Customer Reviews

Sony Cybershot DSCW80 7.2MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom and Super Steady Shot (Silver)

5 star:		(110)
4 star:		(41)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

This camera more that matched my expectations. $230 was a little steep for a 14-year-old on a babysitting salary, but I have yet to regret the purchase.

The video mode is better than a camcorder, no lie. The sound is flawless and you can even adjust sound on the camera. The picture...never blurry or anything. The videos play on my 34" LCD with no fault! I'm totally taking advantage of this feature!

The pictures are almost too amazing for me. The camera is a 7.2 megapixel, but I set my picture quality to 5 megapixel because it takes up less space and the pictures turn out beautiful. The image stabilization works really well. I tested it by waving my camera back and forth in the air and randomly took shots without stopping my camera. The weren't the least bit blurry!

There are a few modes in this camera:

Auto Adjustment (For shooting with preset settings)
High Sensitivity (For Low Lighting)
Soft Snap (Adds soft background, good for taking pics of people.)
Twilight Portrait
Twilight
Landscape
Beach
Snow
Video
Prgram Auto (Allows more programming before taking the shot.)

Also, you can remove red-eye, crop the photo, and do a bunch of other editing right on the camera!

The lens is without flaw. I don't even need flash on my shots because the lens can take in enough light.

You can play slideshows on your camera WITH MUSIC!

There's so many things I like about this camera, I can't list them all. I love it so much. If you get this camera, you will not have regrets. It's only $230 max and worth the price. I have the pink one, but it comes in pink, silver, white, and black.

Also, it looks bulky in pictures but it is really small. A little thicker than a casio but less length and width.

Also, don't buy a camera that doesn't have a viewfinder. I was outside in the sun today and I couldn't see my screen! I love that this camera has a viewfinder!

The Only Cons:
*The battery takes 4.5 hours to charge (but it lasts a long time on full charge)
*Sony uses memory stick PRO DUO instead of SD cards, but Circuit City has a deal that when you buy this camera, you get a free 1GB card (which is all you need.)

I would reccomend this to anyone...it is really user friendly. Each setting you put it on show a description of what it is. Someone who has never used a digital camera could figure this out with ease!

I bought the DCSW80 for my wife, to replace an old, slower Sony digital camera. After several weeks I find that I use it more than she does, because of the ease of operatin and portability. I love my Canon Rebel XTi, bt this Sony does 90% of what the Canon is capable of. The macro feature is even better than the Canon. At 7.2 mp, my enlargements are crisp and true to color. Yes, I would like to charge the camera battery while attached to the computer, but the battery life is extremely long, with the small Li-ion battery. The included charger is a bit slow, but I did find an after-market charger online that is faster.

A feature that I really enjoy is the slide show mode, with music and HD quality. Nice touch! I've owned many Sony products over the years, from an early 9" portable B/W TV, a Walkman, through a plasma TV, and have never been disappointed in the quality and features. Bravo Sony for another fine product!!

This is a great camera for its price. This might be the best choice for its class because it provides IS (image stabilization for shaky hands and moving objects:anti blur), 2.5 inch lcd, 7.2 megapixels and 3x optical zoom for under $235. You can find different cameras with IS and with more pixels or zoom capabilities but you should also compare their price with this one. I researched alot before buying this camera and could not find any camera with IS under $300 (brand new, not used). Morover, this is very handy, tiny and light that you can carry in your pocket without feeling it. There are cameras out there with 10x optical zooms but you have to hire someone to carry it for you:) I will always prefer a tiny camera over a bulky one because those bulky ones are usually loaded with features that you will never need or use. Additionally, those bulky cameras are also much more expensive. You would end up paying high prices for features that you will never use.

I recommend you to buy at least 2gb of memory from e-bay.Buy from someone with high feedback score. I purchased a 2gb "high speed memory stick pro duo" for $20 (incl shipping) from e-bay. As time passes, as in every technological toy, you will be able to find cheaper and better.

Menus and settings are very easy and clear. Information about the current settings appear on the lcd when you switch or push buttons for example when you switch mode dial to moon (one of the symbols on the dial) "Shoot low light scene without flash" explanation appears on the lcd for about 2 seconds which is very helpful.

I wish you could have been able to charge the battery while its in the camera but you cannot. You need to carry the included charger if you are travelling. Carrying a cable for charging instead of a seperate charger would be better.However, battery life is very satisfying and better than its competitors.

One of my disappointments about the camera (actually it is not a big deal) is you need to press too many buttons to delete an image. This is only case for deleting an image. Other menu shortcuts are great; however, I wish it had also a shortcut or a button for deleting since this is a digital camera and the great thing about these cameras is the ability to erase easily. My previous camera (Dsc-v1) had a button for erasig images on the menu buttons which was very easy and helpful. But with this camera, I had to press 5 times (on different buttons) before I can delete the last image taken.

