Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W330 Overview



The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W330 digital camera is a simple pocket camera with a 14.1-megapixel sensor, a 4x optical zoom lens, and a large 3-inch LCD. The Sony W330's lens offers a 35mm-equivalent range from a generous 26mm wide-angle to a moderate 105mm telephoto. The lens has a two-step aperture with a built-in neutral density (ND) filter, which offers either f/2.7 or f/8.0 at wide-angle; at telephoto the maximum aperture is f/5.7, and the minimum aperture isn't stated. Autofocusing is possible to a minimum of just four centimeters at wide-angle, or 60 centimeters at telephoto. The camera can capture 4:3 aspect ratio images at up to 4,320 x 3,240 pixel resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio images at up to 4,320 x 2,432 pixels, or 30 frames-per-second video at VGA (640 x 480 pixel) resolution or below with monaural audio.

On the rear panel of the Sony Cyber-shot W330 is a 3-inch TFT Clear Photo LCD panel with 100% coverage, and a resolution of 230,400 dots. This serves as the only method of framing and reviewing images, given that the Sony W330 doesn't feature an optical viewfinder. The Sony W330 has a 9-point autofocus system, and does include a face detection system, capable of detecting up to eight faces in a scene. This capability is used to provide a Smile Shutter function that automatically triggers the shutter when your subject is smiling. There's no blink detection feature in the Sony W330, however.

The Sony W330 offers three methods for determining exposures: multi-pattern, center-weighted, or spot metering. Shutter speeds from 1 to 1/1,600 second are possible under automatic control, and sensitivities ranging from ISO 80 to 3,200 equivalents are on offer, with ISO 80 to 800 available under automatic control. 2.0EV of exposure compensation is available, in 1/3 EV steps. The W330 has Sony's SteadyShot digital image stabilization, not optical, to help eliminate blur.

Ten white balance settings are available, including auto and nine presets, two of which are for underwater shooting, but there's no manual white balance setting in the Sony W330. As well as Intelligent Auto and Program modes, the Sony W330 offers a selection of eleven scene modes - High Sensitivity, Twilight, Twilight Portrait, Soft Snap, Landscape, Beach, Snow, Underwater, Gourmet, and Pet. There's also an intelligent scene mode which can automatically select from a subset of seven scene modes: twilight, twilight portrait, backlight, backlight portrait, landscape, macro and portrait.

The Sony W330 includes a four-mode flash strobe with red-eye reduction capability. Flash range is stated as 0.3 to 3.5 meters at wide-angle, or 0.6 to 1.8 meters at telephoto, when using automatic ISO sensitivity. A two- or ten-second self timer allows the photographer to get in the picture themselves, or to avoid camera shake caused by pressing the shutter button when shooting on a tripod.

Images and movies can be recorded on Sony's proprietary Memory Stick Duo, PRO Duo, PRO Duo High Speed, or PRO-HG Duo cards, as well as the more common Secure Digital and Secure Digital High Capacity cards. 28MB of internal memory is also available, enough to capture a few of the most important photos should you forget to bring a flash card along. The Sony W330 includes NTSC / PAL standard definition video output connectivity, as well as USB 2.0 High Speed data connectivity. Power comes courtesy of a proprietary NP-BN1 lithium-ion battery pack.




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