Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W30

Manual Control Options
There aren’t many manual options on the W30/W50, which is no surprise considering most cameras in its class don’t offer too much in the way of manual control. The camera does have a rather wide ISO range that’s adjustable, a trio of metering settings and some preset white balance settings, but that’s about it.

Focus
Auto Focus
The auto focus on the W30/W50 features a five area multi-point auto focus and a Center AF. In brief tests, the focus was pretty snappy, locking in on a subject with a slight touch of the shutter button. Minimum focus range is 19.7 inches and from 2-30 cm in Marco.

Manual Focus
All focus on the W30/W60 is handled automatically by the camera, though the user can choose between two auto mode settings – 5 area Multi-Point AF or Center AF.

Metering
Metering can be set to Spot, Multi-segment or Center-weighted, which are fairly standard options.

Exposure
The W30 allows the user to adjust from –2 to +2 EV in 1/3 steps, which is a pretty standard range for cameras in its class.

White Balance
In the default mode, White balance is set at auto. The user though can select from five pre-sets – daylight, cloudy, fluorescent, incandescent or flash. The lack of a manual setting is a bit of a disappointment, though.

ISO
ISO on the W30/W50 is actually one of the more unique features on these models. In addition to its auto setting, the user can choose ISOs from 80 to 1000, a pretty broad range for a petite camera like this. It’s nice that manufacturers are beginning to pay attention to ISO sensitivity and low-light shooting, even in the lower-end models.

Sony is also spotlighting something it misleadingly calls Clear RAW imaging technology. No, it has nothing to do with shooting in the RAW format, which is an uncompressed setting familiar to pros who use it to get the most out of their images. Sony’s Clear RAW technology is supposed to allow the user to up the camera’s ISO without increasing picture noise. Again, this is something we weren’t able to fully test in our time with these models at the Sony PMA booth, but we’ll be looking at them more fully in an upcoming full review.

Shutter Speed
The shutter speed range in Auto mode on the W30/W50 ranges from 1/8th to 1/2000th of a second and 1 second to 1/2000 of a second in Program Auto. There’s no way to manually select shutter speeds on these models.

Aperture
On the W30/W50, aperture ranges from f/2.8 to f/5.2, but the user cannot select it.