New Sony DSC-W1 Owner!

[Bowen]

Hi, I'm new to digital photography and this site. I've been researching through this site among others as to which camera to get. I originally was going to get the Canon A85 because of the awesome price ($189) at some places, but then I saw how the night shots and indoor shots looked. The noise was horrible! When the shots have plenty of light, they look good but there seems to be always a hint of noise. Anyway after seeing this, I then was going to go for the Canon A95 and while better than the A85 because of it's slightly larger CCD sensor, it too still has some noise.

Well I finally decided on the Sony DSC-W1 camera. I've noticed that some people have blue exposures but have read that this is most likely do to not reading the manual. I hope that I made the right choice by choosing this camera. I just ordered in early this morning and it should be here on 3.15.

One thing that I didn't see until after I ordered it was that I keep reading the compression algorithm for the W1 is 'inferior' compared to other cameras...such as the Canon A85 and A95. Is this true? I don't plan on printing (or paying for large prints) out large prints all the time but I'm sure I'll do it from time to time. I don't want to see artifacts on my pics. I did quite a lot of research and I thought this was the best camera for the money. I hope I made the right choice. I'd appreciate any input anyone can give!
Thanx! :)

[gary_hendricks]

Don't worry, the Sony DSC W1 is a good camera. Read my review of this camera (http://www.basic-digital-photography.com/sony-dsc-w1-review.html). :)

The camera is light and small. It has plenty of "scene modes" that make it easy for anyone to take a picture. You can also take 640x480 movies with sound for as long as your memory stick pro will hold them. (If you are using a regular memory stick, the time is limited.) The camera is lightning fast, both in startup time and time to store an image after shooting. There is a "burst mode" too that can allow multiple shots to be taken in succession, but it is too buried in the menus to be useful unless you know that good action is coming.

Night photography seems to be working out quite well with this camera. One thing I liked over similar cameras in this category is the 30 second exposure time, which is fairly high. (Many didn't allow anything more than 10 seconds.)

I ditched the included Sony batteries after reading a review somewhere and bought some Powerex 2300 batteries from MahaEnergy. I haven't been able to go through two sets of batteries (the camera takes two AA's.) in a day's time. In fact, one set seems to do just fine almost all of the time.

The Sony supports up to 400 iso, though there is a fair amount of noise at this level. I've been using Neat Image to clean it up though and I have no qualms about shooting at this speed as long as I'm using software to clean it up.

I'm just beginning to learn how to photograph things somewhat well, and I do have a few gripes. Most are very minor, and most would have been solved if I would have saved up the money to buy a digital SLR instead of trying to force this point and shoot to try to be a digital SLR.

First, macro mode doesn't seem to let you get very close. With my friend's Olympus Camedia, I seem to be able to all but rest my lens on the subject. With the DSC-W1, I can't seem to get much closer than 6 inches with it getting too blurry to take a picture. You can get some close shots, but if you are really looking at getting into macro photography, you might want to look at the Olympus, or at other cameras.

Night photographers will find it irritating that there is no sort of remote cable release or remote IR release. You can get around this problem with the self timer if necessary, but some shots you just aren't going to get. There isn't any sort of built-in stabilization either, though I wouldn't expect any on a $400 point and shoot. A tripod is required gear if you are going to take shots in dim light without a flash.

Also, it is worth noting that the camera doesn't have a hot-shoe. You are going to be using the built in flash. The built-in flash seems to be okay, and I'm imagining that the average point-and-shoot photographer won't care.

Overall, I'm really pleased with this camera. If you want to be really get into the technical side of digital cameras, save up and buy a Canon Digital Rebel or some other spiffy SLR. If you want a camera that you'll be happy to put in your pocket and take with you, the Sony is an excellent choice.

[kimnicho]

I see that no one has responded yet. I think the only way you will know is to take pictures in your natural "habitat". Hopefully, the place you bought it from has a satisfaction guarantee. I am selling my W1 and buying a P200 mainly because it's easier to use and more compact. But there are TONS of people on this board who swear by the W1. So, take a bunch of pictures and see. Only you can decide!

[poikkeus]

I think you picked a darn fine camera with the W1, and will be pleased by the amazing images.

Be sure to read the instruction book so you can get maximum value from the various shooting modes. That's really, really important with this camera.

Post here if you have any questions about it.

