Now I suppose that it could simply be the case that my standards are lower than those writing strongly negative reviews. However, while not a “pixel peeper”, I do care about the quality of the image. My first camera was a Leica M2 that my grandfather gave to me. What a great camera. I spent a lot of happy days taking pictures with that camera. The prints that I developed were, imho, better than anything I’ve seen come out of a less than ultra high end DSLR. The Leica M2 was followed by a series of Nikon and Olympus SLR’s. I was still shooting film when the digital age rolled around. Until the WX1 my only concession to the digital shift was a FujiPix F30. It’s a fun camera, but I wanted something smaller for casual shooting. When I can afford it, I’ll get a DSLR to replace the SLR’s.

All of this is to say that I have some experience with photography, although I would not in any way consider myself a “serious” photographer. Measured in terms of that experience, the WX1 is a very good camera for its purposes. I bought it as a pocket camera that could take quality pictures, day or night. So far, that expectation has been satisfied. I also bought it for the HD video which I haven’t tried out yet.

I’ve been wondering whether my relative lack of familiarity with recent model digital cameras may explain the difference between my experience with the WX1 and the experience of others. When my grandfather gave me his camera, he emphasized that among the things that I needed to know in order to take good pictures was how the camera worked. I spent a lot of time familiarizing myself with the workings of the Leica. This made a big difference in the quality of the pictures that I took. Accordingly, before using the WX1, I downloaded and read the manuals in their entirety, trying to familiarize myself with the camera’s resources (of which there are quite a few and limits (of which there are also quite a few). I still haven’t figured out how best to use the WX1, but I learned for, example, that turning the DRO on or off made a substantial difference in IQ, as did learning the idiosyncracies of the white balance and the various settings that were automatically set in the various camera modes. I would say, and this may be a mark against it for many people, that the WX1 is not a “point and shoot” camera unless one is familiar with its workings, but when I read the negative comments I wonder if some of the issues complained of could be addressed through a better understanding of the camera. I been following several threads on the WX1 at an online camera forum. The complaints were loud and long about the picture quality of the WX1 daytime shots. Photos were posted that looked really bad. Photos were posted that looked really good. Most were the work of apparently accomplished photographers. Finally someone complained that the camera wouldn’t shoot over 800 in the handheld nighttime setting. Someone else said that they had no problem shooting at higher speeds in that setting. It turned out that the the problem was that in one case (the no greater than 800 case), the DRO was on. It also turned out that with the DRO turned off, many of the problems with the IQ of daytime shots were addressed. This doesn’t mean that someone with all the knowledge in the world of the camera’s capabilities and all the skill in the world at taking photographs might not conclude that they found shots taken with the WX1 were unacceptable. “De gustibus non est disputandum”. It also may be the case that someone might feel that taking a lot of time to figure out the workings of a camera is a waste of time. Still, this camera seems to me to have a lot of functionality that makes it worth the time learning how to use it properly.

However, compared to cybershot cameras released just months ago, the reduction in picture noise is very obvious at higher ISO settings, given the size of the sensor is only about 7.59mm (smaller than your pinky). The picture does look cleaner even at high ISO settings (especially beyond ISO 800), although you will be able to observe evidence of noise reduction combined with the sensor’s noise at those levels.

The new software that allows the sensor to optionally quickly capture 6 consecutive frames also helps alot in noise and blurring reduction, however this feature ties up your camera for awhile, i.e. you won’t be able to shoot the next picture until the camera has superimposed all six images together. Also, since the 6 images are not taken at the same instant, you should not use this feature for moving objects. The end result is amazingly low noise and blur free images, even though the camera will have to choke up a bit to cough up those images for you.

The sweep panorama, although not new, is an interesting feature, but the quality of the images produced by this feature is generally not good enough for printing, due to misaligned edges caused by vertical hand movements. I have yet to try this feature with a tripod, but i believe the result may be better since the camera can make a true horizontal sweep. The resolution of the standard sweep is 4912×1080 and the resolution of the wide sweep is 7152×1080. It is quite obvious from the figures that the images are not particularly suitable for large prints, since the vertical resolution of the images is very low.

Also, when the DRO is set to DRO-plus (for increased gamma to reduce shadows in your shots), the maximum allowed ISO setting is only ISO 800. There is also some restriction on the ISO setting when you turn on the 10-frame high-speed burst, where the maximum allowed ISO is 800. Therefore, the high speed burst function is only suitable for places where there is enough light.

The camera is fantastically fast, except when it comes to processing images from the 10-frame burst mode (this camera does not perform continuous burst like older cybershots), even the process of superimposing six shots into a single frame is blazingly fast due to the bionz processor.

The video recording function is handy, encoding at MPEG4 at a maximum resolution of 1280×720 pixels, too bad the clips are restricted to about 2GB each (29 mins), making it impossible for you to shoot long continuous videos even if you had a whopping 16GB card. The camera allows optical zooming during recording.

DSLR users should take note that there is no Aperture Priority, Shuttle Priority and Manual Mode for this camera, as it is obvious that Sony has decided that this camera is going to be a pure point-and-shoot model. A pity considering that some of the older cybershot models did come with at least the Manual Mode where you can adjust the exposure time, aperture size and shuttle speed manually.

I haven’t had the chance to fully test out the features of this camera yet, but given Sony’s history with cybershots (beyond a high quality sensor and lens, they tend to take shortcuts here and there), potential buyers should really test this camera out at Walmart or Target and look for limitations and flaws which may end up as deal breakers before considering mail ordering from Amazon to avoid the hassle of returning it later. Also, the LCD screen is very shiny and a crazy fingerprint magnet, so you might want to get a screen protector to go with the camera.

Sample shots (including full zoom) of the camera have been uploaded at the customers’ image section to show the noise reduction effect of the Exmor-R sensor in combination with the bionz processor from base ISO (ISO 160) all the way to ISO 3200.