The Cyber-shot DSC-W120's menus are organized
around two categories of items--shooting items and viewing items. Shooting
items can be accessed by pressing the menu button found above the navigation
dial at the back of the camera. A view button located below that dial can
be used to display view items. There's also a Home button that can be used
to access both kinds of items.
In view mode, you can
Delete images;
Playback slideshows created from images in the camera and embellished
with effects and music;
Protect images from accidental erasure;
Tag images for printing (DPOF);
Print photos;
Rotate pictures; and
Select a folder from which images will be viewed.
Shooting items will vary depending on what shooting mode the camera
is in. For example, the items available in Program Mode aren't the same
as those available in Video Mode.
Actions that you can perform with shooting menu items are
Select a scene mode that will automatically choose a bundle of settings
appropriate for the scene at hand;
Determine the size of images captured by the camera;
Pick the flash setting in Easy Shooting Mode;
Activate face detection;
Activate smile detection;
Set the sensitivity for smile detection;
Toggle between single shot or multiple shot modes;
Customize the exposure compensation for a shot;
Determine the ISO for a shot;
Choose a metering mode for the camera;
Pick a focusing method for the camera;
Adjusts white balance for the unit;
Modify the amount of light emitted by the flash;
Activate red-eye reduction;
Choose a color mode for photos taken with the DSC;
Turn on the unit's SteadyShot image stabilization technology; and
Access a number of shooting settings.
Those shooting settings include items such
as using the built in flash to illuminate subjects in low light to assist
the camera's autofocusing system; displaying a grid on the DSC's display
to aid in the composition of a shot; choose how of the camera's digital
zoom is deployed; automatically orient vertical images on the display;
and automatically view images on the LCD after they are captured.
The Home menu gives you direct access to
the shooting and viewing menus, as well as a slideshow menu for customizing
the look and sound of shows created to run in the camera; a print menu;
a memory tool for formatting storage cards, copying files across media,
and managing folders within the unit; and a settings menu for altering
items such as the unit's beep, clock and language setting.
Packaged with the W120 is a CD containing two software programs, a handbook
in Adobe PDF format and a "Step-up Guide."
The handbook can be very useful because the printed documentation included
with the camera is very skimpy. However, the computer-based document won't
do you much good when you're shooting in the field.
The "Step-up Guide" contains some basic tips about photography
but it's largely aimed at selling Sony accessories for the camera.
Picture Motion Browser
is the main application included with the pocketcam. It's primarily a tool
for organizing your photos. It has a visually arresting calendar view that
enables you to easily find photos based on when they were taken. Alternatively,
there's a folder view for ferreting images the old-fashioned way--through
directories and subdirectories.
The program contains some rudimentary editing tools for manipulating
the brightness, saturation, sharpness and tone curve of images, as well
as cropping them, date tagging them and removing red-eye from them.
It also has a Map View that permits you to post pictures that have been
geo-tagged to an online map. In addition, it has a Media Services function
for connecting and uploading images and videos to services like Flickr,
Photobucket, Shutterfly and YouTube.
Photo Motion Browser runs only on Windows-based machines.
The other application package with W120, Music Transfer, runs on both
PCs and Macintosh computers.
Music Transfer is designed to move tunes
from a computer to the camera so they can be used with slideshows. If
you've ever listened to the synthetic dreck that's used to accompany in-camera
slideshows, you'll know why Sony packaged this program with the W120.
The application isn't entirely transparent. In order for it to work,
you have to enter the Download Music Mode on the camera. You do that by
going to the Home menu, choosing the slideshow menu, picking the music
tool and selecting "download music" from it. After that's done,
you can connect the camera to a computer with its proprietary USB cable
and launch the Music Transfer software.
If you like to create slideshows in the camera,
Music Transfer will let you add a personal and artistic dimension to them
that would be missing in bytecams limited to stock music fare.
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Interface & Software
