Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W220 – average photo quality

Thumbs Up:

Nice and compact design; average feature set.

Thumbs Down:

There is no optical zoom while video recording; chromatic aberration is above-average; and photo quality drops above ISO 200.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W220 is a 12.1-megapixel digital camera that has Super HAD CCD optical sensor of 12,100,000 pixels resolution. The W220 has 15MB of flash memory and a memory slot that supports Memory Stick PRO Duo and Memory Stick Duo. W220 provides 2x digital zoom, face detection, Optical image stabilization and frame movie shooting mode. The maximum shutter speed is 1/1600 second and minimum is 1 second. Light sensitivity levels are ISO auto, ISO 3200, ISO 1600, ISO 800, ISO 400, ISO 200 and ISO 100.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W220 has 2.7 inch LCD display that has a resolution of 230,000 pixels. The W220 has inbuilt microphone. Special effects are Black & White, Vivid and Sepia. Shooting programs of the camera includes Twilight portrait, High Sensitivity, Twilight mode, Underwater, Soft snap, Landscape, Fireworks, Gourmet, Beach and Snow.

Exposure metering is Multi-segment and exposure compensation is ±2EV range in 1/3 EV steps. The exposure modes are Automatic and Program. The white balance is of two types: Automatic and Presets. White-balance presets include Incandescent, Fluorescent, Daylight, Cloudy and Flash.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W220 has inbuilt flash that features AF illuminator. The flash modes are Red-eye reduction, Flash OFF mode, Slow synchro, Fill-in mode and Auto mode. Effective flash range of the W220 is 8-inch to 13 ft.

The zoom lens is manufactured by Carl Zeiss and has a focal length of 5.35-21.44 mm with an aperture of F/2.8-5.8. Focal length equivalent to 35mm camera is 30-120mm. Lens has TTL contrast detection auto-focus and nine auto-focus points. It provides 4x optical zoom to the camera. The zoom adjustment is motorized drive and focus adjustment is automatic. Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W220 has inbuilt lens shield and self-timer delay of 2 seconds and 10 seconds.

The additional features of Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W220 are Smile Detection technology, In-camera red-eye removal, Dual Image stabilization, Dynamic Range Optimizer, PictBridge support, Histogram display, inbuilt speaker, Auto power save and Auto recording.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W220 has three connectors: 1×component video output, 1×compsosite vice/audio output and 1×USB. Supported operating systems are Windows ME/2000/XP and Apple Mac OS 9.1/9.2/X 10.1-10.5. The W220 has one Sony NP-BG1 lithium-ion 960mAH battery. Accessories supplied inside the package are A/V cable, USB cable, reference material, drivers & utilities disc, wrist wrap and battery.

Sony provides one-year limited labors-and-part warranty with its Cyber-shot DSC-W220.

Razzle Dazzle:

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W220 has a well-rounded and compact shape. It is available in pink, blue, black and silver color. Our test model was pink one. The W220 is 2.2 inches tall, 3.7 inches wide and 0.9 inch deep and it weighs around 4.2 ounces. The digital camera has plastic chrome trim and brushed metal body. The W220 is a pocket-sized and lightweight camera.

Inside Dope:

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W220 does not offer a lot of features but that is not unexpected in such a low price. However, its line-mate the DSC-W290 is offering HD movie quality capture, large LCD display and wide lens with a price over $200. The DSC-W220 is a compact well-rounded camera with good performance and nice photo quality. It costs $179. However, you can spend $70 more to get better features in the W290.

The Mode dial is located inside the body and has enough space on its right side for easy usage. The zoom rocker sits above the dial and you will find the directional pad and playback button below the dial. You can use this pad for navigating menu options and controlling the settings for timer, display, macro and flash.

The Menu and Home buttons are located beneath the directional pad, like previous Sony models. Menu button will display the shooting controls that are context-sensitive. Comparatively, the Home button will show other options to playback, format Memory Sticks and to change date/time. Sony has covered all its cameras with single-button mechanism such as on the H20 and the W290.

Mode dial has 10 tiny icons, which makes it crowded. The three options are providing different automatic modes. Program Auto provides most of the controls including access to exposure metering, focus, white-balance, exposure and ISO levels. Sony Intelligent Auto picks one of eight branded iSCN scene types and turns on the image stabilization and face detection. You can set the Sony iSCN to Auto or Advanced, which will provide a nice photo quality. In difficult or dim lighting the camera will take two shots automatically so that you can get a usable photograph. Easy Mode will disable all the settings and gives you only basic settings like VGA movie mode and some scene modes. Optical zoom does not work when you record the video. The company has also included Sony Dynamic Range Optimizer to improve the shadow details. In addition, there is an exposure bracketing that takes three photos – one at manual exposure and other two at minus and plus of 0.3EV, 0.7EV or 1.0EV.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W220 is a nice and quick digital camera as per its class. However, Sony still has to improve the shutter lag in bright light. The time from pressing the shutter to capture photo is 0.5 second in bright light and it becomes 0.7 second in dim light. The time from power on to first capture is 1.6 seconds. The shot-to-shot time is 1.7 seconds and 2.7 seconds with flash. The burst performance of the W220 was 1.7fps (frames per second). The shutter lag is 0.5 second in bright light and 0.7 second in dim light.

The photo quality of Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W220 is good at light sensitivity of ISO 200 and below. There was visible color noise on all ISO levels while viewing the photos at full screen, but at least the noise was low at lower ISO levels. The photos are good at ISO 400, but they have noise reduction issues. There is a rapid decrease in detail and sharpness above ISO 400 but still the colors are consistent. The photos at ISO 800 exhibit noise and smear yet they are usable for web use and small print outs. We recommend you to keep the ISO level low if you want to capture photographs for large print outs. The DSC-W220 provides good detail and sharpness, but still drops off near the sides and makes the corners and edges to look soft. The purple fringe was visible even in the small 4×6 print outs. Overall, the colors were not accurate but still they were looking natural and nice.

Nitty Gritty:

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W220 provides good shooting experience for its price range. However, the DSC-W290 is still a better deal. If you do not mind smaller LCD, only VGA movie record and narrower lens, then you can for the DSC-W220, you will end up saving $70.