Spotlight Reviews
 Great 5MP Value
This our third digital camera. Our other cameras are from Canon and Nikon. I was leaning toward the new Canon S60 because we love our other Canon and they both would take the same CompactFlash memory cards. This camera was going to be mine and I wanted 5MP so I could do some cropping of pictures and still keep up the quality when printing in 8 X 10 format. The Canon S60 kept being delayed, so I started looking at alternatives.
The DSCW1 seems designed to compete with the Canon S60. Both are 5 MP, both are compact, both have manual modes which allow you to be creative with your pictures. The Sony pulled ahead with its larger LCD display and its ability to use standard AA batteries. The Canon relies on a propriatory lithium-ion rechargable battery. The Sony comes with AA rechargables, but should they go dead at an inopportune moment, you can pop in any AA batteries to keep you going. I bought the Sony and have had it for almost a month. The batteries don't seem to last quite as long as our Canon, but I picked up a couple of spare rechargables for less than $10 and just alternate them in the charger. The DSCW1 downloads using USB2 so even though each picture is larger than 2MB each, they download FAST. The picture quality has been great. Indoor low light shots have a bit more blur than I would like, but they didn't come out at all with either of our other cameras. Colors are crisp and true and prints from the pictures (on a Canon i470 printer) are excellent. One word about the included software. Yuck. It is useful for downloading and for doing a quick view of what you took, but beyond that it is very limited. Overall, I am very happy with my Sony DSCW1. Compact and fast, with a big screen.
Great camera. My last camera was a Sony Mavica CD300. Aside from recording onto a mini CD, its best feature was its large 2.5" screen. It's almost like having a Polaroid instant camera. You take a picture and pass it around. People love looking at pictures on the camera. You can't get that same effect with most digital cameras today. I bought the W1 because it also has a 2.5" LCD screen, but the camera itself is 1/4 the size. And this screen is actually much clearer than on my previous camera or on the Sony V1 (which this camera replaced). The picture quality of the photos is decent. (I'm no expert.) Startup is super fast. There's no lens cover, which is convenient. And it uses rechargeable AA batteries. I bought an extra pair for $10. It's also got an optical viewfinder so you can turn off the screen to save power while you're taking photos. A lot of usability improvements - They finally replaced the directional pad with buttons; the center used to be difficult to press. The on-screen menus are easier to read. A cool new feature is that when you select the camera mode by rotating the dial, it temporarily displays the icons rotating on the screen, so that you don't have to look at the top of the camera. And even the manual is much improved. The flash seems a bit small, but I haven't tested it out fully yet. My only real complaint is that it doesn't come with an AC adapter to directly recharge the camera. A cradle would be nice too. You have to take out the batteries and use the included battery recharger. Perhaps this is a better system, but I'm not used to it yet. Overall I'm thrilled with this camera.  Doesn't live up to its 5MP potential
Only one review site mentions this problem (...) but now a lot of users are starting to see it. This camera's noise filtering causes pictures to look 'soft' or in my interpretation - slightly out of focus.
In outdoor scenery shots it isn't very noticeable - the 5MP is able to give you a lot of detail especially in the area of the picture that is not your main subject (background trees, roofs, etc). However in portraits, or pictures of pets, the problem is VERY apparent. Going from a 1MP to a 2MP camera, the 2MP camera "wow'd" me. Going to this 5.1MP camera, I look at the pictures and say "eh?". I've tried what other people have suggested - set camera to manual or programmed mode, turned up sharpness, turned down contrast, set autofocus to center only - yet still pets, portrait
shots are smooth. Facial features are ever so slightly blurred - detail is lost in the hair, contrast around the nose and eyes. It's like looking at a flat/matted picture! Do I think I got a bad one? No. There have been a few other owners on some of the digital camera discussion forums that at first said "No way, this camera is great!" only to come back later and say "Wait, I spoke too soon, there is an issue". Then there is the poor flash capabilities - not very powerful. Yes, a lot of compact digital cameras suffer from this but this camera seems especially bad. There's a user that took a bunch of indoor photos at their son's birthday part and every one was blurry - not one was printable! The camera is physically gorgeous. The LCD is HUGE and very nice and clear! The camera is very responsive, fast, WELL built, and a nice size, but the pictures don't live up to the "Carl Zeiss, 5.1MP" advertising! Don't be fooled by reviews that take pictures of posters and resolution charts - this camera does great with those items. Take a look at their portrait shots of live people and zoom in on the facial features. Compare that with another camera and you'll see the difference. Again, far away shots of scenery looks great. It's when you're doing closeup work of detailed items where the problem shows up. My W1 is going back this week. I'll bet in a year, Sony will address these problems and THAT camera will be fantastic. | 
