Sony DSCW800/B 20.1 MP Digital Camera (Black)

I am an amateur photographer and own three DSLR cameras with a selection of lenses. However that collection does not eliminate the need for a handy item for just daily needs. I keep this one especially in my car's glove box as a reserve for occasions which require something better than my cell phone camera. For that purpose it meets my expectations and even exceeds it. Yet, this is still a snap shot device with a relatively low price tag and therefore a DSLR level quality (like background blurring, high shutter speed, high level of low light performance etc.)should not be expected.Pros:-Lightweight slim and stylish design: It can fit in small spaces and look and feel like a high quality item.-USB charging ability: That is one of the selling points for me. I keep it in my car and I don't want to run out of power any time or go through the hassle of removing the battery and charging it separately ,which requires carrying the charging adapter all the time and also the ability to plug in that adapter. Instead. all I do is to connect it to my 12V car USB charger and it pretty quickly accumulates good amount of charge level... It comes with a wall adapter (5V 0.5A) which connects to a detachable USB cable (so you can use the cable and attach it to any USB charger). But be careful about the USB cable. The standard USB-micro B cable that charges most mobile devices do not work for this type. If you need a replacement or an extra you need to buy a USB-UC E6 cable.-Easy menu mode: Practicality should be the main focus in a snapshot device and even my grandfather could get through this menu. One of the most user-friendly interfaces I have seen so far.-Panoramic shoot ability: That was a surprise for me. I had not read the product description in detail before buying and that was such a handy function. I used to take panoramic photos by taking tens of photos with my DSLR and stiching them with a software which was both difficult and time consuming. This function does it instantly and produces comparable quality photos.-5X optical zoom: When it comes to zooming, in photographic terms, the less is often more. The best lenses even come with no zoom at all. However for a practical item like this, zoom is essential and 5X is a good range for the optical zoom (it is also critical that you compare the optical zoom capacities of devices and not the digital zoom before making a judgement.)-Image quality: As I said above, it does not match the quality of a DSLR and I don't care about the high pixel size either. For cameras with small sensor sizes like snapshots, it is actually better to get a low MP device for sharper images, but this one not bad at all especially in daylight. HD Video quality is also good but again depends on the light...-Price: the $78 price tag as of august 2014 makes it one of the most affordable snapshot cameras in the market. You can get better deals from time to time but this is quite appealing too.Cons:-Low light performance: Again, I want to stress that I am not expecting professional quality from this device, but I found the low light performance moderate at best. The noise was somewhat irritating even with flash.-Slow shutter speed: It has a continuous shooting mode which is supposed to take multiple frames in a short time as long as the shutter button is depressed. However this device has a long long refractory period between shoots that it is not even worth bothering with that mode. You need to decrease the image quality 3 steps to be able to notice some multiple shooting effect and that is not worth it. So if you wish to take a photo of a flying bird or a running person or a passing by car, you don't have much choice to take multiple photos and decide later.-Zoom buttons: I like the zoom to be a ring style beneath the shutter button but this is like a plus and minus at the back which is not very convenient.-No optical viewfinder: This is not a problem for this model only. Most recent cameras sacrifice from an optical viewfinder and all you get is a digital image on the screen to help you adjust your photo before taking it. First of all it does not give the sense of taking a photo but more importantly digital screen viewfinder drains battery and also performs bad in bright light.-Video focusing sound: While recording video of a closely located object (where there is a constant need to re-adjust autofocusing) and if the surrounding is silent, you can hear the sound of focus adjustments in your recording. But as I said that is only obvious in full silence and for short distance recordings.Overall you like it or not depends on your expectations. For me it is a handy and adequately performing device with quite useful features. I am happy with this purchase

I really like this camera, though I think there is some room for improvement. It takes very nice still photos, which according to my linux box are 19.9 MP. Weird, but nothing to complain about.My personal rationale: Things seem to be hit or miss, but for my general purpose it is not bad. I was going to buy a new phone, e.g. LG g4, to record my exploits into the mountains. The HTC one m8 camera is pretty weak. But I got this instead. Two devices is less than one in this case, but it's not so bad and saving $500 never hurts. So I bought my first dedicated camera.Ergonomics: The size is quite nice as it easily fits in my pocket for long hikes and other outdoor activities. I love the inclusion of a USB standardized charging port, as it makes things a lot easier. I don't know why Sony didn't make it a micro usb like most other mobile products these days, but whatever. One extra cable, but having the device be chargeable via a portable battery bank is very nice. Also includes a standard SD card slot, which I would strongly recommend adding to your cart. Internal storage is not sufficient unless you take 3 photos and visit a computer. The size of the maximum quality photos are about 7.5 MB.Screen: Essentially worthless. There is no way to measure the quality of the photos through the built in display, aside from tremendous blurriness. Take to your nearest HD monitor to gain better appreciation...Photos: I went on a small hike to test this out before a much larger one and attached a few photos. My opinions are that outdoor photos come out quite nice, but zooming in on regions makes them quite grainy. I analyzed merely with my eyes and a 4k monitor, which may lack professionalism for some. Nevertheless, I don't really see much reason to complain. A minor gripe is that they shoot in 4:3 aspect ratio vs 16:9.Indoor photos are much more variable. I have taken a few good ones, with flash and mildly close range necessary to achieve this goal. Others look very washed out. View finder doesn't help so be wary.Panorama is a pretty bad feature in my opinion. It captures more, but with less. What I mean by that is the vertical height of my resulting photos is 1080 pixels, whereas standard photos are over 3800. Thus they looked washed out.You can also adjust brightness in the menu, but I usually default to 0 unless in exceptional circumstances.Video: I don't use this much, as 720p is quite low by today's standards. Even my bad phone camera does 1080p, so it's not for me. Maybe for some this will apply.Cost: Excellent. For $80, I am happy with my decision. Sony is the king of camera sensors, so I thought this was a good buy for my purposes. Just be wary of the above comments.