Overall, this is a very great camera for the price and features. One of the most important adventage is its IS (Image stabilization) feature. One of the best alternative for this camera is Canon PowerShot SD800 IS 7.1MP, in case you do not like DSC-W80, which you can buy around $300. Since I purchased Dsc-w80 for $230, I recommend sony over canon.

I was a professional wedding photographer using medium format 120 film cameras. It was a good thing I retired before the digital takeover. The speed of technological improvements both in cameras & computer programs would of broke my bank account. Happily there were & are some good priced consumer digital cameras made for the budget minded.

The 1st digital camera we bought around the turn of the century was the Cannon GS-1 3MP for appox $1000. Even in today standards the camera was easier & faster than the present Sony's because it had an easy set-up & user friendly format. Sadly the camera was dropped while visiting Hearst Castle in August 2004 & stopped working a few weeks later.

After this we decided to buy a semi-professional digital camera & chose the Sony DSC-F826 8MP which has a manual Zeiss 7X zoom lens. The camera is multi functional with infrared night vision & can take after market over head flash units, but it is rather slow in auto focus mode & the format wasn't as easy as the Cannon, too many dials and buttons all over the place. The Sony DSC-F826 takes both CF cards & Sony Memory Sticks. Price was appox $1000 in 2004.

Then my wife needed a smaller digital camera that had to use AA batteries for Eastern European visits so that we could buy batteries anywhere. We bought the Sony Cybershot DSC-W7 7.2MP for appox $400 in 2005. The camera was on sale because most people didn't want an AA battery powered camera. It has a similar format like the Sony DSC-F826 but simplified only because it has less functions. On the back of the camera is a large, bright, & fantastic LSD screen, but again was slow at shooting in auto focus mode.

We bought the Sony Cybershot DSCW80 7.2MP because the speed of shooting in auto focus mode improved & the close up function was amazing, no need of a close up focus lens. You can walk up to any subject, no mater what size, & take the picture. The camera is also half the width of the Sony DSC-W7 & has an ISO rating of 3200 with face detection. Hopefully the advertised long life NP-BG-1 battery won't be an issue in Eastern Europe & we are thinking of giving the Sony DSC-W7 to our Russian relations if the battery life is as promised. If you had Sony digital cameras before, the Sony DSCW80 functions are similar but are no longer mainly in a top dial, but are instead contained in a "HOME" button. When you want to review, you must go to "HOME" then go to "View Images" rather than turning the dial as in pervious cameras. There is also an image review button by the main dial. Great price for the functions & ease, & the Sony Memory Sticks for this model are twice in memory & half in size & price.

Report from vacation: the battery lasted up to 328 shots, very close to the promised listed spec of 340. Camera was set at 5MP & about 10 to 15 pictures were shot with flash at night. Good thing we bought an extra battery because the USA to European transformer dual pins didn't fit the wall sockets in Ukraine. Got great pictures & am very pleased.

Comment from reading other current reviews: Some users of this camera state that they are getting blurry pictures when taking action shoots. I am not a sports photographer therefore I don't have much need for super fast capture, but out of the 400 pictures from our vacation we maybe got around 30 blurry pictures for 2 main reasons:

1. The camera took great pictures when at full power, it even capture people diving into a lake without a blur, but when the battery got low during some outside night pictures is when we started noticing some problems: the people were frozen by the flash but the background showed movement. I still liked the pictures with the pan effect. The camera was set on "Auto" mode & should of been switch to the "Twilight" mode.

2. Later someone somewhere switched the camera to "Soft Focus" mode & a few pictures lacked detail.

My conclusion is that the camera must be kept at a certain power ratio with the battery. Once the pictures become blurry, change or recharge the battery. Remember I was in Eastern Europe & our battery transformer pins didn't fit the wall sockets so there was no way to recharge the battery each day. I went all the way down in battery power before changing to another battery. Not the best way to go. If at night, change the camera mode to "Twilight" or "High Sensitivity" or put the camera on a tri-pod. Also check the "Soft Focus" switch, it may have been turn on by mistake.

The Sony Cyber-Shot DSCW80 surprised me at first. The "twilight" mode yielded some very nice (hand held) low light shots and almost everything I took (indoors and out) looked nice on my computer's screen. When I had prints of some of the photos made the Bionz image processor reared its ugly head. It blurred all the fine details away leaving me with nothing but noisy images. Keep in mind that this was at all ISO's. After that I decided the Sony and I were incompatible. I found the color representation to be inaccurate as well. Not horribly so, just off a bit too much for my liking. While the size of the LCD was good it was easily washed out in outdoor conditions (at least there is an actual optical viewfinder to fall back on but, unfortunately, it is inaccurate).

