With the prices of DSLRs and mirrorless compacts edging closer toward the 400 dollar mark, the market for compact digital cameras is not as profitable as it once was. Manufacturers struggle to find every possible way to reduce production cost to bring the retail prices of these little imagers as low as possible while maintaining their usability as an actual digital camera.
It would have been impossible to imagine a model like the DSC-W530, having a 14.1 sensor, usable high ISO sensitivities, 4x optical zoom with Carl-Zeiss optics to sell for anything less than 400 dollars just 5 years ago.
With compact digital cameras becoming obsolete as soon as they are released, Sony has attempted once again to maintain its position as a serious point-and-shoot maker since their Mavica days.
The W530, along with all of Sony's most recent W series, stands somewhere between Sony's entry level models and their somewhat advanced but expensive "luxury" models. Under the current W series line-up, Sony has the W510, W520, W530, W550, W570, WX5 and WX7.
For the past few years, Sony has been creating one ultimate point-and-shoot for each one of their W, HX and T series, stripping away certain premium features as they go down the price tags to finally arrive at some insanely cheap model made out of painted plastic for each one of those series.
So for the price of just over 100 dollars, Sony was able to retain some of the more important features from their most expensive W model, the WX7 on the DSC-W530, and they are:
1) Usable high ISO sensitivities at 1600 and 3200. Colors look a bit flat and the images look processed at these settings, but at least the images are usable for smaller prints (at a pinch, up to around A4(8R) sizes). Please bear in mind that this is after all a point-and-shoot and not a mirrorless or DSLR with APS-C sized sensors, so I'm applying a very different standard here when rating the high ISO output of this camera.
2) Useful, good quality 4X Carl Zeiss optics and fast focus lock.
3) Outdoor daylight scenes from ISO 80 to 800 are simply breathtaking, with sharp edges, deep depth-of-field (DOF), strong contrast and saturated colors, making this a great group picture camera (think family portraits at picnics etc). Although dynamic range (the total number of levels that can be captured from the darkest point to the brightest point of an image, without details getting clipped) is very limited. So beware of backlit scenes, and always point the camera in the same direction as the sun (the sun must be behind you) so your subjects are lit up as brightly as the background.
4) Very elegant semi-metal chassis with brushed aluminum on the front.
5) Extremely thin profile with the extra small battery, weightlessness: this camera will most likely be able to sneak into a concert without you having to convince the bouncers that you are carrying a bar of soap in your pocket.
6) Generously sized 2.7" LCD screen with plenty of light under room lighting, just barely viewable under very bright sunlight.
7) VGA video recording with sound and Sweep Panorama.
8) Uses both Sony Memory Stick and the very afforadable SD cards (Up to SDXC), although this feature is nothing new but it's worth mentioning.
However, the wafer-thin battery has very limited operation charge capacity, and the camera seems to be missing a few traditional controls such as creative mode selection (color, b&w, sepia, etc) and a "mode" dial to give you direct access to preset photographic parameters. Some basic manual controls (like those found on the W300) over the camera's shutter speed and aperture were of course also missing, and due to the size of the camera, it is being operated and controlled by only a handful of buttons.
And here's a list of things that I did not like about this camera:
1) A Sony processor instead of a Bionz processor, although I personally do not think the Bionz processor is that great other than providing faster image processing. The Sony image processor for the W530 seems to be providing the same quality of reduction for high ISO shots as Sony's Bionz processor.
2) No sports mode (may also explain the slower than average maximum shutter speed of just 1/1500 sec). Difficult to freeze moving objects when needed.
3) No USB charging (Sony never had them though).
4) Super slow continuous burst. At 1 frame per second, Sony might as well remove this feature altogether.
5) No zooming during movie recording.
But other than the few gripes above, I find myself enjoying the use of this camera completely. The camera is small, very light and looks really good up close and shoots half decent pictures under most conditions. The W530 also comes with a USB / Video connector (the video cable is supplied) so the user can playback their shots directly on a tv.
