Review of Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W70 Digital Camera

The slim, ultra compact design makes the Sony Cyberhsot W70 one of the most attractive digicams on the market. However, the miniscule size has created a noticeable reduction in the size of the controls, resulting in very annoying, difficult to use, cramped controls. Even if the controls were slightly bigger we imagine they wouldn’t be any easier to use anyway. The four-way control pad is unreliable and not particularly accurate. We also found the mode dial frustrating as it was so easy to knock by mistake, subsequently ruining the whole snapping experience. The 2.5-inch 115,000 pixel resolution LCD screen is a nice size and provides a competent display even when challenged with bright direct sunlight. It was so refreshing to get hold of a camera with a competent LCD but Sony have backed it up by an optical viewfinder anyway.

With 7-mega pixels, 35mm equivalent lens, 3x optical zoom, 2x digital zoom and a handful of cool picture enhancing features, the Sony Cybershot W70 put on a really impressive show. Light sensitivity ranges from ISO 100 up to ISO 800, other features in this area are exposure compensation, metering and a few white balance settings. Unfortunately, the Sony W70 lacks any manual aperture or shutter priority modes, luckily the automatic modes do the job rather well. It also has a self-timer, automatic and manual focus settings and red eye reduction. We enjoyed using the fun sepia and black and white settings, which produced some really good results. The camera itself boasts a great 56MB built-in memory and is able to take a memory stick pro for extra storage. Connectivity is average on the W70, you’ll find a composite video/audio output, USB and DC power input. You can record VGA-resolution MPEG-1 video footage with excellent sound thanks to the competent in-built microphone.

The Sony Cybershot W70’s picture quality performance was nothing to write home about by any means but it made up for it with it‘s faster than lightening speed. We recorded a 2.2 second power up to shoot time with just 1.4 seconds in between shots, this beats other big brands like Canon, Fujifilm, Casio, Pentax and Nikon by a mile. Even when using the flash you should only expect an increase of 0.2 seconds. In the brightest light we recorded a 0.5 shutter lag, compared to 1.9 seconds in dim light. Photo quality was decent, in the right light the photos were amazing but in other poorly lit conditions they didn’t always turn out so well. Images were pleasant with vibrant, live colours. We were disappointed by the noise on images using ISO 200 and higher. However, photos showed good white balance on all 3 settings. Exposure wasn’t particularly accurate and if anything, we would say the W70 overexposes images if you don’t choose the right settings. Ensure that you give the instructions a good read and you should be able to stop this happening - we did. The menus are very extensive and equally as frustrating as you have to reverse through them which takes forever. The W70 is easy to use when you haven’t got cramp from using made-for-mice controls.

The Sony Cybershot W70 didn’t really impress us that much. We liked the speed but if the photo quality is average the speed means nothing. To the untrained eye, the W70 is an okay point and shoot camera for just under £200, however, we would advise looking at what other similar priced utracompact digicams can do before you take the plunge.