Some good traits are that the image stabilization worked very well and that the battery life was excellent. The continuous shooting mode was very fast. Auto focusing was pretty good. Video mode was surprisingly good but I think that a Memory Stick Pro Duo is necessary. This is easily the smallest and most portable compact camera that I tried. I really liked some of the small details like the metal tripod mount and the location of the door (on the side of the camera) so you can swap out the battery or memory card easily while leaving the camera on the tripod.

This truly is a point & shoot camera. It would've been nice if Sony had allowed for some manual controls but, out of all the cameras I tested, it offered the least. To say the menu system is confusing is an understatement. I'm not a big fan of the proprietary Memory Stick Pro Duo that Sony users are stuck with. I'm also wary of the reliability and the customer service associated with this company and their cameras.

In the end I just felt that there are better choices out there when considering cameras this price range.

I got this camera as a replacement for a Canon Elph 3 mega Pixel from 2004. I was always frustrated by the blurry pictures that I took with the Elph no matter what modes I choose. When it was time to retire the Elph, I went with the Sony based on other Sonys other people have had. I liked the speed of the shots, the Carl Zeiss len, the large display and the compact size. The new generation camera also tell you in English what mode you are in which is helpful for us who just want to take pictures and go. All the shots from the camera have been great even without the anti-blur feature turned on. My prints are clear and sharp. There is also a playback feature in the camera that adds music and transitions. I don't get the 400+ shots per battery charge as stated in the marketing materials but I do use the camera alot to preview what's been taken and to upload shots to my computer. Overall, very happy with this camera and recommend it for the point and shoot guy.

That's the easiest way to describe this camera. When I finally decided to join the digital camera genre, I did a lot of research. I wanted a camera that I could just point and take pictures without needing a diagram on how to do it. I also wanted a digital camera that had some pretty nice features. Features that would grow with me, so once I learned how to use different features I wouldn't have to buy another camera so soon. So, for a newbie like me, this was the perfect digital camera. It was so easy to learn how to use and my prints are gorgeous! Even the pictures I took at night with little light came out awesome! The Image Stabilization is great, because I don't know how to hold a steady hand just yet. I chose black, because I wanted another camera color besides the usual silver. So, if you're looking for a camera that you won't out grow too soon and you're new to digital cameras, then I really recommend this one.

I purchased this camera 45 days ago. For the most part, I was happy with the pictures it took, the ISO is a huge improvement over the last digital camera I owned.

Mine had several issues, one of which I'm not sure is common among all of these, and one that is a defect.

When the battery dies (and there is very little warning), the shudder remains open, exposing the camera lens to scratches.

Within a month and a half of the shipping date of the camera, the zoom stopped working. Technical support has been outsourced overseas, and I had to spell very common words to the person I spoke with. It ultimately took 4 phone calls and over 2 hours to be issued authorization to return the camera.

A credit will not be issued for 48 hours after the camera is returned, and Sony will only pay for FedEx ground. They estimate I will have my refund in 12 days.

I plan on buying another camera from another company, and feel the wait time is out of line with how other companies deal with faulty merchandise.

I don't know overall how good or bad Sony's quality control is, but I know that I will not deal with them as a company again assuming someone else makes a similar product in the same price range. The whole experience has been frustrating.

I was looking for a small digital camera for my upcoming Disney trip in May. I didn't really want to spend alot of money, I just wanted something small, durable and that would produce decent pictures. I did a little bit of research online and kept coming across the Sony Cybershot DSCW80. A little more than I wanted to spend, but if it was a camera that was worth it, I would probably purchase it.

I am so impressed with this little camera! Usually when you have such high megapixels on a picture the actual save time to the memory is a little delayed - not so on this camera. You press the button to take the picture and it's almost instant!

The camera is super small, so if you have big hands, you're probably not going to be very efficient with the small buttons. The features are pretty easy to navigate and figure out without having to go to the manual too much.

The picture is PERFECT! I took some really amazing first shots with this camera - I am hooked! I highly recommend if you are looking for a small, amazing camera that you purchase this one.

A great buy for those on the go. I use mine for business travel, it fits into a coat pocket and is always ready for exceptional pictures. Sony has hit the mark with this one.

In particular, I love the macro feature. Much of my work is in communications of ideas that are rather small. I can focus on an object at 1.5" and get a incredibly clear picture.

Features are also great, from stills to movies with sound. In addition the manual view finder is great for those bright days when the LCD is harder to see.

Buy you'll love it - nothing else like it.

Doug