Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-W290 Digital Camera with 12.1 Megapixel, 5x Optical Zoom, 3.0" LCD Display, Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar Lens, Silver

2011-07-28T20:00:00

Ok, when my dad first gave me this camera, I thought to myself: sweet! My Sony Cybershot DSC-W120 had just broken, and i needed a new one. Luckily my dad had an extra. The camera worked good for about a week, then i ran into some problems, that are now so bad, i cant use a memory card! At first, every so often, the camera would have an error, and ask me to reinsert the memory stick. At first, me and my dad thought it was my memory card. Then, my other camera started working, so i ignored the problem for awhile. After that camera finally stopped working, we went out and bought a new memory card, but i am still having the same problem. Now, every time I insert my memory card, i get an error, and it says to reinsert it. Nothing works! Am i the first one to experience it? This camera is junk. Don't Buy IT!

Cullen

Originally posted at

2010-05-26T20:00:00

This camera is a truly amazing camera if you know how to use it. For taking outdoor pictures this camera is great, The camera will take crisp scenes also what is nice is that with this particular camera you can shoot into the sun and you will not loose the quality of your picture. The camera also does a great job with removing things from your picture, while I was in NYC I was taking pictures outside a subway window that was scratched up and vandalized to disbelief. See the picture attached. Night Shots are amazing if you use the Scene selection on the camera. BUT YOU NEED A TRI-POD!! If you do not have a tripod and are taking night pictures it will be either burly or grainy. The camera does not do a good job indoors because images turn out grainy. Also you will need a big enough memory card for this as it requires ALOT of space for this. The program feature on the camera will be your best friend when doing many shots as you now have full control. Without it you may not be able to get that picture. The charger of the camera is actually a great feature. If your going to a foreign country you don't need a transformer, just a plug converter and the charger automatically switches to that. The High Def video is alright. It is not Crystal clear as hoped but considering it is not a camera brick the quality is good. Only downside is no zooming in while filming which is a draw back. Transfer speed of pictures is great, Ok speed with videos. When buying these are requirement to utilize the camera to it's fullest. At minimum a 4GB Memory Stick so you can go on trips and not have to worry about your pictures filling it up. If you plan on taking High Def video a 8GB is needed for longer periods of time. Also a tri-pod. When filming it is needed for nice video, when taking night shots otherwise they will be burly. I would overall recommend this camera to someone who likes to take outdoor and great night shots (If you don't need action shots at night)

AustinT

Originally posted at

2010-05-13T20:00:00

I LOVE this camera! i had it for over 6 months now and whatever picture i take it comes out so clear! i just Love the picture quality and its very good for portraits. In the beginning i didnt like it because i liked my old camera also but every since i started taking closeup pictures, This camera became my best friend. The thing i dont like about is that it has minor scratches already and its almost coming to pieces but i would be fine with that unless it gets fixed one way or another, other than that, its unbelievable :)

seattleazn121

Originally posted at

2010-03-20T20:00:00

I just got this W290 camera for 100$ from a retail store around my way. I'm happy that I was able to pay such a cheap price. I only bought this camera for two reasons. First, for my job (Sony electronic merchandiser) i take pictures of electronic displays. So the quality of the pictures have to be good.Second, i love recording HD videos and i just don't have the money for a camcorder. The issues i have with recording video, is that in auto focus the lens focuses too much and ruins the video. In the infinite focus the video seems to have a blur look to it. however, like i said i only paid 100$ and it does descent enough for me right now.

Simthedon

Originally posted at

2010-02-20T19:00:00

I have owned several different digital camera and camcorders, and I think this is another great Sony product. Battery life is great, but will run down quickly when recording in 720 HD. The fact that if can't zoom while recoding video is a con, but it is a camera not a camcorder. I'm a sales rep. that does graphic design also, and this camera has not disappointed me yet. I bought the the DSC-w290 just as it came out, and I would have not considered spending my money on another camera if I knew that it would perform as well as it has for me. My two cents.

Sin7even

Originally posted at

2009-12-10T19:00:00

I bought this camera on my birthday. In the trip i started to review all it's features. Firstly, I wanted to capture a mountain and because of only 5x zoom i couldn't., and the precision zoom cannot compensate. I like starburst sun. I tried kinda 1000 shots at the sun and none were succesful. Flash is very weak. I used Flash+ 2 days and in the third, the flashlamp made a little short. I recorded a video at my sister's concert. The sound was awful. Only 24Khz mono mic. Lack of zoom in video mode made me film with gaps between movies time where i changed zoom. Face chaser takes too much time to detect a face. I stayed 5 minutes until it actualy managed to find my face. And it could easely detect a "face" on the air-blower box, and the face was locked on the blower itself. smile shutter is very poor. it takes a lot of time to make a big smile and it takes time to detect the face as well that's why i smiled for 3 minutes. Macro works mediocre. You don't even have a manual focus. How do i know it's 10cm macro? maybe it's 15 or 20. Battery life is poor.Only 10 minutes of 720p, only 300 shots. Smart zoom works only in vga with 26x dig. zoom. Night pictures look worse than ever. There is ISO used just to get ugly pics. and you even get iso 800 in daylight. in camera edit , anti blink, filter by faces 720p easy mode and auto mode don't help me with nothing. The only good things about it are DRO+, Vivid and ISO 80 (thank god) IAuto only detects scenes and simply does things for you. Not to mention that i've had better macro with landscape detected. And as for the Carl Zeiss lens... well it's ruined by the camera itself. Burst mode forces you to hammer the shutter button and make "100 shots". Well i barely managed to make 5 in a row. The display is very scrached even if i kept it in it's case, The body colects way to many fingerprints, and it's not confortable to hold when making a movie or still. That's why i use flash forced.In conclusion i will either sell it or return it, and i will buy a camcorder or a DSLR but... not from sony.