[Bowen]

Don't worry, the Sony DSC W1 is a good camera. Read my review of this camera (http://www.basic-digital-photography.com/sony-dsc-w1-review.html). :)

The camera is light and small. It has plenty of "scene modes" that make it easy for anyone to take a picture. You can also take 640x480 movies with sound for as long as your memory stick pro will hold them. (If you are using a regular memory stick, the time is limited.) The camera is lightning fast, both in startup time and time to store an image after shooting. There is a "burst mode" too that can allow multiple shots to be taken in succession, but it is too buried in the menus to be useful unless you know that good action is coming.

Night photography seems to be working out quite well with this camera. One thing I liked over similar cameras in this category is the 30 second exposure time, which is fairly high. (Many didn't allow anything more than 10 seconds.)

I ditched the included Sony batteries after reading a review somewhere and bought some Powerex 2300 batteries from MahaEnergy. I haven't been able to go through two sets of batteries (the camera takes two AA's.) in a day's time. In fact, one set seems to do just fine almost all of the time.

The Sony supports up to 400 iso, though there is a fair amount of noise at this level. I've been using Neat Image to clean it up though and I have no qualms about shooting at this speed as long as I'm using software to clean it up.

I'm just beginning to learn how to photograph things somewhat well, and I do have a few gripes. Most are very minor, and most would have been solved if I would have saved up the money to buy a digital SLR instead of trying to force this point and shoot to try to be a digital SLR.

First, macro mode doesn't seem to let you get very close. With my friend's Olympus Camedia, I seem to be able to all but rest my lens on the subject. With the DSC-W1, I can't seem to get much closer than 6 inches with it getting too blurry to take a picture. You can get some close shots, but if you are really looking at getting into macro photography, you might want to look at the Olympus, or at other cameras.

Night photographers will find it irritating that there is no sort of remote cable release or remote IR release. You can get around this problem with the self timer if necessary, but some shots you just aren't going to get. There isn't any sort of built-in stabilization either, though I wouldn't expect any on a $400 point and shoot. A tripod is required gear if you are going to take shots in dim light without a flash.

Also, it is worth noting that the camera doesn't have a hot-shoe. You are going to be using the built in flash. The built-in flash seems to be okay, and I'm imagining that the average point-and-shoot photographer won't care.

Overall, I'm really pleased with this camera. If you want to be really get into the technical side of digital cameras, save up and buy a Canon Digital Rebel or some other spiffy SLR. If you want a camera that you'll be happy to put in your pocket and take with you, the Sony is an excellent choice.

Thanks Gary, I'll read your review. Since I am a beginner, I would like to be able to simply pick up a camera and take pics with no problem, but I don't necessarily want to stay a beginner. I don't plan on going pro heh, but I would like to know pretty much everything there is to know not only about this camera but photography and digital photography in general. Anything to do with computers or anything related to them, I want to know. This is my latest dive. I don't think I'll have trouble learning but just the same, I like to do things easy as well as learn the more difficult side too.

Most of the shots I'll probably take will be in low light situations. I looked at the Panasonic Lumix series...the LZ1/LZ2 and decided against it because of one main reason. I read (here) that it did not do well in low light situations because it didn't have a AF assist lamp so it had a hard time focusing in dim light. Oh man, if it wasn't for that, I probably would have gotten it when it comes out. I love the fact that it has the image stabilizer for that price. If I had about $100 more, I probably would have gotten the Panasonic Lumix FZ20 as it has pretty much all the features that I want. The thing I like about that camera is the same thing I don't like as well. The size...I like the SLR-like size but at the same time, I don't think I'd like carrying it around all the time either. Anyway, since I'm just beginning the W1 should do me fine.

By the way, I ordered the MAHA MH-C204W battery charger too! I was going to get the MAHA PowerEx 2300 mAh batteries but I read the battery review and saw that the Energizer rechargeables did a little better than the PowerEx batteries. So I got the C204W charger and 4 Energizer 2300 mAh batteries from here: http://www.thomas-distributing.com/maha-powerex-mh-c204w-nimh-battery-charger-buy.php3
I should get my W1 on Tuesday and the charger and batteries on Thursday. I would have liked to have gotten a 512MB memory card but because of the budget, I had to opt for a 256 meg card. I'm sure I'll pick up a 512 later this year though so I'll have 800 megs altogether...albeit over 3 cards.

Anyway, thanks again and I'll give your review a read. I like reading reviews about perspective items I might (already have in this case) buy. My wife and son and myself plan on going to the zoo in a week or so. I'll try to post some pics assuming they're worth posting. :rolleyes:

[Bowen]

I see that no one has responded yet. I think the only way you will know is to take pictures in your natural "habitat". Hopefully, the place you bought it from has a satisfaction guarantee. I am selling my W1 and buying a P200 mainly because it's easier to use and more compact. But there are TONS of people on this board who swear by the W1. So, take a bunch of pictures and see. Only you can decide!

