Sony DSC-W200

Reviewed September 2007

Interface & Software

Interface

Quite unlike earlier Sony cameras that benefited from an interface that was simple to navigate and understand, the DSC-W200 is equipped with Sony's new digital camera interface, a system that uses both a HOME button to display the Home Screen, a catch-all for most of the camera's menus, and with a MENU button that in fact only serves to access mode-related functions, and a few of the Setup options that are somewhat related to capture (Shooting Settings 1 and 2) when the camera is in one of these modes.

Regrettably, while the presentation of the menus — colours, fonts, legibility, and clarity — is excellent, the manner in which options are spread out throughout the interface, the overlaps in the options and functions displayed by the Home and Menu buttons, and the fact that once the last option of a given menu is reached, the user has to backtrack to return to a previous level (no looping), make this interface, at best, awkward and often quite confusing.

Only when the HOME button is pressed, and its last section reached can the Settings (Setup) options be seen:

Main Settings 1:

• Beep selects the sound produced by the camera when it is operated:
  • On: plays a sound for operations and shutter.
  • Off: turns off all sounds.
  • Shutter: shutter sound only.
• Function Guide: On or Off. When On, a brief description of functions is displayed.
• Initialize: returns all settings to their original defaults.

Main Settings 2:

• USB Connect decides the USB protocol:
  • Pictbridge: to connect the camera directly to a PictBridge printer.
  • Mass Storage: to connect the camera to a computer.
  • Auto: to let the camera decide the appropriate protocol.
• Component selects the video signal:
  • HD (1080i) to connect to a 1080i compliant TV using the optional Component cable.
  • SD to connect to a television that is not compatible with an HD 1080i.
• Video Out selects the television system: NTSC or PAL.

Shooting Settings 1:

• AF Illuminator: Auto or Off. Controls the AF assist lamp, which comes on when there is insufficient ambient light for the auto focus system to operate reliably.
• Grid Line: On or Off. Decides whether or not a composition grid is superimposed on the image.
• AF Mode provides two auto focus modes:
  • Single activates the auto focus only when the shutter release is pressed halfway,
  • Monitor adjusts the focus before the shutter release is pressed halfway, shortening the time needed to capture the image, but consuming more power.

• Digital Zoom can be set to operate in either one of two modes:
  • Smart Zoom, operating only when the image size is set to a size less than 12M or 3:2, since it crops the central portion of the full-size frame to produce a field of view comparable to a longer focal length than the maximum optical magnification.
  • Precision, which functions like standard digital zooms, cropping the central part of the image, and interpolating it to the currently selected image size, thereby causing a loss of image sharpness.
• Conversion Lens: lets the camera know what lens converter is attached: Close-up, Tele, Wide, or none.

Shooting Settings 2:

• Auto Orientation: On or Off. Decides whether or not the camera records the orientation of the shot so it can be played back the right way up.
• Auto Review: decides whether or not an image is briefly displayed (for approximately 2 seconds) immediately post capture.
• Expanded Focus: On or Off. Magnifies the centre of the screen to double the normal size when the Manual focus mode is used.

Clock Setting:

• Clock Settings: serves to set the time and date on the camera.

Language Setting:

• Language Setting serves to choose the interface language: English, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese (North American version of the camera).

Two printed manuals were in the box of our test DSC-W200, one in English is called Instruction Manual, and another containing the French and Italian versions. The Instruction Manual is a simple and thin introductory volume for the camera, covering basic use and functions. The main instruction manual, called Cyber-shot Handbook, is supplied in PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format on the Software CD that accompanies the camera. While the PDF Manual is more in-depth, critical information is sprinkled throughout both the Instruction Manual and the Cyber-shot Handbook, often complicating the task of locating an important explanation.

Software

Please note that the software supplied with the camera can vary from country to country.

A single CD-ROM containing four items is supplied with the DSC-W200:

• Picture Motion Browser
• Sony USB Driver (for older operating systems)
• Picture Package Music Transfer
• Step-up Guide

Picture Motion Browser serves to browse and manipulate still images or videos. Images must first be imported through a rather arcane process that involves "registering folders" so that images or movies can be brought into the program's database. Once imported into the program, images are shown as thumbnails in the right side of the program's window (alternatively a detailed view can be selected) while the registered folders are shown on the left.

Placing the mouse over any image adds a transparent overlay that indicates the image's file name, its location on the computer, the date on which it was captured and its size. Moreover, detailed information about each image can be displayed in a separate window, including all the shooting data.

From the Browser window, images can be imported, folders can be registered, a selected image can be printed, deleted, rotated left or right, or even edited using Picture Motion Browser or an external editor.

In addition, images can be seen in a slide show, or e-mailed, which creates a 640 x 480 pixel copy for emailing, or even positioned on a map provided by Google which adds latitude and longitude information to the image.

An image can be selected for editing, opening it in a separate window. There, the image can be Auto corrected, or adjusted for brightness, saturation, sharpness, tone curve, or red-eye. Whatever the correction applied, the corrected image can either be saved by overwriting the original, or saved as a new image.

This part of the program also offers the possibility to trim an image, and save the trimmed section as a new image.

Picture Package Music Transfer serves to change the slide show music already loaded into the camera. With some restrictions, audio tracks, MP3 files, or the preset tracks installed on the DSC-W200 can be imported into the camera, and then used as background music for the slide shows.

Finally, the Step-up Guide is a Flash built interactive application that extols the advantages and virtues of various Sony accessories for the camera.