By S. Ozdamar

The Sony Cybershot is an remarkable addition to anyone’s collection of gadgets. Its small enough to bring with you anywhere you want and can have a long lasting impact on a otherwise normal adventure out. Unlike disposable cameras one has the chance to review their pictures with out having to go through the hassle of developing them just to figure out that it is not a good picture. The Sony Cybershot has so many features and extras that allow your pictures to come out amazingly clear. I have had the Sony Cybershot for three years and it goes everywhere with me. It conveniently fits in any bag and is always important when something funny, beautiful, or unusual happens.

The Cybershot has an endless amount of features that can be mixed and matched to make the perfect picture. By fiddling around a little you will stumble upon many scene selections that you camera has. The scenes range from a lens that illuminates and captures fire in all of its brilliance, while in the next picture the snowman that you child just made can be crisp, white, and lifelike all in one. There are nine scene selections in total all the selections include a view finder meant for large landscapes, night time, night time with a person, snow, a tropical setting, action, and fireworks. If you use these selections right then the picture has the chance of coming out ten times as better as if it were set to a regular lens setting.
Editing can be done right on the camera itself. If the picture needs to be cropped, color altered or removed to create a black and white photo in a couple easy steps it’s achieved. If you decide that before the picture is taken you would wish to have it set in black and white or sepia press menus and scroll over a few and you will be able to select color options. Color is not the only thing that the photographer has control over, you can change the focus based on how fine you want the pictures to come out. The song Cybershot has a range of anything from seven millimeter, which assures the best quality of the picture and e-mail size which as crisp and clear but still captures the moment all the same.
This camera is not only just a camera, it is also a video camera. After you are done taking the picture you can upgrade to making the moment last even more with a video clip. The Sony Cybershot can take a movie that is up to an hour long. If you plan on taking an hour long movie, do not plan on taking any pictures. The movies take up a considerable amount of memory space fast. Though the movies will be worth while, you do not want to have that ruin your ability to continue the day with pictures. I have faced that problem before, my movie was too long and very interesting…therefore I could not take anymore pictures with my friends which was annoying since I wanted more pictures, but would not delete the movie in its place.
I recommend the Sony CyberShot to anyone who loves photography or even memories. It is necessary to capture all the little extra moments in life. This camera eliminates the hassle of using a disposable camera and never knowing how the picture will turn out. You can preview, alter, and delete picture right on the camera at anytime. The Sony Cybershot is a little pricy but it is more than worth it if you want to have mind-blowing pictures that will last you a lifetime.

Reviewer:D. Magid (New York, NY United States)

Overall, the camera is packed with features and seems to be taking good pictures. I have found a bluish halo around white-framed shots that I need to investigate. The big fault I have with the camera is that it feels cheap and plastic! My last digital camera was a Casio Slim Shot (?) that was metal and withstood wear and tear. The Sony Cybershot is fragile, light and seemingly made of plastic which makes me wonder about the quality of the “carl zeiss” lens and whether it will be able to withstand living in my backpack or jacket pocket, ready for use.
I dont think I would recommend this camera to everyday users and would definitely have shopped around with cameras in person before purchasing.

Reviewer:snapcrackle “snapcrackle” (MA United States)

The Sony W55 is the followup to the successful and popular W50. It’s a very good compact camera, easy to carry and easy to use, and reasonably priced - so most people will be happy with it.Not much has changed from the W50, which in this case is a good thing!

One change is that the W55 is a 7 MP camera, rather than the W50’s 6MP. Honestly, that’s not a big plus, as they haven’t made the sensor that catches the light any larger. Same (good) lenses, same size sensor = the same (good) pictures, but not better. (Though it might help a little on features like Smart Zoom.)

The obvious change is of course the colors. Don’t make too much fun of that! There are 4 DSC-W series cameras in our family, colors would have kept my mother-in-law from taking my sister’s camera home with her. A little personalization is a good thing.

The internal memory has been expanded (to 56MB), but I’ve never used the internal memory on the cameras that have had it, so I’m not sure that matters much. It might be worth knowing how to use as a backup, for another dozen or two shots if your card is full, or you have some other problem.

The controls, menus and interface on the W55 are reasonably easy to use. For example, the W55 has easy access to the various scene modes (twilight, etc), with some explanation on the screen of what those mysterious little icons mean (so you might actually use them, since it tells you what they do!). If you’re new to digital photography, there will be a learning curve. But if you’ve used other cameras much, especially Sonys, you can pick this up and use many of the features right away.

Read the short introductory guide that comes with the camera, though!

The rechargeable battery should easily last you for a full day of shooting - hundreds of shots - with no problem. (Be a little wise about turning it off when you’re not using it!) So you probably don’t need a second battery, unless you’re going into the woods for a while. It’s nice not to have to mess with bulky AA rechargeables. Also, lithium ion batteries don’t have a memory effect, so don’t worry about partial recharging. Just charge the battery each night. So - before getting a second battery, try it for a while and see if you need it.

But get a case - something to protect the screen, at least. A fully closed one might help resist rain and splashes a little, too.

You’ll also want to get a Memory Stick Pro Duo card - Pro cards are faster, and you need the smaller Duo size with this camera. Get a 1-2GB card so you don’t have to think about running out of memory too much - if you shop carefully, you can find them for so little these days that it’s well worth avoiding running out of memory. You might want a spare card if you plan to travel for more than a week, or use the video mode often - which is surprisingly good (though a bit dark) if set to fine, but uses enormous amounts of storage at that setting.

You can stretch your memory, and your hard drive space, by using one of the lower-resolution settings to take snapshots. You don’t really need 7MP for all your photos!

The W55 will take better photos than those credit-card type cameras that have a tiny lens system - optics will always make a difference in a camera. Any reasonable person will be very happy with the pictures from the W55, given the size of it.

The camera will be a little slow and often take disappointing pictures in low light and dark situations. Try the High ISO mode in low light no-flash situations - the picture quality suffers some, but most people will find it useful. Realistically, no ultra-compact camera will work really well in that situation - if you need that often, think about something with a bigger lens and bigger sensor. Good light always gives the best pictures with any camera. There are limits to what you can currently expect from any ultracompact camera.

The W55 offers enough controls (through the scene modes and the Program mode) to allow a fair amount of control over the pictures, for an automatic camera.

The charger is fairly compact and rated 100-240V, so while you’ll need a plug adapter overseas you won’t need a voltage converter. The battery charger is a little slow, though probably OK.

Keep this camera charged and handy, and you’ll find you take a lot of pictures because it’s easy to carry and easy to use!

More information about Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W55 @Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W55 Camera Lists

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