First of all, thank you for responding kimnicho!
Well I bought it here: http://www.compuplus.com/insidepage.php3?refer=pricegrabber.com&id=1002435
As I told Gary, I....or we're rather (wife and I) are on a tight budget. If I were to buy a different camera, it would have to be around the same price as the W1. Since I bought the 'Bundle B' with the 256MB memory card at Comp-U-Plus, I'd have to buy something no more expensive than that. I could another camera and buy the memory card some place else. The total just has to be in that price range.

The camera that I want is probably 'the perfect camera' that everyone wants. Awesome picture quality, image stabilization, good optical zoom, great battery life, high capacity/low priced memory card, ability to point and shoot out of the box and the ability to be able to manually control virtually all camera functions if I want to. Oh and good price for all of that too of course. I'll settle though for good picture quality. By that I mean something out of the box that has no trouble shooting in virtually any condition with as little noise as possible and no blurriness. Basically if the Canon A95 had slightly better picture quality in low light situations, I think it would be the perfect camera for me!

I don't want to talk badly about the Sony W1 but I have heard some bad things about it...blurriness, blue images, pictures too soft. I love that the A95 has so much control that you can if you want to. If only it had at least 2 inch screen. The big 2.5 inch LCD screen is VERY nice too but that's not the deciding factor for me. It's the whole package. I don't even care about the software that comes with a camera though. I have ACDSee 7 and Photoshop Elements 3 so I'm good as far as that's concerned. I guess all I can do is mess around with the W1 and see how I like it. The Sony P200 looks good but it's a little too high for me I think. Whatever I do, I'll keep the battery charger and batteries that I ordered though, since I'll be able to use those no matter what.

Thanks for your input though...I'm open to all suggestions.

[Bowen]

I think you picked a darn fine camera with the W1, and will be pleased by the amazing images.

Be sure to read the instruction book so you can get maximum value from the various shooting modes. That's really, really important with this camera.

Post here if you have any questions about it.

Thanx poikkeus, I hope your right as I do have some doubts. I'll definitely read the instruction manual. That's something I enjoy actually. Have you seen that CDW commercial that jokingly talks about that one women who loves being tech support and helping her customers out? She likes the tech manuals so much so that she even reads them to her children at night...heh. While I'm not quite as excited about product manuals as she is, I definitely like reading them. I just hope that I'll be patient learning how to operate the camera. One of my rather undesirable traits is that when I want to learn something, I want to learn it yesterday. Sigh, if only I could call up 'Link' and have him download it into my mind...ala Matrix 2 & 3. hehe

[poikkeus]

Thanx poikkeus, I hope your right as I do have some doubts. I'll definitely read the instruction manual. That's something I enjoy actually.

Erase all doubts. I've taken over 500 shots in all light conditions, and clarity is excellent. I even turned all the lights completely off in my room, and the camera gave me a perfect flash photo, thanks to its infra-red assist light.

The "blur" reports you see were mostly by those who didn't read the W1 manual. (The booklet is over 100 pages long, but I bet you'll really get into it.) The W1 "blur" is an urban myth that should be dispelled as often as possible...like here, for instance.

Happy shooting!

:)

[dimm0k]

Erase all doubts. I've taken over 500 shots in all light conditions, and clarity is excellent. I even turned all the lights completely off in my room, and the camera gave me a perfect flash photo, thanks to its infra-red assist light.

The "blur" reports you see were mostly by those who didn't read the W1 manual. (The booklet is over 100 pages long, but I bet you'll really get into it.) The W1 "blur" is an urban myth that should be dispelled as often as possible...like here, for instance.

Happy shooting!

:)


I'd have to agree with poikkeus regarding the "blur" on the W1. I haven't taken as many pics as he has, but the pics I've taken have been blur free except for user error where I moved while taking the shot. The manual is definitely worth reading.

[Bowen]

Thanx guys, I'm glad to hear that. I went by Ritz Cameras today to see if they had the W1 and try it out. They didn't but they did have the W5 which I figured is close enough right since the differences between the two are negligible. Anyway I took a few shots in the store in full auto mode (green camera icon) and they turned out great. It's strange, the lighting in the store wasn't that great and yet it didn't use the flash. The pics turned out fine though. I turned it to the icon of the portrait and moon and the flash fired but at least from looking at it from the LCD, all shots were fine.

