Several camera companies make variants of some of their models that are sold exclusively through particular retail chains. Today's review camera, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W290, is an example of this. It's a variant of the DSC-W270, and is sold in the UK exclusively through the Jessop chain of high-street photographic retailers. It differs from the W270 Sony Cyber-shot Battery Charger in only one respect; it has a 3.0-inch 230k LCD monitor in place of the W270's 2.7-inch screen.
I have to confess that I've been a bit remiss in my coverage of Sony's W-series cameras. The last one I reviewed was the W200 two years ago, a good but expensive camera significant as one of the first pocket compacts to feature a 12.1-megapixel sensor. The W290 also has a 12.1MP sensor, but these days this is far from uncommon, and the Sony is competing in quite a crowded market. It also has a 5x zoom Carl Zeiss lens with a wide-angle end equivalent to 28mm, something which is also becoming a more common feature.
Like all of Sony's compacts the W290 is a good looking camera, and is solidly made. It has a strong aluminum body, and is available in black, blue or silver. The W290 Sony Cyber-shot Camera Charger isn't a particularly small or lightweight camera by modern ultra-compact standards. It weighs a substantial 164g including battery and memory card, and the 97.6 x 56.6 x 22.6mm measurements quoted in the spec sheet aren't entirely accurate.
Despite the camera's size the very large three-inch monitor screen doesn't leave a lot of room on the back for all the controls, which include a tiny and rather awkward rocker-switch zoom control, a relatively large but sparsely populated mode dial, three buttons and a very small D-pad. I did find the controls somewhat fiddly to operate, requiring the edge of a fingernail to push the buttons; however people with smaller fingers than mine may not have a problem.
The W290 also has a Scene mode. There are only ten scene programs including the usual Landscape, Night Portrait, Snow, Fireworks etcetera. The only unusual one is a poolside scene mode, which enhances blue water. There's also an Easy shooting mode, which takes away every option but picture size and flash, but that's so ridiculously simple it's almost taking the
The W290 Sony Cyber-shot Charger has a good video mode, shooting in 1280 x 720 resolutions at 30fps. It starts recording very quickly, saving files in MPEG4 format, but the optical zoom cannot be used while recording and despite what it says on Sony's website the audio is mono only. Both the video and audio quality are excellent for a compact camera, but bear in mind that within a few months every new compact over £100 will have video at least this good.
Buy cheap new Sony Cyber-shot Battery Charger from my-chargers.com
Read More From my-chargers.com
|
