Sony Cyber Shot DSC-W90 Review

Overall Rating

Ease of use, compact size, light weight, speed of operation, build quality, optical viewfinder.

Memory stick format, tiny buttons, not particularly comfortable to hold, possibly too many options to adjust.

I bought this camera specifically as other reviews have praised it for its speed to boot up and to take a shot. I take a lot of photos of dogs (my wife shows them) and our old camera, a Nikon Coolpix 775, took a good 4 seconds to power up and had a shutter delay of at least three quarters of a second for a pre-focused shot. Compared to this the Sony Cybershot DSC-W90 is a Ferrari and will boot up, focus and capture in about 1 second if necessary, the limiting factor is me framing the shot. The body of the camera is very thin and light and when it's in the (optional) case you can't tell that it is strapped to your belt. However, this does have a downside too in that compared to a 35mm camera and our old Nikon which had a "mini-SLR" type body, its thinness means it is not particularly comfortable to hold for a long period, especially when shooting one handed. Of course, the same can be said of many cameras of this type now but it was not a trait I noticed in the Sony's predecessor, the DSC-W55. Similarly the buttons are quite small and require a determined poke with your fingernail rather than a thumb or fingertip. The TELE/WIDE rocker switch is not at all easily accessible if you are shooting one handed. Sony are to be congratulated on the inclusion of an (admittedly rather tiny) optical viewfinder which is a feature fast disappearing on many cameras and the main reason I did not go for a Panasonic Lumix. When shooting in continuous burst mode you really need this feature as the screen only shows the first and last shots so the viewfinder is essential to track the object being photographed. The viewfinder also allows you to turn off the lovely LCD screen to preserve battery life although I can fill the memory card (306 shots) without needing to recharge the battery - based on 25% flash use. I have purchased a 2gb Memory Stick Pro Duo and thankfully prices of these are now dropping although they are still expensive compared to SD cards. The picture quality itself is generally excellent with good colour reproduction and sharp detailing, although in low light conditions the camera occasionally tries to be too clever and adjusts the ISO speed rather than resorting to use of the flash. This can lead to 'noise' which appears as a slight graining on the image. Also in good light against a vivid background some of my shots have shown a slight purple tinge against the edge of the object in the foreground e.g. a person with their back to the sea. However in the main the images are a dramatic improvement on my previous camera. To sum up, if you want a simple good quality point and shoot camera and don't want to be confused with lots of options (not that you have to use them, you can leave the Sony on auto 99% of the time) go buy a Samsung at half the price. If however, you want something to take pride in owning and which will go that bit further if you want it too, I can thoroughly recommend the DSC-W90.