Sony DSCW800/B 20.1 MP Digital Camera (Black)

I am an amateur photographer and own three DSLR cameras with a selection of lenses. However that collection does not eliminate the need for a handy item for just daily needs. I keep this one especially in my car's glove box as a reserve for occasions which require something better than my cell phone camera. For that purpose it meets my expectations and even exceeds it. Yet, this is still a snap shot device with a relatively low price tag and therefore a DSLR level quality (like background blurring, high shutter speed, high level of low light performance etc.)should not be expected. Pros: -Lightweight slim and stylish design: It can fit in small spaces and look and feel like a high quality item. -USB charging ability: That is one of the selling points for me. I keep it in my car and I don't want to run out of power any time or go through the hassle of removing the battery and charging it separately ,which requires carrying the charging adapter all the time and also the ability to plug in that adapter. Instead. all I do is to connect it to my 12V car USB charger and it pretty quickly accumulates good amount of charge level... It comes with a wall adapter (5V 0.5A) which connects to a detachable USB cable (so you can use the cable and attach it to any USB charger). But be careful about the USB cable. The standard USB-micro B cable that charges most mobile devices do not work for this type. If you need a replacement or an extra you need to buy a USB-UC E6 cable. -Easy menu mode: Practicality should be the main focus in a snapshot device and even my grandfather could get through this menu. One of the most user-friendly interfaces I have seen so far. -Panoramic shoot ability: That was a surprise for me. I had not read the product description in detail before buying and that was such a handy function. I used to take panoramic photos by taking tens of photos with my DSLR and stiching them with a software which was both difficult and time consuming. This function does it instantly and produces comparable quality photos. -5X optical zoom: When it comes to zooming, in photographic terms, the less is often more. The best lenses even come with no zoom at all. However for a practical item like this, zoom is essential and 5X is a good range for the optical zoom (it is also critical that you compare the optical zoom capacities of devices and not the digital zoom before making a judgement.) -Image quality: As I said above, it does not match the quality of a DSLR and I don't care about the high pixel size either. For cameras with small sensor sizes like snapshots, it is actually better to get a low MP device for sharper images, but this one not bad at all especially in daylight. HD Video quality is also good but again depends on the light... -Price: the $78 price tag as of august 2014 makes it one of the most affordable snapshot cameras in the market. You can get better deals from time to time but this is quite appealing too. Cons: -Low light performance: Again, I want to stress that I am not expecting professional quality from this device, but I found the low light performance moderate at best. The noise was somewhat irritating even with flash. -Slow shutter speed: It has a continuous shooting mode which is supposed to take multiple frames in a short time as long as the shutter button is depressed. However this device has a long long refractory period between shoots that it is not even worth bothering with that mode. You need to decrease the image quality 3 steps to be able to notice some multiple shooting effect and that is not worth it. So if you wish to take a photo of a flying bird or a running person or a passing by car, you don't have much choice to take multiple photos and decide later. -Zoom buttons: I like the zoom to be a ring style beneath the shutter button but this is like a plus and minus at the back which is not very convenient. -No optical viewfinder: This is not a problem for this model only. Most recent cameras sacrifice from an optical viewfinder and all you get is a digital image on the screen to help you adjust your photo before taking it. First of all it does not give the sense of taking a photo but more importantly digital screen viewfinder drains battery and also performs bad in bright light. -Video focusing sound: While recording video of a closely located object (where there is a constant need to re-adjust autofocusing) and if the surrounding is silent, you can hear the sound of focus adjustments in your recording. But as I said that is only obvious in full silence and for short distance recordings. Overall you like it or not depends on your expectations. For me it is a handy and adequately performing device with quite useful features. I am happy with this purchase