funkyjaaz

Originally posted at

2009-08-09T20:00:00

I had a older Sony Cybershot DSC S75, that is 8 years old, and only 3.0 mega pixels. I am much happier with the photo quality that I have from my older camera! This camera is too small for one handed shots. There is no manual focus! I use my camera for taking pictures of things close up often for detail, and this camera takes forever to focus and when it is focused, once the picture is taken, and downloaded, it isn't as crisp as it looked on the display. The display is nice size, but only having it one month, there is already several scratches in it, and I've had it cased all the time throughout my transport with the previous case and the old lcd of my 8 year old camera is just fine. I wish I could return the camera! Money well wasted for a spare battery and memory card and camera! My old camera took awesome pictures, and then downsized them to 8 by 10's and they were even better, this however seems to blur them. I wouldn't suggest this to anyone, and it isn't that I've not had a camera before. This isn't a friendly point and shoot or take your time and focus or change the functions camera.

Trav

Originally posted at

2009-07-20T20:00:00

I liked it very much. I'm not a good photographer and this camera takes pictures like a pro. I recommend this equipment. Just get a nice exterior cover because the exterior could scratch easily and I don't know why is not included in the box. Thanks!

Evident

Originally posted at

2009-07-06T20:00:00

First of all I'd like to say I've been an amatuer photographer for 30 + yrs. I am the one that friends ask to photograph a gathering. But with this new camera MOST OF THE PICTURES ARE OUT OF FOCUS -ON AUTO FOCUS EVEN. on and off auto focus it continues to have trouble focusing. It does work great on Macro for close ups of flowers ect... My last two camera were Cannon's Sorry I swithched.!!!!!!!!!!!

xrayDC

Originally posted at

2009-06-08T20:00:00

Purchased this after upgrading from a P200 with unlimited video length to a W170 and being VERY disappointed with the W170s 10 minute video limit and returning it. This is basically the same camera as the W170 but with an extra 2MP, HD video and slightly bigger screen. The Intelligent Auto Mode is very good at night but most pictures come out looking black and white. The Optical SteadyShot is also a very useful feature. HD 720P video, set to +2EV night videos come out pretty well. Although you do get vertical smearing from any bright objects. Only downsides are the 29 minute video limit and wind noise with any slight breeze. HD video is one of the main reasons I bought this camera, the time limit is a terrible handicap to attach with it. Face Detection is good for focusing and all, but smile shutter is a sad sad feature. I'm very disappointed to see it have it's own button on top of the camera. Fast start up and shut down times, overall I am very satisfied with the W290's Photo abilities.

SHOContinental

Originally posted at

2009-06-02T20:00:00

4 years ago I puchased a Sony cysbershot 4MP (sorry dont have model number with me) camera and love it. Its taken well over 3000 pictures and plenty of amazing shots. I was so satisfied that I didnt bother researching other brands when looking for a new smaller camera. But two days ago I purchased the W290 and wow am I disappointed. Im staring to think I should have at least looked at other brands. I started taking a few photos and noticed pixeling and fading of colors. I took a few test shots of both cameras, always of the same area which included a couch thats 7 feet away, stuffed animals, rubber bin/toy chest and part of a window with both cameras to set to AUTO. The quality of pictures on the W290 pale in comparison to my old cybershot which is surprising considering the W290 costs more and more megapixels. My old cyber-shot captured so much more detail. Then I set the W290 to manual settings and I tried so many different options, multipoint focus, single point, slow shutter speed, medium and high shutter speeds auto focus, 3m/7m/inf focus and 12mp/5mp. None of the settings left me satisfied considering retail price was 250 which is more than I paid for my old camera 4 years ago. The toy bin is blue and you could see pixels ranging from gray to purple in the photo. There is one stuffed elephant where the fur is riffled. on my old camera you can see light dark light dark riffles and on the w290 its just a solid blurred gray and its like this with any of any of the above mentioned settings. Sorry Sony, but this birthday present is being returned. P.S. You should have made a separate mini USB connection. That monsterous usb/rca cable defeats portability and functionality. With my old cybershot I could carry one USB cable for my camera, cell phone and GPS. Now I have a monster cable thats going to cost me too much to replace if misplaced. Sony, feel free to contact me and I'll email you pictures.

dontworryitsme

Originally posted at