I would have liked the camera to be a bit larger but it's no biggie. I don't have huge hands so it's not a real problem...I'm just used to using film cameras that are large. The camera we've been using is a film camera that is a Minolta Maxxum XP si so there's quite a bit of difference in size obviously. I think I'll enjoy taking pics with the W1 though. Thanx!

[Bowen]

Well I received my W1 today....or yesterday as it were now. I absolutely love it!! The only settings that I felt looked better was changing the sharpness to the +1 (highest) setting and raising the flash output to the highest setting. OEV is at the default setting, my AF is set to Center AF and my metering is set to spot. In setup, AF Mode is set to single, Digital Zoom is set to Smart. Everything else is set to Auto I beleive. Of course this is while taking pics inside of course with poor lighting at best. I use Photoshop Elements 3 to clean up the photos afterwards. The white balance does seem to be a bit on the warm side and none of the WB settings seem to make it cool enough. This is of course after Elements 3 does a quick fix but actually correcting the color is pretty much all it needs to correct. That and red eye but that's no biggie. Other than that it's great. I'll report back tomorrow about how some daytime shots look.

I can't believe how well it focuses! You can move quite a bit and as long as you click the shutter button halfway down to focus it's fine! The only way I could really take a blurry pic was when I turned the flash completely off and actually moved the camera from side to side without pressing the shutter halfway down. I just pressed it all the way and that was the only way I could get a blurry picture! I'm amazed that it doesn't need to goto anything higher than ISO 100 95% of the time! As long as there is enough light, it will stay at ISO 100 unless you manually set it higher.

I was reading somewhere....maybe it was here or maybe it was in the Sony Forums at Sony itself. Anyway they were saying that the W1 seems to like to pick slow shutter speeds. I'm assuming they are referring to what I was talking about....ISO 100? Anyway they said that you can goto manual mode and set it to 1/60 or 1/100 of a second. I've looked through manual mode but I don't see where to change the shutter speed. I see where to change the aperture but not the shutter speed. The only place I see to have anything at all to do with the shutter is the ISO setting. Is there something I'm missing.

That said, I've not read through the whole instruction book yet, but I have read to page 51 so far so forgive me if it's ahead of me yet. Can someone tell me of a good place to post pics to I show you guys and ask your opinion as to how they look? Thanx!

[dimm0k]

I was reading somewhere....maybe it was here or maybe it was in the Sony Forums at Sony itself. Anyway they were saying that the W1 seems to like to pick slow shutter speeds. I'm assuming they are referring to what I was talking about....ISO 100? Anyway they said that you can goto manual mode and set it to 1/60 or 1/100 of a second. I've looked through manual mode but I don't see where to change the shutter speed. I see where to change the aperture but not the shutter speed. The only place I see to have anything at all to do with the shutter is the ISO setting. Is there something I'm missing.


Something I read last night... doubling the ISO allows you to double the shutter under the same light conditions and aperture, however there will be noise at the higher ISO. That said, I don't think you can set the shutter speed in any mode except in the M mode. Switch to the M mode and press the circle button in the middle of the 4 directional pad. That should display the shutter speed and aperture at the bottom right of the LCD.

[Bowen]

Something I read last night... doubling the ISO allows you to double the shutter under the same light conditions and aperture, however there will be noise at the higher ISO. That said, I don't think you can set the shutter speed in any mode except in the M mode. Switch to the M mode and press the circle button in the middle of the 4 directional pad. That should display the shutter speed and aperture at the bottom right of the LCD.

Thanx dimm0k, I found it shortly after I posted. I didn't understand what I was looking at and it was right in front of me the whole time. I set my shutter speed to 100 and I like the way the pics look at that shutter speed (indoors anyway). I still haven't tested the camera outside though.

I was messing around with the aperture too. The lower apertures produce slightly cleaner pics with less noise; however the higher apertures keep everything in focus I've noticed. Forgive me if you guys have heard this a hundred times but since I'm a n00b of only a day so bear with me. Anyway I like the brightness of the pics at F2.8 and the color...it's cool...I mean cool as in it's not warm but more neutral if anything. Now, what I like about using F5.6 is the crispness of the pic. Everything is so sharp using F5.6 it makes pics taken with the F2.8 look a bit blurry...well that is everything off to the side. I'm guessing this is normal huh.

Is it possible to get the nice cool color from using F2.8 while having the crispness of the F5.6 aperture? Oh and on both, I'm using a shutter speed of 100 and ISO 100 as well.

I've tried using ISO 200 and it looks about the same (as far as noise is concerned) as using ISO 100 with an aperture of F5.6. Again all of this is using a shutter speed of 100...or rather 1/100 of a second I believe it is right?