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170 of 175 found the following review helpful:
 Versatile and Travel-FriendlyJul 25, 2004
By Saradele
I have been very happy with this camera since I purchased it over a month ago. My requirements for a digital camera were resolution of at least 5 MP, compact size for travel, and some scene or manual modes. Two features sold me on this camera:
1. Compatibility with AA batteries. Most cameras this size use proprietary batteries, which means if you forget your battery recharger on a trip, you could be in trouble. With this camera, you can take out the included AA rechargeables once they run down and use regular AA batteries. While lithium batteries such as Energizer's E2 series are best, even alkalines will work in a pinch.
2. Larger LCD area. The extra inch makes a huge difference. You can tell immediately whether people blinked, and the screen is large enough that family and friends will enjoy flipping through the photos you've taken without having to squint. The larger area also makes it fun to zoom, rotate, and crop photos right in the camera.
In addition to indoor settings, I have tested the camera in the Colorado mountains, suburban Chicago, and downtown DC. The scene modes did an especially beautiful job with the mountains and lakes. I had been worried after some reviews suggested that Sony cameras make colors look washed-out and faded, but I did not experience this. My images have also been very sharp, and I can see details far in the background, such as signs in shots of city streets. I also like that you can set the camera to record images in a 3:2 ratio, so that if you are planning to make 4x6 prints, the camera saves exactly the image that will be printed. My only complaint is that the red-eye mode doesn't completely eliminate red eye in indoor shots, but I understand that this is typical for compact cameras.
Since this camera and its LCD screen could easily be damaged in a purse or backpack, I would recommend a semi-rigid carrying case such as Sony's LCMWA model.
This camera will not be right for everyone. If you're looking for a simple point-and-shoot and don't want to worry about settings, consider Canon's PowerShot S500 Elph. If your photos mostly will be indoors and redeye is your major concern, consider Nikon's Coolpix 5200. If you'll be doing a lot of telephoto zooming, consider the Pentax Optio 555 with its 5X optical zoom. But if you're looking for a versatile compact 5 MP camera in the advanced consumer/prosumer segment, then look no further than Sony's DSC-W1.
160 of 166 found the following review helpful:
Great, if you know what you are looking forJul 06, 2004
By Matthew Flower
After reading every online review I could find, I decided to purchase the DSC-W1 and after taking about 300 images, I am quite pleased with it. 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.
81 of 83 found the following review helpful:
Perfect Camera...Jan 21, 2005
By Sandeep Taneja
"Dany Boy"
I bought this in Jan 2005 and I love this one. I have done quite some research before I bought this one. Some research sites recomended are
- PC World
- Steves Digital. www.steves-digicams.com
- Imaging- Resource(www.imaging-resource.com). This site has a comparometer by which you can comapare images from 2 cameras side by Side. Although thi site is little biased towards cannon as they did not use the correct settings for sony camera.
But one thing was clear from my research- Cannon Camera are the best in Image quality(I'll give 5 to Cannon on image quality and 4.8 to sony. 4.2 to Kodak, 4 to Nikon. But One ditinct advantage that made my choice to sony was the Spped of the shot. Basically sony cameras take shot between .2 -.3 seconds after the button is pressed and cannon takes 1.1 - 1.3 seconds to take the shot. With my kids it is imposiible to get a posed Picture I want with cannon.
Here are some of the feature comparison between Sony and Cannon(I ignored all others because of image quality)
1. Image quality - Sony 4.8 - Cannon 5.0. although at uptill 8x 10 the quality is same.
2. Image clarity and details - Sony 4.7 - cannon 5.0. Cannon has the lot more details. A picture of grass shows sharp edges of grass in cannon but sony is little blurry. But at 8x10 u don't need that kind of sharpness.
3. Color - Sony w1 4.9. cannon 5.0. again cannon is better but not by far. Sony P93 and P73 are worst in color but W1 does a good job and V1 and T1 are closest to true colors
4. Night shots - Sony 4.9 Cannon - 4.5. Here is the difference. Sony's shots in dark lights are the best.
5. Shot TIme. As I said earlier Sony is the best by 2-3 times better performance than any other camera. Besides startup time on Sony camera is about .3 seconds where as cannon is about 1.7 seconds. This is due to faster processor of Sony.
6. Batery Life - I could take 170+ pictures with sony using LCD and using the review mode Extensively. For cannon I don't have the numbers but I heard it is around 100 pictures(official number is 250 for both). Besides the charger is included in Sony but not in cannon using AA bateris. This saves another 30-40 bucks
7. Price - Both are same with cannons Flashs card being cheaper than sony' memory stick. But amazon.com gives 128 MB stick free which gives you 60 images at 5 MP resolution. Cannon' Battery charger for A85,95 series is going to add 40$ to your price range.
8. Noise reduction - Sony is the best. no comparison in digital processing with any other brand.
9. LCD Size- I've had couple of camcorders and trust me u need a bigger screen like W1 or else u miss details while reviewing, and while on a trip you try to take the best pictures only and delete the others.