At the end of the day, the W530 will most likely end up in your purse, napsack or briefcase for the simple fact that they are so freakishly small and easy to carry, provide butt-kicking images with punchy colors, balanced contrast at the resolution of 14.1 megapixel even at maximum ISO and the camera simply looks too elegant to be left in a desk drawer. The camera has its limits but as far as a point-and-shoot camera goes, Sony may have hit the right spot again in terms of beauty, affordabiliy and usability with the W530. Definitely worth a test drive if you are out there shopping for a compact point-and-shoot that looks elegant but cost a little over 100 dollars. Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-W530 14.1 MP Digital Still Camera with Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar 4x Wide-Angle Optical Zoom Lens and 2.7-inch LCD (Silver)
I was able to get this model a little early, and was excited to try it out in - what better city to test a camera? - Paris. The last Sony snapshot camera I used was on a trip in 2007, and I was so dissatisfied with that camera that I sold it immediately after returning home. I was eager to see if Sony had improved their entry level cameras, especially the picture quality. I shall post some pictures to offer examples up in the product details, but these will be reduced in size for posting.
Photo quality: My initial day out indicated that they have made dramatic improvements in both quality and speed. Photos in daylight were crisp and clear in just about every shot, and any that weren't were only because I was shooting poorly on purpose to test the photos. I was also quite happy with the quality of shots in low light and indoors, which is where I noticed the most improvement over past Sony low-end offerings. There was some blurring in darker situations, of course, but for the most part the software was able to produce images that are well balanced and low grain. The 14 megapixel feature is great - there are many photos I've been able to crop and retain quality, and photos of, say, a stone sarcophagus can be zoomed in upon when viewing images later to see very good detail.
I must also mention that the camera is very good at balancing photos. It almost always produces a picture with an appropriate contrast, and only in the worst cases did the image wash out in an area. For example, a shot of Joan of Arc (the statue, not the person) in Notre Dame came out very well even with a stained glass window in the background. The stained glass was bright but distinguishable, and the detail of the stone statue was clear and well balanced. Only in extreme cases - such as a shot of a black sculpture in the Louvre with a window behind it with blaring sunlight - did the camera fail to balance the image, but these are the kind of bad photography shots one would never expect a camera to take well.
Types of Photos: Like most all snapshot photos, this camera will perform best shooting still subjects with plenty of light. Moving objects didn't tend to blur, a problem I'd had with other cheap snapshot cameras, but the response time can make getting these shots difficult. Trying to capture a motorcycle passing an old church, my 7-10 attempts were mostly good photos, but getting the moving bike in the exact spot I wanted was nearly impossible.
Features: Overall, this camera lacks in features, although for most uses I found it sufficient, and at the price I didn't expect a lot of extras. The 4x zoom is relatively fast and easy to use, and about right for this type of camera. I was surprised there was no optical zoom given the high megapixels, but I can live with cropping on the computer. The panorama mode is nifty but not that useful - it works quite well in creating a long image, which of course will cause distortion in most cases. To use this feature, you set the mode and clich the shutter. The camera will prompt you to move it from left to right, and then it will generate the image (which is always impossible to see on the display owing to its shape.) Here I would have liked some add'l features - there is just 'one size' for panorama shots - you must sweep all the way across or the image will fail. This creates many shots that will need to be messed with on the computer later, which is okay but annoying. I was also disappointed panorama doesn't work in an up and down orientation - you always have to sweep the camera in the same manner. You can, of course, hold it sideways to create a vertical panorama, but I really wanted some vertical shots tqking advantage of a larger width. Still, panoramas of the Tour Eiffel allowed me to create some fun, unique shots of the full height of the structure. There are not many other features - just some rudimentary quality settings, face detection, etc. Some might want to move up to a camera with more features, but I actually appreciated this in a point and shoot camera.
Battery life: Here the camera could use some help. Perhaps I'm spoiled by my Apple products, but digital cameras have more or less remained stuck in 2002 concerning batteries. It's annoying to have a separate charger, and battery life isn't great. Three hours of shooting...granted, constant shooting...at St Denis drained it. Given how light and small it is, I'd fully support doubling the battery size to get twice the life. I'd also love for camera makers to start to move toward USB charging options.
I'd also love it if cameras would start incorporating some onboard space. It feels like the dark ages to have to buy a card. 2 - 4 gig of onboard memory with a card slot for expansion would be nice.
Overall, a great, small, fun camera that's easy to grab and go. I wish Sony would re-imagine some of the ways digital cameras work, perhaps taking some cues from iPods, especially regarding batteries, but for the price this nifty unit is great.
Pros: Excellent pics for camera in this price range, good color balance, good in darker spaces, a few fun features
Cons: Battery life could be better, charging options, not many features or in-camera editing options - Sd Cards - Lens Cleaner'
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