Sony Cybershot DSCW150/R 8.1MP Digital Camera with 5x Optical Zoom with Super Steady Shot (Red)

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Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 3.6 x 2.3 x 0.9 inches ; 5.4 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0012XZQDU
• Item model number: DSCW150/R
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (118 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,275 in Camera & Photo (See Bestsellers in Camera & Photo)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 23, 2008

Product Description

Manufacturer Description

Take stunning shots in a variety of conditions. This 8.1-megapixel Cyber-shot digital camera features an Intelligent Scene mode which automatically selects the right settings for your environment. Smile Shutter technology is also included, letting you instantly capture smiles the moment they happen. A 2.7-inch LCD, Carl Zeiss 5x optical zoom lens and Sony's Double Anti-Blur solution are also there for crisp, clear images and tight zooms. All this combined with an attractive body make the W150 an excellent choice for capturing the moment no matter where you are.

Cyber-shot W150 Highlights

8.1-megapixel Super HAD CCD
More megapixels give you more detail and definition when you make big prints or crop in tight on your subject. The advanced Sony Super HAD (Hole Accumulated Diode) CCD design allows more light to pass to each pixel, increasing sensitivity and reducing noise.

Carl Zeiss 5x Optical Zoom Lens
5x optical zoom gives you the power to get even closer to the action -- a real benefit for distant landscape views and dramatic portraits.

Wide-Angle Lens
Wide-angle (30mm-150mm) lens captures more of the scene.

2.7-inch Clear Photo LCD Display
A large, bright 2.7-inch Clear Photo LCD (230K) display includes an anti-reflective coating that provides for excellent visibility to help you compose, view, and share photos with superb clarity and color reproduction, even in bright sunlight.

Face Detection
Face Detection technology automatically controls flash, focus, exposure, and white balance to help reveal faces in shadows, make skin tones look more natural, reduce red-eye, and eliminates harsh facial glare.

Smile Shutter Mode
Smile Shutter technology captures smiles the moment they happen. The mode can be set to capture when your subject laughs, smiles or even grins, and like Face Detection Smile Shutter is able to differentiate between children and adults to set priority.

Sony Double Anti-Blur Solution
The combination of Super SteadyShot optical image stabilization and high ISO sensitivity helps compensate for shaky hands, minimizes blur, and allow flash-free shooting to preserve the mood.

Super SteadyShot Optical Image Stabilization
Super SteadyShot Image Stabilization compensates for shaky hands and minimizes blur with a built-in gyro sensor that detects movement and sends correcting signals to a stabilization lens -- so there’s no need to crop in on your shot to reduce blur.

High Sensitivity (ISO 3200) Mode
With high sensitivity of ISO 3200, you can shoot effectively in low light without flash to preserve the mood, while the Sony Clear RAW Noise Reduction system helps suppress the color noise that can degrade low-light shots.

Intelligent Scene Recognition Mode
Intelligent Scene Recognition mode automatically detects 5 different types of scenes and selects the appropriate camera setting: Backlight, Backlight Portrait, Twilight, Twilight Portrait, Twilight using a Tripod. Intelligent Scene Recognition has two different modes, advanced and auto. In Advanced mode, if the camera detects the particular scene, it will take one more picture. In Auto mode takes a single shot, arbitrarily deciding on the proper setting.

Dynamic Range Optimization Standard & Plus
Powered by the exclusive Sony BIONZ high-speed processing engine, Dynamic Range Optimization preserves image data in bright highlights and reveals more detail in shadows or backlit areas -- for great results even in difficult lighting conditions. New DRO Plus mode enhances optimization, analyzing each region of an image and performing additional image processing.

Convenient Photo Modes
To adjust quickly for specific shooting situations, you can choose from several convenient photo modes, including Auto, Program Auto, and Scene Selections such as Twilight, Twilight Portrait, Fireworks, Smile Shutter, Underwater, Landscape, Soft Snap, Snow, High Sensitivity, and Beach environments.

MPEG Movie VX Fine Mode
Capture VGA (640 x 480) audio/video clips at a high frame rate (up to 30 frames per second). The maximum length of time you can shoot continuously is about 10 minutes.

Automatic Macro Shooting
Standard Auto Focus now covers the macro focus range, eliminating the need to manually change focus modes for close-up photography. The Macro mode has not been eliminated, and enabling it accelerates Auto Focus when shooting at point-blank range.

9-Point Auto Focus
Because an off-center subject can make your shot more interesting, a 9-point auto focus measures auto-focus at 9 precision points instead of 5 -- giving you greater creative freedom to compose your image.

Smart Zoom Feature
The Sony Smart Zoom feature intelligently "crops into" the central portion of interest in your photo, helping avoid the image degradation of other digital zooms.

