Design and options
The tiny WX150 $248.00 at TigerDirect is obtainable in black, red, silver, and blue finishes. It measures simply a pair of.25 by 3.75 by 0.9 inches (HWD) and weighs four.7 ounces. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-SZ7 ($199.99, 3 stars), another compact camera with a 10x zoom lens, is concerning constant weight, however slightly larger at a pair of.4 by 3.9 by 0.9 inches. The 3-inch show incorporates a 460k-dot resolution—it's not as crisp because the 921k-dot panel found on the Nikon Coolpix P310 ($329.95, 4 stars), however it's bright, and you'll be able to see detail in pictures when reviewing them.
The 10x zoom lens covers a 25-250mm (35mm equivalent) vary. this can be a helpful field of read, because it enables you to capture wide landscapes and zoom in to grab a telephoto shot when required. it is not the fastest lens within the world—its aperture is f/3.3 on the wide finish and f/5.9 zoomed all the manner in. The Nikon P310 $296.95 at Beach Camera incorporates a lesser four.2x zoom vary, however exposes to f/1.8 on the wide finish and drops to f/4.9 when zoomed all the manner in—capturing concerning four times the sunshine than the WX150 at its widest angle.
There are not a large amount of physical controls packed onto the rear of the camera. rather than a Mode dial, there is a toggle switch that enables you to choose from Still, iSweep Panorama, and Movie modes. There are not several actual shooting controls—just Drive mode, Flash management, and a Self Timer. the choice to separate the Self Timer and Drive Mode into 2 separate functions and omit the rather more helpful EV Compensation management could be a questionable one, as even photographic novices will enjoy the benefit of lightening or darkening a scene via this management.
Hitting Menu brings up an overlay show from that you'll be able to change ISO, EV Compensation, White Balance, and alternative settings. you'll be able to enter the complete Menu from this show, that enables you to change a lot of esoteric settings. These embrace the sound output and menu color scheme—which may be set to black, white, or pink.
Performance and Conclusions
The WX150 could be a speedy performer. It will begin and shoot in one.4 seconds and its shutter lag is therefore short that it's practically nonexistent. rather than a typical continuous drive mode, the WX150 supports burst shooting. It will grab a burst of ten shots with solely zero.15-second between every photo, however needs seven.8 seconds to put in writing them to a memory card. It outperforms the Canon PowerShot Elph 320 HS ($279.99, 3.5 stars)—that camera starts in a pair of.2 seconds, shoots a photograph each zero.6-second, and records a zero.2-second shutter lag.
I used Imatest to live the standard of the photographs captured by the WX150. The camera did quite well in terms of sharpness, resolving a pair of,125 lines per image height—well in more than the one,800 lines needed for a pointy photo. pictures from the Sony are noticeably sharper than those captured by the Panasonic SZ7, that solely managed one,536 lines.
Imatest conjointly measures the quantity of noise in photos. Noise will detract from image quality if it gets higher than one.5 percent, and a few cameras compound the problem by applying an excessive amount of noise reduction, that scrubs away image detail. The WX150 keeps noise below management through ISO 1600. The camera will lose an honest quantity of detail at that setting, therefore it is best to stay it set to ISO 800 when potential. The larger Nikon Coolpix P310 records one.6 % noise at ISO 1600, however captures a trifle a lot of detail—at ISO 800 the 2 cameras manufacture pictures that are terribly, terribly shut in quality.
The WX150 records 1080i60 video in AVCHD format, though the output file is saved at thirty frames per second. The video quality is kind of good—details are sharp and colours glorious. The camera is additionally capable of capturing 13-megapixel stills whereas recording video. Despite its tiny size, Sony managed to squeeze a mini HDMI port and micro USB port into the planning. The latter doubles because the charging port for the camera—just plug the WX150 directly into a wall via the included AC adapter. there is no dedicated battery charger included, which might irk shooters who value more highly to purchase a second battery. additionally to plain SD, SDHC, and SDXC memory cards, Memory Stick pair, Memory Stick professional pair, and Memory Stick PRO-HG pair cards are supported.
