, Twilight, Twilight Portrait, Soft Snap, Landscape, Beach, Snow, Fireworks, Hi-speed Shutter, Underwater and Gourmet. That's a decent selection that should cover most shooting situations, although we aren't sure how often the gourmet mode will be used. But that's probably because we prefer to eat in diners rather than fancy restaurants.