Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W30

Auto Mode
The W30/40’s auto mode is symbolized by a traditional green camera icon on the control dial. By going with the so-called "green zone," the user turns over all automatic control to the camera, which then adjusts for shutter speed, aperture, exposure, ISO etc. In the green setting, though, the camera display will tell you more about what’s going on with your picture-taking than most models in this class, including an easy-to-read histogram in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. A helpful guide feature, mentioned earlier, gives text explanations of the many icons in the camera’s settings.

Movie Mode
The M30/M50 shoots MPEG-1 video, a standardized format that is highly compatible and playable on almost all computers. For some reason, Sony has labeled this feature on the top of the cameras as "MPEG MOVIE VX," though the marketing material makes no mention of what this means exactly. The camera can shoot movies in three formats– MPEG VX Fine (640 x 480, 30 fps) with audio, MPEG VX Standard (640 x 480, 16.6 fps) with audio, and Video Mail (160 x 112, 8.0 fps). It should be noted though that in order to shoot at the highest MPEG VX Fine setting, pricey MemoryStick PRO Duo media is required. Sadly, this is the case for all Sony compacts.

Drive / Burst Mode
Not exactly a speed demon, the W30/W50 has two burst modes – regular Burst, which can shoot 1.4 frames per second at the full 6 MPs of resolution for three consecutive frames; or Multi Burst, which can shoot 98 consecutive frames at 1.4 fps in VGA quality. At best, these cameras can capture a sequence no faster than someone blowing out the candles at birthday party.

Playback Mode
Playback mode is pretty basic in these models. Along with reviewing images one by one, the W30/W50 lets you look them as indexes of four or 16. But despite some digging, we could find no slide show features or in-camera editing in the W30/W50 during the time we were able to spend with them at PMA, though Sony says they come with options of slide show, trim and resize for stills, and a divide option for movie clips. In a follow-up full review we’ll examine if these features are buried in some illogical place in the menus.

Custom Image Presets
Unlike some rivals that have put over two dozen custom presets in their cameras, the W30/W50 has only a handful by comparison – Snow, Beach, Landscape, Portrait mode, Twilight mode and Twilight portrait. Whether this is a stab by Sony to cut down on costs or whether it’s just based around observations that consumers don’t use most of the presets they’re offered is hard to say. Nonetheless, the essentials are there without much else to get in the user’s way.