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My mother wants to get a new digital camera with her sony points, a nice simple point and shoot for general family events. There isn't a really a price range, but I assume she doesn't want to spend a fortune, she just needs something simple. Can anyone recommend a good one? I've never bought a sony, always used a nikon.
I've had a couple of sony P&S cameras over the years. Same deal - I had sony points.
I like the W-2 just fine. Only 5 mega pix but it took decent photos. We had an issue with it (got a dirt spot inside the lense) and it cost more to get it cleaned than to just replace it. I replaced it with a W-60.
You know what? I liked the W-2 better! W-60 is smaller and has more mega-pix - supposed "improvements".
In the end, smaller meant harder to handle - not more convenient. Picture quality was identical. The new camera does download photos at a higher rate. As it turns out, the W-2's dirt spot magically went away and that's the camera that we use when we need a P&S. The W-60 stays in the drawer.
What advice does this give you? In my opinion, photo quality across all the sony point and shoots will be very similar - how it feels in your hand will likely be the deciding factor. Take your mom to a camera store and let her play with various models. Pick the one that feels best to her.
Dan
Hey Dan,
Have you heard anything about the W300 that just came out? A friend of mine reccomended it to me, but since the zoom doesnt actually extend outside the camera im a bit hesitant. Its just flat... heres a link:
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... 1665339390
The last dpreview of a W series camera is here:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonyw80/
the W300 will have the same body design as the reviewed camera.
the W300 scares me a bit because it is cramming over 13 million pixels in a tiny sensor. If you are a regular reader of dpreview, you'll find that they believe that in a point and shoot, more pixels does not equal better picture quality - it just makes the images take up more room on your flash card/ hard drive.
My main issue with the current W series body design is the zoom control. The rocker button on the back of the camera is a lot harder to use than the older design that had the rocker switch on the top of the camera.
If I were shopping sony P&S right now, I would probably look at either the superzoom H series or the entry level S series - just because I don't find the current Ws comfortable to hold.
Your Mom's opinion might differ.
Thanks for the reply. Im going to go back into bestbuy and see if I can take some pictures on my memory card and bring it home to see the results.
The thing that bugs me a little, is that I dont need the touch screen anyways. It just makes things more complicated and expensive, so I might not go with the W series after all.