The W55 is an ultra-compact, point-and-shoot camera with a 3X zoom lens, 2.5″ LCD display and the usual 3x optical zoom. Compared to the previous DSC-W50, it boots 1MB up, has nearly twice as much built-in memory and a little more battery power. Compared to DSC-W35 it has the same lens, same megapixels but a larger LCD.
The look and feel of this camera is pleasant: a metal design (except the plastic door for memory card and battery), available in silver, black, light blue, and pink. It’s easy to hold and operate, a bit lighter than the above mentioned cameras, and fits in pockets. It’s a funny thing that this camera does have an optical viewfinder and a ton of accessories considering its compact size, but doesn’t have Shutter Priority and Aperture Priority (100% point-and-shoot camera, with no manual controls) so I really don’t understand who’s the target here.
Sony Cybershot DSC-W55 accessories:
Wide-angle lens (VCL-DH0730)
Telephoto lens (VCL-DH1730)
Super telephoto lens (VCL-DH2630)
Conversion lens adapter (VAD-WB)
External slave flash (HVL-FSL1B)
Macro ring light (HVL-RLS)
AC adapter (AC-LS5K)
Carrying cases (LCS-WF and S-CSG)
Performance:
At high ISO Sony DSC-W55 is using a lot more noise reduction here, which gets rid of the grain, but smudges out details, otherwise the pictures are well exposed, with saturated colors, with very little noise, and minimal purple fringing. Overall the camera does very well that it’s supposed to do, but it lacks at least a custom white balance and a longer shutter speed mode to be able to cross some limits with the camera.
Sony Cybershot DSC-W55
Sony Cybershot DSC-W55
Sony Cybershot DSC-W55 Digital Camera Specifications
Functions:
• Shooting Modes: Auto, Program, SCN, Movie, Macro
• Scene Modes: Beach, High Sensitivity, Landscape, Snow, Soft Snap, Twilight, Twilight Portrait
• Movie Mode: MPEG VX Fine with Audio (640×480 at 30fps) (MPEG VX Fine requires Memory Stick DUO PRO media), MPEG VX Standard with Audio (640×480 at 16fps), Video Mail with Audio (160×112 at 8fps).
• Effects: Black & White, Natural, Rich, Sepia
• Flash Modes: Auto, Forced On, Forced Off, Slow Synch
• Focus Modes: 5 Area Multi-Point AF, Center AF
• White Balance: Automatic, Cloudy, Daylight, Fluorescent, Incandescent, Flash
• Metering: 49-segment matrix
Technical Data:
• 2.5 inch LCD + optical viewfinder
• 7.2 megapixels
• 3x optical zoom + 2x digital zoom
• Focal Length: 6.3 -18.9mm (equiv: 38 – 114 mm)
• Aperture: f2.8-7.1(W), f5.2-13 (T)
• ISO Range: Auto, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1000
• Flash Range: ISO Auto: 6” to 12′ 8″ (0.2-3.9m)(W), ISO 1000: 2′ 7” to 23 (0.2-7.0m)(W)
• Focus Range: 19.7″ (50cm) Normal, 0.74″ (2cm) Macro
• Exposure Compensation: ±2.0 EV, 1/3 EV Step Increments
• Continuos Shooting: 4 Shot at 1.1 fps (7.2MP JPEG fine), 64 Shot VGA at 1.3 fps (JPEG std.)
• Shutter Speed: 1/8-1/2000 sec. (Auto), 1-1/2000 sec. (Program Auto)
• Self Timer: 10 seconds, 2 seconds
• File Format: JPEG (Fine/Standard)
• Memory Stick Duo + 56MB internal memory
• Lithium-ion battery NP-BG1 (3.6V, 960mAh)