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX150 is a powerful camera. It's sufficiently small to require anywhere, produces sharp photos, will well at higher ISO settings, and carries a awfully affordable sticker value. As such, it earns our Editors' selection award for compact point-and-shoot cameras. It's a wonderful selection for casual snapshooters who worth image quality, however a lot of advanced shutterbugs is also turned off by its lack of management. If that is the case, you ought to offer the Nikon Coolpix P310 shut consideration—it's a trifle larger, however conjointly produces glorious pictures and incorporates a smart range of physical controls and a quick f/1.8 lens.
Image quality
Overall, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX150 produces superb photos each indoors and out. At lower ISOs, you'll undoubtedly get shots that look sensible printed up to 10x13 and that they rise up to alittle enlarging and cropping. that is in all probability quite most of the people want, however it conjointly implies that the occasional 8x10 is not out of the question. Subjects do get visibly softer higher than ISO four hundred, however shots are usable at little sizes up to ISO 1600. Sony's Handheld Twilight mode will assistance here, though, because the results aren't quite as soft and noisy when shooting in low lightweight. i would not hassle using the 2 highest ISOs, though, as they appear additional like artist renderings than photos and have off colours.
The WX150 produces bright and vivid colours that the majority point-and-shoot users ought to notice pleasing. However, they are not forever correct, particularly when it involves blues. Neutrals, reds, and greens were more true, though. As for the lens quality, there's alittle little bit of barrel distortion gift at the camera's wide finish, however no pincushioning at the telephoto finish. Center sharpness is extremely sensible, however the lens will get softer out to the perimeters and within the corners. My take a look at camera was notably soft within the prime left and right corners. Purple fringing is visible in high-contrast areas, however usually solely when photos are viewed at larger sizes. (Read additional regarding the WX150's image quality within the slideshow higher than.)
Movies captured by the WX150 are superb furthermore, on par with an entry-level video camera. The 60i frame rate and image stabilization create for a few swish movement, too. you'll see some ghosting with fast-moving subjects, though, particularly if you read them on a bigger HDTV. If you want one device for capturing sensible photos and videos, this is often one among the higher choices obtainable. For the simplest results you will need to record in AVCHD, except for net sharing there's the choice to record in MP4 format. The optical zoom will work whereas recording (though you'll hear it moving in quiet scenes), and there's a reasonably sensible stereo mic on prime.
Specification
Manufacturer: Sony
Part Number: DSCWX150/B
General
Product Type Digital camera - Compact
Enclosure Color Black,blue
Resolution 18.2 megapixels
3D Technology Yes
Optical Sensor Type Exmor R CMOS
Total Pixels 18,900,000 pixels
Effective Sensor Resolution 18,200,000 pixels
Optical Sensor Size 1/2.3"
Image Processor BIONZ
Image Stabilizer Optical (Steady Shot with Active Mode)
Auto Focus TTL contrast detection
AE/AF Control Subject-tracking AF,
Face-priority AF
Face Detection Smile Shutter,
