Sony Cyber-shot WX5 Overview

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX5 digital camera replaces the company's previous WX1 model, and is based around a 1/2.3"-type 12.2 effective megapixel backside illuminated Sony Exmor R CMOS image sensor with RGB color filter array, coupled to a Sony G-branded 5x optical zoom lens. The Sony WX5's lens offers a 35mm-equivalent range from a useful 24mm wide angle to a moderate 120mm telephoto (or 26 - 130mm in 16:9 aspect ratio mode). The camera can capture 4:3 aspect ratio images at up to 4,000 x 3,000 pixel resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio images at up to 4,000 x 2,248 pixels, or 60 fields-per-second video at 1080i (1,920 x 1,080 pixel) resolution or below with Dolby Digital stereo audio, using AVCHD compression.

On the rear panel of the Sony Cyber-shot WX5 is a 2.8-inch, 4:3 aspect ratio Clear Photo LCD Plus panel with 100% coverage, and a resolution of 460,800 dots. This display serves as the only method of framing and reviewing images, given that the Sony WX5 doesn't feature an optical viewfinder. The Sony DSC-WX5 has a 9-point autofocus system, and does include a face detection system, capable of detecting up to eight faces in a scene and differentiating between children and adults. This capability is used to provide a Smile Shutter function that automatically triggers the shutter when your subject is smiling, as well as both anti-blink and blink-warning features.

The WX5's Intelligent Sweep Panorama function works similarly to the older Sweep Panorama, in that a series of photographs are captured and stitched automatically by sweeping the lens across the scene, but analyzes frame content when capturing and stitching images, avoiding chopping up larger moving subjects. The function allows automatic creation of 295-, 203-, 202-, or 142-degree panoramas in-camera. In addition, the WX5 also includes Sony's latest 3D Sweep Panorama function, which uses some clever mathematics to recreate a 3D image from a single lens, saving the result as a multi-picture object file that contains two separate JPEG images, one for each eye. The result can be viewed on the latest 3D-capable Sony Bravia displays. 3D Sweep panoramas can cover the same field of view as Intelligent Sweep panoramas, as well as an additional 79-degree option. The Sweep Multi Angle function is only available at 16:9 size, and allows viewing the image with a 3D effect on the camera's 2D LCD display, by changing the display perspective as the camera is rocked from side to side. (The same clever user interface trick is used to cycle backwards or forwards through a group of high-speed burst images).

The Backlight Correction HDR mode is something we've seen in certain of Sony's previous Alpha digital SLRs and Cyber-shot compacts. The camera captures several images with varying exposure, and then automatically combines them into a single image with increased dynamic range. The new Superior Auto function automatically detects the scene type, and then captures anywhere from one to six shots. The result for multi-frame shots is automatically combined in-camera, with the aim of either correcting backlit shots, or reducing noise levels. Because of its multi-shot methodology, Superior Auto shooting is only suited to relatively static scenes. For moving subjects, Intelligent Auto is still available.

Another new option is Background Defocus, which works by shooting two images with varied focus, the second shot being intentionally somewhat defocused. The two images are compared, and a depth map created by considering areas of significantly differing sharpness in the two frames to be the main subject. This map is then used to blur the background areas, to create an image with a shallow depth-of-field effect reminiscent of those from DSLRs. The Natural Flash function aims to reduce the warm color cast that can appear in the background of flash photos, while Soft Skin mode works in concert with the face detection feature to soften only facial skin tones. Tracking focus, as the name would suggest, allows moving subjects to be tracked around the frame.