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Image Quality Not As Expected
- Reviewd on:
2009-01-06
By: M. Larimore
I bought this camera after much research- My initial impressions were good. But when I brought up my first picture on Photoshop I immediately realized that something was wrong. The picture quality was not good. I tried all the settings and I took a lot of comparision shots with my Canon S80 and the Sony. The daylight shots are fine. The flash shots are terrible. Very grainy, speckled and fuzzy; like another reviewer stated here. I thought that it might be a faulty camera, but when the daylight shots came out fine I came to the conclusion that it is the camera.
I have pulled my S80 off eBay and I'm returning the Sony. Now I'm looking at the Sony W200, W300 and most likely going to get the Canon SD100. If you buy the WD170 camera, take test shots before comitting...
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Another Awesome Sony Product
- Reviewd on:
2009-01-03
By: Colby
I purchased this camera to replace my older Sony DSC-W5. I loved the image and build quality of the W5 but, I wanted a smaller/lighter camera. The DSC-W170 also offered twice the megapixels, a wide angle lens, 5x zoom lens, bigger/better LCD and a rechargeable Li-Ion battery. The DSC-W170 is very well built, unlike some of the cheaper plastic cameras on the market. For example, Sony used a metal tripod mount instead of a plastic one. Sony used a high quality Carl Zeiss lens on this camera, much like other models in the Cyber-Shot series. However, it's a wide angle lens, so you can fit more people in a shot without backing up. On the back, you will find a beautiful 2.7" LCD, displaying an impressive 230k pixels. Features are where the W170 really shines. It features Sony's "Super SreadyShot" optical image stabilization, which really helps reduce unwanted camera shake. The face detection works very well, as does the smile shutter. A new Sony feature this year is child and adult priority, which amazingly works. "Happy Faces" is an in-camera editing feature that can make a person look like they are smiling, which works to an extent. Battery life is rated at ~400 shots, which is accurate and plenty long enough for most people. Noise is not usually a problem if you don't go above ISO 800. It also has an "Easy" mode that takes away the more advanced/confusing functions. Some of the other reviewers mentioned poor image quality, which is not true. I wouldn't expect a compact point & shoot to get better results than a chunky DSLR. Image quality is excellent and most users will be very happy with the images this camera can take. Overall, the Sony DSC-W170 is a high quality camera that should satisfy anyone looking for a compact point & shoot camera. I hope this helps!
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Best Point & Shoot I've ever owned.
- Reviewd on:
2009-01-02
By: Jason Lander
I have owned several point and shoots over the last few years and have close to 20,000 pictures posted on Flickr from these cameras. All of these cameras were Canon's. While the picture quality of these cameras was decent to good the actual camera itself wouldn't hold up. I was buying a new one every year because something would break or stop working.
I went in search of a more durable camera and ended up with the Pentax Optio W60 because of its claims of durability. It was a durable camera but took the worst pictures I've ever seen. After playing with it for 2 days I sent it back.
I did more research and narrowed it down to this Sony and some other Canon's. I wanted to make a change for nothing more than to see if I could keep a camera longer than 1 year without it breaking. Not only is this Sony durable and easy to use - the picture quality is incredible. The focus and the realistic colors are so amazing I want to go back and retake all of my pictures.
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Awesome Camera
- Reviewd on:
2008-12-30
By: Jungle King
What a great purchase - I am very happy with this camera's capability & preformance.
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The Image Quality Is Manageable
- Reviewd on:
2008-12-29
By: Randall Culp
I agree with the "poor image quality" review and would add the following comment: The camera appears to optimize speed of the shot with available light by summing pixels together, hence the objectionable softening of the image. It's trading off the blurring of a slow shutter with the blurring from putting pixels together to get enough light.
The camera also gives you some control of the processing through the "Program Auto" mode, where you have access to settings like ISO (film speed). When I switch from Auto Adjustment to Program Auto and set the film speed to 80, which forces the camera NOT to sum pixels (much), the resolution of the image is quite visibly improved. Because I've slowed the camera down, though, using this setting frequently requires a tripod. I get acceptably sharp images in natural light when using ISO 80, and if necessary can experiment with turning off other corrections like the Dynamic Range Optimizer.
With all that said, I got this camera for snapshots and for that purpose it cannot be beat. Yes the softening of the pictures gets worse in low light (pixel summing again) but the camera gets good pictures in ridiculously low-light situations. I have found virtually no situation in which I could not get the shot, in natural light, no matter how little of that there is.
The camera is pocketable, slim, lightweight, and that automatic optimizing means it's always good for the shot. For those reasons, this is the camera I use.
One objection: mine has an annoying habit of spontaneously switching modes (display mode back to camera mode, or auto to easy and then back). It's intermittent -- it comes and goes. It has not yet stopped me from getting a shot, just a nuisance. Don't know if it's in the design or just a problem with my camera.
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