I got tired of taking photos with my phone , i wanted a real camera , that had a real zoom . I have a number of very expensive SLR's but they are heavy to carry around all the time . This is the perfect mix of convenient and efficient . To look at copies of your photos , all you have to do is simply take the card out of the camera and put it into your computer , and you have them ready to transfer to your hard drive . plus if you want you can use a cable like you would do with a phone . it is a cheap camera , but it takes expensive photos . it doesn't do the same as my $3000.oo NIKON's , and the reviews here seem to think it should . but to take great snap shot photos it is as good as any cell phone camera , and it very small easy to carry thus you are going to take more photos that you would not do other wise , even with a cell phone camera . For what it is designed for , it gets 5 gold stars

I bought this camera mainly for work purposes. I have a Cannon Rebel XS DSLR, and this camera in no way compares to the quality of it. Of course I wasn't expecting it to. For this review I will focus on indoor shots of about 25 feet or under. I will start by saying low light, and even no light, performance is excellent. I tested it in my completely dark bedroom and the picture turned out as if it were brightly lit. I will say now that the colors do trend on the warm side. Subject tracking is a nice feature, great for moving objects, such as pets, and for people who have had to much coffee. It has an "Easy Mode" which is great for good casual shots, but I think that it's a little TO simple. It simplifies the menu choices to one: large images or small images. I personally think they should had left all of the sizes selectable in this mode. Video is limited to 1280x720, but this is more than enough for close up movies. The rated battery life is fairly short at 100 minutes, but this is most likely due to the viewscreen. Additional batteries are, as of this review, under $13 for the Sony battery NP-BN1, and half that for generics, which is very inexpensive for a camera battery. It charges via a special USB cable, which I hate, instead of a standard USB Type B which all small electrical devices seem to charge from, so be careful that you don't damage it. The included AC Adapter connects through the USB cable as well, and outputs 0.5A, so it is no faster than charging it from any other USB source. All in all I would say this is a great camera for taking pictures up close, under 20 feet ideally. It's compact size, portability, features, and low cost make it a great camera for close up shots. It's not close to a DSLR quality, and I wouldn't think about using it to record once in a lifetime memories, but it's also less than 10% of the cost of a DSLR, and a great item to have around.

I really like this camera, though I think there is some room for improvement. It takes very nice still photos, which according to my linux box are 19.9 MP. Weird, but nothing to complain about. My personal rationale: Things seem to be hit or miss, but for my general purpose it is not bad. I was going to buy a new phone, e.g. LG g4, to record my exploits into the mountains. The HTC one m8 camera is pretty weak. But I got this instead. Two devices is less than one in this case, but it's not so bad and saving $500 never hurts. So I bought my first dedicated camera. Ergonomics: The size is quite nice as it easily fits in my pocket for long hikes and other outdoor activities. I love the inclusion of a USB standardized charging port, as it makes things a lot easier. I don't know why Sony didn't make it a micro usb like most other mobile products these days, but whatever. One extra cable, but having the device be chargeable via a portable battery bank is very nice. Also includes a standard SD card slot, which I would strongly recommend adding to your cart. Internal storage is not sufficient unless you take 3 photos and visit a computer. The size of the maximum quality photos are about 7.5 MB. Screen: Essentially worthless. There is no way to measure the quality of the photos through the built in display, aside from tremendous blurriness. Take to your nearest HD monitor to gain better appreciation... Photos: I went on a small hike to test this out before a much larger one and attached a few photos. My opinions are that outdoor photos come out quite nice, but zooming in on regions makes them quite grainy. I analyzed merely with my eyes and a 4k monitor, which may lack professionalism for some. Nevertheless, I don't really see much reason to complain. A minor gripe is that they shoot in 4:3 aspect ratio vs 16:9. Indoor photos are much more variable. I have taken a few good ones, with flash and mildly close range necessary to achieve this goal. Others look very washed out. View finder doesn't help so be wary. Panorama is a pretty bad feature in my opinion. It captures more, but with less. What I mean by that is the vertical height of my resulting photos is 1080 pixels, whereas standard photos are over 3800. Thus they looked washed out. You can also adjust brightness in the menu, but I usually default to 0 unless in exceptional circumstances. Video: I don't use this much, as 720p is quite low by today's standards. Even my bad phone camera does 1080p, so it's not for me. Maybe for some this will apply. Cost: Excellent. For $80, I am happy with my decision. Sony is the king of camera sensors, so I thought this was a good buy for my purposes. Just be wary of the above comments.

