Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W300

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By Leonard Goh
Jul 10, 2008

When the Cyber-shot DSC-W300 was introduced, it wowed the crowd by squeezing 13.6 megapixels into the sensor, making this shooter the highest resolution point-and-shoot available in the market at the time of this review. There were initial concerns that the image quality may suffer as a result of squeezing so many pixels into the small sensor, but Sony claims that its advanced image processing engine and algorithms will keep the noise level low. It has also given the W300 a titanium coating, a first for compact cameras, and while it may be no Iron Man, it's a nice touch to a very masculine camera.

Oddly though, while the W300 succeeds its W200 in the Sony camera series, it hardly bears any resemblance to its predecessor in terms of aesthetics or features. At S$799 (US$534.70), the W300 is currently one of the most expensive point-and-shoot cameras in the market today, and we reckon it will appeal only to those willing to pay a premium for both style and a higher image resolution.

Design

The matt black chassis was compared with a stealth bomber. What do you think?
(click for larger image)

Sleek yet masculine--that was the first impression we had when we held the W300 in our hands. We had people comparing the titanium-coated matt black chassis with the appearance of a stealth bomber, but we think the dark shade lends a touch of class to the point-and-shoot. If sophistication is your cup of tea, this Sony may fit the bill.

The simple design doesn't add much to the aesthetics, but we like the placement of the rear controls which made one-handed operation really easy. The ridged mode dial gave ample resistance and for the paranoid, selected functions will be displayed briefly on the right edge of the screen to indicate the shooting mode you have chosen. The four-way directional pad is used for navigating the menus, but we would have liked it better if it was a scroll wheel instead.

The uninitiated may be confused by the Home and Menu buttons. The latter calls up capture settings while the former conjures up a menu (which reminds us of the Playstation 3) for camera set-up. We are still fumbling with these two buttons up till now and we hope that Sony can do a tasteful job of merging them together for future models.

Unlike some compacts which have different ports for specific tasks such data transfer and video output, the W300 has just one located at the bottom of the shooter. Although some critics may chide Sony for combining them, we can't think of any occasion whereby more than one cable connection is needed. We did, however, find the port rather exposed to dirt and dust.

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