Burst Mode
Burst Mode You can fire off up to one hundred (100) shots at approx.0.62 second intervals (at any resolution: VGA to full resolution mode) -- a great way to capture a child’s first steps or a pet’s best tricks.

Simple Setup Controls
A quick press of the Home button opens your user-friendly graphical interface -- and you can select functions by simply moving a cursor vertically or horizontally to the appropriate icon. Function names and the on-screen Function Guide display make it easier to learn camera setup operations.

Easy Shooting Mode
A simplified camera environment especially attractive to beginners or digital camera users who want to keep things simple, Easy Shooting provides easy-to-read, on-screen instructions and limits the number of camera settings to help prevent misuse of the camera while still providing excellent results.

Function Guide
This beginner-friendly function helps manage various functions and settings by displaying the description of chosen functions or settings on the LCD screen. The Function Guide can also be switched off.

Optical Viewfinder
In addition to the LCD display, a built-in optical viewfinder lets you compose your photos in traditional rangefinder camera style, and also helps save battery power by turning off your LCD display.

15MB Internal Memory
Even if you forget your flash memory card, you can get the shot because 15 MB internal memory lets you capture a limited number of shots with in-camera convenience, then easily transfer your shots to a PC or optional Memory Stick Duo media.

Memory Stick Duo Media Convenience
A built-in slot accepts optional Memory Stick Duo media or Memory Stick PRO Duo media -- the compact, high-capacity storage media that make it easily to upload photos to your PC and are compatible with millions of devices worldwide.

Stamina Battery Power
Provides extended battery life and shooting capacity when using a fully charged Lithium Ion battery-- enough to cover a long weekend or a whole vacation.

Easy Image Management
To help you find the right image among many, Date View Mode and Favorites Mode have been added to the standard Folder View. Date View Mode displays a calendar view, while Favorites Mode shows only user-selected images. Furthermore, you can filter photos by face types such as portrait, child, baby, and smile.

HDTV Compatibility
High-resolution images can be enjoyed in all their beauty simply by connecting the camera directly to a Sony BRAVIA HDTV or other compatible HDTV. This provides an excellent alternative to viewing photos as prints or on a computer monitor, and is ideal for users who want to share photos in the comfort of their living room. Optional HD solutions include a Cyber-shot cradle/charger with component cable output, or component cable directly to your HDTV.

"PhotoTV HD"
PhotoTV HD compatibility allows the camera to be connected to a PhotoTV HD-capable Sony BRAVIA HDTV via the optional HD output adaptor, for highly detailed, high-definition color images displayed in unprecedented realism and full HD quality.

16:9 High-Resolution Mode
In addition to the standard 2-megapixel size, the convenient 16:9 aspect ratio shooting mode for HDTV display can now be shot in 7-megapixels, making it possible to obtain beautiful, high-definition prints with the same aspect ratio as HDTV.

Wide Zoom Display
To use the entire image area of the compatible HDTV3 screens, Wide Zoom automatically expands standard 4:3 and 3:2 images to 16:9.

Photo Music
Expanding the HD Slide Show with Music feature, PHOTOMUSIC combines images with music to produce fun and entertaining slide shows. The five standard visual effects (Simple, Basic, Nostalgic, Active and Stylish) have been supplemented with Face1: Basic, Face2: Nostalgic and Face3: Stylish for a total of eight effects. Additionally, the number of music tracks stored in the camera memory has been doubled from four to eight, and music playback time has been extended from three to five minutes per track. More personalized slide shows are also possible by transferring music from a PC to the camera.

In-Camera Retouching
Add creative effects to photos after you shoot using any of 10 retouching functions, including: Trimming, Red-Eye Correction, Soft Focus filter, Unsharp Masking, Cross filter, Partial Color filter, Fish-eye filter, Retro, Radial Blur and Happy Face. The Happy Face effect uses photo retouching to put a smile on faces, with smile levels adjustable from 1 to 5.

In-Camera Red-Eye Correction
Irritating "glowing eyes" can ruin even the most creative photos, but in-camera red eye correction corrects your photos at the touch of a button to reduce lingering red-eye effect that other systems might miss.

Multi-Resizing Function
Resize your photos in-camera for virtually any purpose! Any size picture images can be resized to widescreen 16:9 and 2 MP resolution for display on an HDTV. Conversely, high resolution, widescreen 16:9 images or any size picture can be resized to 4:3 size with VGA (640 x 480) resolution -- perfect for sharing with friends and family via e-mail (internet connection required).

Picture Motion Browser Software
Supplied software makes it easier to upload, organize, and search photos on your PC. When shooting photos using your camera and an optional GPS unit, the software even provides a convenient map view function that lets you sort photos by location and display their origin on a world map.

BIONZ
BIONZ image processor delivers speed and precision.

