Tested and Working Condition

Includes Sony Cybershot DSC-W150 Digital Camera ONLY

The Sony Cybershot DSC-W150 packs a lot of camera into a small package, with leading-edge technologies like Face Detection, Smile Shutter and HDTV-compatibility. The W150 offers an impressive 8.1 megapixels of resolution – enough to produce excellent prints at 11×17 inches and acceptably sharp prints up to 16×20 inches.

The W150′s 30-150mm (35mm-equivalent) Zeiss lens has a nice zoom range for a camera this size and the 30mm wide end offers more coverage than the average pocket camera. Helping ensure sharp photos is Sony’s Super SteadyShot optical image stabilization system. The W150 also offers 5x digital zoom, although it’s important to point out that image quality will suffer when using digital zoom.

A vivid, crisp 2.7-inch LCD monitor allows easy framing and viewing of photographs. The W150 also has an optical viewfinder, though I found it less than useful.

Other highlights include Face Detection, which finds faces in a scene and then optimizes focus and exposure for them; and Smile Shutter, which snaps a picture when your subject smiles. (In theory, anyway.)

Camera modes accessible from the mode dial are Auto Adjustment, Program Auto, Movie, Scene, Twilight Portrait, Landscape, Soft Snap, Smile Shutter, High Sensitivity and Easy. Selecting Scene mode, then pressing the Menu button allows the user to select another five exposure modes: Twilight, Beach, Snow, Fireworks and Underwater. The W150 also has a movie mode capable of shooting at 640×480 at 30 frames-per-second – as long as you have an optional Memory Stick PRO Duo memory card. With the normal Memory Stick Duo card, it shoots video at 640×480 at 16 frames-per-second.

The control button’s four-way navigator provides fast selection of auto or macro focus, display options, flash settings and self-timer. Another four buttons provide access to the Menu, Home, Display and Slideshow functions.

Burst Mode will take almost unlimited pictures at 1.6 frames per second while the shutter button is held down. However, this continuous shooting only works with the flash off.

The Sony W150 offers a bunch of ways to share photos directly from the camera. Photos can be organized into albums and slideshows that can be viewed right on the camera’s LCD. You can even add music to slideshows and share them on your high-def television. Sony has added a bunch of HDTV features to the W150 to make it better interface with high-def TV sets. You can shoot at the 16:9 aspect ratio at 7-megapixels so images can be viewed on an HDTV and still have enough resolution to print well. Images can also be resized in-camera to the 16:9 ratio. Photos that weren’t shot or haven’t been resized to 16:9 can be automatically fit using the W150′s Wide Zoom setting so that they fill the entire HDTV screen. (An HD adaptor cable must be purchased separately.) Imagine inviting friends and family over to view a vacation slideshow with music on your high-definition television.