10. Appearance and weight. All are same weight (couple of ounces here and there) but Cannon uses 4 AA bateries which makes is little more heaview and the battery torage space required in camera makes it even more bulkier(Bigger size) to carry.
11. Lens extensions. Cannon has better acceries available but I'm not professional either:)
Overall I'll say Sony is the best overall camera. Image quality compared to cannon is not the best but it is not off by far either. But If you don't care about the time taken to get the picture after button is pressed and are very hung on perfect image quality- go for cannon. But within 200-325 Price range , Sony is the best and W1 is the best in that range. It is also voted the best Point and Shoot camera by PC world(PCworld ratings are known to be best in electronics).
Summary
Sony W1 is good at.
1. Faster snap time
2. Best Night shots.
3. Very true colors(4.9 sony W1 and 5.0 to Cannon)
4. Excelent Scene Modes.
5. Decent Manual controls(You don't need them with scenic modes)
6. Very good image quality.
7. Lighter and better Look camera over all.
Cannon is good at.
1. Image quality.
2. Very true colors almost perfect.
Hope this helps
64 of 65 found the following review helpful:
 Great deal for 5MP point and shoot, but...Jul 26, 2004
By KurtMac
I was torn between this Sony W1 and the Canon S60, and finally bought the Sony W1 because of the attractive price and movie function. But I ended up returning it because I began to believe that for $100 more, the S60 would give me more features that I wanted.
Dont get me wrong, if you are looking for a 5MP camera at a great price for simple point-and-shoot operation with some wiggle room to grow creatively, I would highly recommend this camera. Its quick, takes good looking images and gives great bang for your buck. I however, as a graphic designer with film SLR experience, yearned for more manual options and less compressed images.
The Sony W1 is caught in 5MP camera limbo. It is bigger and has more manual features than most ultra-compact cameras like the Canon S500 Elph, but it is smaller and has less customizable features than prosumer compact models like the Canon S60. It is hard to classify the W1's true competition. If you are deciding between an S500 and the W1, go for the Sony W1. If you are deciding between the S60 and the W1, you may find that the extra $100 is worth the extra features in the Canon model, like I have found.
Here are my personal pros and cons of the Sony W1:
Pros:
- Big 2.5-inch LCD screen. Great for sharing movies and pictures right on the camera, and helps composing images. But, some annoying drawbacks (see cons).
- Max 30 second shutter speed in Manual mode. This is twice the max exposure time of most prosumer models priced hundreds more. This helps in getting creative with night shots.
- VGA 30fps movies (with Memory Stick Pro). Great movies, even in VGA 16fps. You can't use the Optical Zoom during shooting a movie, but you can set the Zoom to a specific range, then begin recording your movie at that locked Zoom setting. Also, I'm not sure if all cameras do this, but the Movie Mode actively adjusts focus AND exposure during the recording of a movie, AND you can use many still-image functions (such as Macro and Photo FX) during movie recording. However, some file size drawbacks (see cons).
- Smart Zoom digital zoom. Basically a loss-less digital zoom function available on the lower resolution settings. But, in simple terms: if you have it set on 3MP, it will capture the image at 5MP and crop the image out to make it 3MP size, giving the illusion of a zoom. It is a very handy feature, great for people who dont have expensive photo-editing software or know-how. But, if you are me, then you know you can get the same effect by taking a 5MP image, and then crop it in Photoshop.
- INCLUDED 2 rechargable AA batteries and charger. Great money saver, just buy another 4 pack of batterys to keep in rotation to recharge. Unfortunately, the batteries dont last as long as a proprietary would, and they take a dismal 6 hours to charge. But this is another reason that this camera is great bang-for-your-buck.
- Availiable in Black (which I bought), which is cool because it makes the camera look unique among the sea of hundreds of other digital cameras that are only available in brushed metal. This is the reason I liked the Canon S50 also.
Cons:
- No 320x240 movie size. This would help in preserving memory if you want to capture movies that arent VGA. The VGA-fine setting is great looking, but a 256MB Memory Stick Pro can only hold about 2 minutes of it, which in my opinion, kind of defeats the purpose. If you are willing to shell out another $200 for a 1GB Memory Stick the movie mode might be worth it, but you should probably use that money to buy a better camera instead.
- No Aperature or Shutter priority modes. If the W1 had these functions, I probably would have kept it. This would also be good options for the photography novices who may be hesitiant to use the full manual function on this camera.
- High in-camera post-processing. This certainly exaggerates the quality of the images, which is fine if you are using it as a point-and-shoot and printing 4x6 prints. However for more high end photography and digital art uses it basically destroys any fine detail in bright or dark areas of an image.