What's in the Box

• Cyber-shot W150 digital camera
• NP-BG1 rechargeable battery
• BC-CSG battery charger
• A/V and USB multi-connector cables
• Wrist strap
• Software CD-ROM
• Note: No Memory Stick DUO Media or adaptors are included.

Product Description

Take stunning shots in a variety of conditions. This 8.1 megapixel Cyber-shot digital camera features an Intelligent Scene mode which automatically selects the right settings for your environment. Smile Shutter technology is also included, letting you instantly capture smiles the moment they happen. A 2.7" LCD, Carl Zeiss 5x optical zoom lens and Sony's Double Anti-Blur solution are also there for crisp, clear images and tight zooms. All this combined with an attractive body make the W150 an excellent choice for capturing the moment no matter where you are.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

157 of 165 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reasonable camera if you can live with its limitations, May 24, 2008

By	M. Puri "mpuri" (Fremont, ca United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Let me start with stating that most point and shoot cameras are compromise on various basic performance parameters. I bought this camera for my wife for whom any feature beyond the basic auto mode is unnecessary. For a point and shoot it has lots of very advanced features typically available in dslr or prosumer cameras. I am talking about things like bracketing( takes pictures at different exposure level), dynamic range optimizer and my favorite live histogram. Let me summarize its positives and negatives:
- Wide angle lens 30mm to 150mm (5x zoom)
- Image stabilizer is very good, I have taken very good pictures at 1/4sec & iso 100. Basically it will let you take good pictures at low iso(to avoid noise), where you can not use flash.
-DRO (dynamic range optimizer): Autmatically adjusts for a balance between highlight & shadows, two different levels of DRO available
- Live histogram: I have this feature in my nikon 8400 (prosumer camera)and is very useful for adjusting exposure in extreme lighting conditions e.g. daylight scenery in Yosemite, Bryce. Metering systems of most cameras can not keep up with such extreme lighting conditions.
- Three levels for flash. Soft flash for closeups, standard, flash+ for far away objects.
- Colors: It has very bright and saturated colors even in basic color mode. If you are mainly going to use it take pictures of kids, you may like prints from it. I am used to subdued colors of Nikon.

Now the negatives, some of which could be a problem for someone.
- In auto mode, it pushes up the iso to 400 therefore producing grainy pictures.
- Flash is underpowered, stated range is 4.3m. I would stick to half that distance for decent pictures.
- You can restrict the iso to below 200 to keep noise low. I have found that even at iso of 100 the detail in pictures is not that good. My theory is that it has a very strong noise reduction algorithm at all iso's. If you are mainly going to take 4x6 pictures this might not be an issue for you.

I hope this review is useful in your decision making.

91 of 95 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Camera Jam Packed with Features, May 8, 2008

By	D. Savaya (Sterling Heights, MI USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I purchased this camera as soon as it was made available April 28, 2008.

I think this camera is perfect. It takes great pictures all on its own. There is no need for you to know about the aperture, focal length, lighting, ISO settings, etc. Simply put the camera in easy or auto mode and shoot to your heart's content. The picture colors are amazingly accurate and vibrant.

The smile shutter feature is pretty cool also. Simply put the camera in smile mode push down the shutter once and wait for your subject to smile. You'll be able to take six smile shots without having to press the shutter button.

Another cool feature is the in camera editing. Say a subject did not smile as big as you had hoped, you are able to go into the editing feature in the camera and make the smile more evident. To me, that's cool! You are also able to remove redeye, sharpen the picture and crop the picture all by using the camera. You no longer have to upload them to the computer to do these fixes.

The battery life is very good and you don't even need a memory stick to shoot up to 10 pictures because of the installed 15 MB of memory. It's not a whole lot, but it helps if you are in a pinch for a shot and a memory card is not handy.

The screen is very clear and very large. The colors are accurate and very bright. The camera is lightweight yet not flimsy. It feels like a solidly built camera.

I really haven't seen anything to complain about. I think everything this camera offers for the price is well worth it. I am very happy with the black color as well. I think Black goes with everything and that's why I didn't choose a different color.

If you are on the fence about this camera, I can just say that my experience has been very positive and I think yours will be as well.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast, Great Quality, Lots of Adjustment Options, May 20, 2008

By	MangoMania - See all my reviews

This camera is great compared to many many many similarly priced cameras I tried out. It takes pictures really fast and is ready for the next one very quickly too. These were big considerations when I was shopping around and this one is the fastest. The camera takes great pictures with the automatic settings compared to others that didn't seem to know when flash or other adjustments should have been necessary/unnecessary. The smile shutter is cool but I don't think I'll use it often. The 5x zoom is great. The in camera image alteration is neat too, especially the feature to make people appear smiling. Good for a lot of laughs. The rechargeable battery seems to be holding up well. I love the deep red but the sheen makes it appear pink in some lights. It looks bigger than other cameras but really is at most only 2-3 mm wider than the canon elph sd1100/750.