Automatic Face Tracking technology,
Blink Detection technology
Digital Video Format MPEG-4,
AVCHD
Image Recording Format JPEG
Max Video Resolution 1920 x 1080
AV Interfaces HDMI
Exposure & White Balance
Light Sensitivity ISO 3200,
ISO 1600,
ISO 800,
ISO 100,
ISO 200,
ISO 6400,
ISO 12800,
ISO 400,
ISO auto
Exposure Metering Multi-segment,
Center-weighted,
Spot
Exposure Modes Program,
Automatic
Shooting Programs Soft snap,
Snow,
Beach,
Backlight correction HDR,
Anti-motion blur,
Underwater,
Night portrait,
High sensitivity,
Night scene,
Handheld twilight,
Gourmet,
Soft skin,
Fireworks,
Pet,
Landscape
Special Effects Water Colour,
Miniature,
Toy camera,
Pop Color,
HDR Painting,
Rich-tone monochrome,
Soft High-key,
Partial color,
Illustration
White Balance Automatic,
Presets,
Custom
White Balance Presets Daylight,
Incandescent,
Cloudy,
Fluorescent light (daylight),
Fluorescent light (warm white),
Fluorescent light (cool white),
Flash
Max Shutter Speed 1/1600 sec
Min Shutter Speed 4 sec
Exposure Compensation ±2 EV range, in 1/3 EV steps
Lens System
Type 10 x x Zoom lens - 4.45 mm - 44.5 mm - F/3.3-5.9 G
Focal Length Equivalent to 35mm Camera 25 - 250 mm
Focus Adjustment Automatic
Min Focus Range 2 in
Zoom Adjustment Motorized drive
Lens Construction 7 groups / 9 elements
Features Aspherical lens,
Built-in lens shield
Camera Flash
Camera Flash Built-in flash
Flash Modes Fill-in mode,
Slow synchro,
Auto mode,
Flash OFF mode,
Red-eye reduction
Features AF illuminator
Effective Flash Range 8 in - 12 ft : ISO auto ( Wide lens ),
5 ft - 7 ft : ISO auto ( Tele lens ),
19.4 ft : ISO 3200 ( Wide lens )
,
11 ft : ISO 3200 ( Tele lens )
Additional Features
Continuous Shooting Speed 10 frames per second
Self Timer Delay 2 sec,
10 sec
Additional Features Digital image rotation,
Intelligent AUTO (iAUTO),
Display brightness control,
1080i Full HD movie recording,
Background defocus,
In-camera red-eye removal,
Intelligent Scene Recognition (iSCN),
Backlight Correction HDR,
3D Sweep Panorama technology,
Sweep Multi Angle mode,
PRINT Image Matching,
Cropping an image,
TransferJet support,
Intelligent Sweep Panorama,
DPOF support,
RGB primary color filter,
Built-in speaker,
Motion Detection Technology,
Superior Auto mode,
Histogram display,
Anti-motion Blur Mode,
Dynamic Range Optimizer,
Camera orientation detection,
Takes photos while movie recording,
USB 2.0 compatibility
Display
Type 3 in LCD display
Display Features Built-in
Microphone
Microphone Operation Mode Stereo
Microphone Features Wind noise reduction
Connections
Connector Type 1 x Hi-Speed USB,
1 x HDMI output
Miscellaneous
Microsoft Certifications Compatible with Windows 7
Included Accessories USB cable,
AC power adapter,
Wrist strap
Battery
Supported Battery Sony NP-BN
Supported Battery 1 x Sony NP-BN Li-ion rechargeable battery - 630 mAh ( Included )
Memory / Storage
Memory Card Slot SD card,
Memory Stick PRO Duo card
Supported Memory Cards SDHC Memory Card,
Memory Stick Duo,
SD Memory Card,
Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo,
SDXC Memory Card,
Memory Stick PRO Duo,
Memory Stick PRO Duo Mark2
Image Storage JPEG 4896 x 3672,
JPEG 4896 x 2752,
JPEG 3648 x 2736,
JPEG 2592 x 1944,
JPEG 1920 x 1080,
JPEG 640 x 480
Video Capture AVCHD - 1920 x 1080 - 24Mbps,
AVCHD - 1920 x 1080 - 17Mbps,
AVCHD - 1440 x 1080 - 9Mbps,
MPEG-4 - 1440 x 1080 - 12Mbps,
MPEG-4 - 1280 x 720 - 6Mbps,
MPEG-4 - 640 x 480 - 3Mbps
Dimensions & Weight
Width 3.7 in
Depth 0.9 in
Height 2.2 in
Weight 4.1