- Big 2.5-inch screen is virtually exposed and unprotected by any clear plastic as found on most Canon models. This may help with anti-glare. However, I have found that the LCD gets very dirty very quickly because of this. After 1 hour of using the camera, the LCD screen will be covered in fingerprints. LCDs are a bit tough to clean, because you cant use any solvents. I found that using a moist, very soft Kleekex, does the job of cleaning the screen, but it is still an annoyance.
- The included software CD is best used as a coaster.
The reason I gave only 3 stars is because, for ME, this wasnt the right camera. I hope my review will help other customers like me who want a smaller camera with a lot of SLR features. But if you are a digital photo novice who wants good looking pictures in a point-and-shoot 5MP camera on a budget, do yourself a favor, and buy the Sony W1.
54 of 54 found the following review helpful:
Had the T-1, exchanged it for the W-1Jul 10, 2004
By M. Hampton
"mhamp"
After two years of lackluster pictures from a 2MP Canon PowerShot S-100 (constant underexposure, short battery life). I began looking for a digital camera replacement. While I want to take high quality pictures, the bulk of what I take are family and travel snapshots.
After endless procrastination on my part, my wife surprised me with the new Sony DSC-T1 5MP ultracompact camera. It was very cool to play with and takes very good looking pictures with the default settings. The T-1 is a neat camera.
While I liked the DSC-T1 a lot, I had some core concerns with it that are fully addressed by it's sibling camera, the DSC-W1. Not only does the W1 have about a half dozen more features than the T1 - it's also $100 less than the T1!
I want to emphasize that both cameras take very good pictures, especially for a person that wants to take high quality snapshots - that is, pull it out and snap off a few, quickly review the shots and perhaps make some manual adjustments to optimize the pictures.
What's also appealing to me about both cameras is their movie mode support. Both cameras take credible mpeg movies, albeit without zoom support (I'm not aware of any digicam that allows you to adjust the zoom mode once the movie recording has started). In the "best" movie mode (30 frames/sec), you'll consume about 1 Mb per second of recording. However, I find that I only shoot 30 to 60 seconds of "useful and viewable" footage at a family gathering anyway, as well as 20 to 30 photos. In this regard, a 256 Mb Memory Stick Pro card gets me by just fine for a day.
Note that most digicams in this price range shoot 30 fps movies for only a set, limited time of 15 to 30 sec per clip, or they'll shoot longer clips at 15fps, which is pretty poor quality to me. The T1 and W1 allow you to shoot high quality 30 fps video up to the capacity of the Memory Stick Pro card you elect to use. This is very useful to someone like me - who never has viewed the old family videos I recorded on my video camera. Now I load photos and videos on the PC and actually view the video clips!
I am also very impressed with the on-camera editing modes of both cameras. I can shoot images at a 5 Megapixel size and easily downsize them to 3 MP, 1 MP or VGA size, as well as crop them on the camera. With the long battery life of the W1, I do most of my editing on the camera and upload satisfactory images to the PC, lessening the need to open photo editing software. This is really fantastic!
The last general note is that some people criticize the quality of the photo software that comes with the Sonys. I wouldn't know. I never installed it. I learned a long time ago that you are generally better off getting a memory card reader for $20 and uploading the images via a USB connection, then using a third party application to edit the images. The DSC-W1 has the following features that are important to me that the DSC-T1 lacks. Cost - $100 less for the W1.
Flash - only a 5 foot distance for the T1, but 12 feet for the W1. Most of my family indoor shots are from 5 to 10 feet away. Isn't that true for most of us?
Tripod mount - I need it a few times a year for family gatherings if I'm going to be in the picture. Also useful for obtaining the best steady shot composition for family portraits. The T1 lacks a tripod mount.
"AA" battery support - I can't overstate how important it is on ANY digicam to utilize common "AA" batteries. No matter how well prepared I try to be, there have been occasions where I forgot to charge the proprietary batteries on my Cannon, much to my condemnation at that family gathering. In a pinch, you can stop at a convenience store and pick up a pack of "AA"s to get you through the day with the W1. Also, "AA" rechargable batteries and rechargers are so inexpensive right now. The propriety battery on the T-1 lists at $60. While the price will come down, I doubt you'll find them readily available at the convenience store.
While the T1's battery life was acceptable, my perception of the W1's battery usage is that it is VERY good. I do a tremendous amount of shooting photos and movies on the W1 in the course of a day, as well as subsequent replay and editing on the camera itself. I still can't believe I have battery life left on the same set I started with after my typical photo and movie session with the W1...
Viewfinder - Both cameras have the excellent 2.5" LCD display. Both cameras are well suited for taking pictures through the LCD viewfinder. However, there are times - in bright light, in crowds, in busy/moving situations - where the optical viewfinder is useful and warranted. The W1 has the optical viewfinder and the T1 does not.
Manual exposure - The T1 and W1 both take very good snapshot pictures in a variety of lighting conditions. However, it's nice to have the flexibility of controlling the manual exposure if you need it.
Other features - While I don't need them, the W1 allows for the addition of wide and telephoto lenses and special filters with an optional lens adapter.
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