First off, I'm not a photographer nor am I trying to be one. Second, the primary reason I bought this was to use as a primary camera for use with eBay to replace my Samsung Galaxy S5 which doesn't have the best close-up focus abilities and image stabilization. In short, I needed better focus. The reason I only give it 3 stars is because it's not up to my expectations for my use. As for general use, I might give it 4. If it were around $50, I would give it 4. So I will start with my most critical aspect: The focus and clarity. As for focus, when it works, it works well. However, I have had some trouble getting it to focus well. The pictures I added are of my mouse, some using flash, some not, some with different exposure levels. Very basic tweaks for this is a basic camera. As you can see, when it works, you can see very well. However, these were mostly in succession and it didn't focus enough most of the time. I assure my hands were stable and I kept it still until it showed the photo for review. These were on the highest 20MP setting. I am not pleased with that. The reliability is not higher than my phone camera. But if I learn it's tricks, I will definitely like it. The body is small. Much smaller than I expected. At 3.75" x 2.25" x 0.75", it is small. The display is fine but nothing super-high res so it's hard to tell the difference if pictures came out good, great, or excellent. Navigation is simple and settings are very basic: flash, zoom, and exposure are the ones I can think of. Most other settings are auto. The USB-UC-E6 port is very inconvenient. If I lose it or leave it elsewhere, I am screwed or I have to buy another one, which I have no other devices which use one. It is convenient for charging though, that the batteries are rechargeable via USB and not some proprietary charger. Another note, it doesn't seem to perform particularly well in poorly-lit areas without flash. If with flash, it makes it obvious that it was poorly lit and flash was used. Well lit areas are great. I haven't used it in large, open areas yet or fast moving objects. It takes a proprietary Li-Ion battery and fits SD Cards. I'm currently using a 64GB Samsung Class 10 Micro-SD card with adapter.

This is an excellent gift for somebody who wants a first-time camera other than using their phone. Quality of the pictures is excellent, easy to use.

So far so good. Similar to my last digital camera, a different brand, easy to start using. One reviewer mentioned the buttons were a bit difficult....that is correct. They are small and recessed. I was glad I was aware before purchasing. Unless you buy an additional charger, you charge the battery in the camera. Handy at times but I prefer to remove the battery for charging. Again, I was aware prior to purchasing. Very happy with the camera. Takes great pictures, price was good. It is in my bag at all times. Takes great videos and they seem less shaky than my previous camera, another brand. Be aware though, this must be shipped to a physical address rather than a post office box because of the battery.

I own an older model of this camera and used it constantly for 6 years with no problems, but it is starting to have a few issues, so I bought a new, updated one. BIG mistake. The battery has NEVER fully charged after the first time I charged it. The settings are so confusing I can't figure out how to get it to do what I want. The software that came with it has not worked correctly. With the old camera, I plugged it in, it asked what I wanted to do with the pictures, and it worked. After putting my old card into this camera and then putting it back in the old camera, the old camera software no longer worked right (and all of the instructions, for some reason, turned to German.) I kept trying to figure out the new camera and kept waiting for a techier person to help me out with it, but nobody seems to be able to figure it out. It takes great photos sometimes and horrible, blurry ones more often. The battery is dead more often than not and I have to use the old camera anyway. It is way too easy to turn on or off by mistake--although the button is in about the same place, it is easier to push it and I turn the camera off by mistake in the middle of taking a picture. I LOVED my old camera (and still use it even with the small problems.) This one was a waste of money. I wish I'd sent it back when I ordered it six or eight months ago instead of trying to figure it out. I wanted it to be as great as my older Sony, and I'm really disappointed.