Product Description

The DSC-W90 combines the power of 8.1 Megapixel resolution and the precision of a Carl Zeiss 3x optical zoom lens with powerful, advanced features. Face Detection makes skin tones appear more natural, D-range optimization provides greater detail in highlights and shadows and in-camera retouching and red-eye reduction quickly improves shots you've already taken. And the Double Anti-Blur Solution lets you snap beautiful, clear photos in low light without flash to preserve the mood. For simple sharing with family and friends, HD (high definition) output makes photos look spectacular on compatible HDTV screens.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28108 in Camera & Photo
• Color: Silver
• Brand: Sony
• Model: DSCW90
• Released on: 2007-03-17
• Dimensions: 1.00" h x 2.50" w x 4.00" l, 1.00 pounds
• Display size: 2.5

Features

• 8.1-megapixel CCD captures enough detail for photo-quality 16 x 22-inch prints
• Carl Zeiss 3x optical zoom lens; 2.5-inch LCD display
• High Sensitivity Mode (ISO 3200) allows for shooting even in low-light conditions
• In-camera red-eye reduction and retouching functions
• HD output; HD slide show with music feature

Manufacturer Description
With 8.1-megapixel resolution and a host of new high-tech features, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W90 camera is a perfect way to capture and relive the magic of life -- even shooting in low light without flash to preserve the mood. Powered by an advanced Bionz processing engine, new capabilities like Face Detection, in-camera retouching and red-eye reduction, D-Range Optimization, and 9-Point AF enhance performance. The HD output lets you share memories with spectacular high-definition clarity and impact on compatible HDTV screens -- and HD Slide Show with Music makes sharing your photos even more entertaining.

Cyber-shot DSC-W90 Highlights

8.1-megapixel Super HAD CCD With more megapixels than most digital cameras, the DSC-W90 captures greater image definition so you can make big prints and tight crops without losing detail. The advanced Sony Super HAD (Hole Accumulated Diode) CCD design allows more light to pass to each pixel, increasing sensitivity and reducing noise.

Carl Zeiss 3x optical zoom lens A top-quality Carl Zeiss 3x optical zoom lens design helps the DSC-W90 bring distant subjects closer and lets you frame shots quickly for better composition -- a real advantage for family sports, outdoor fun, and travel photos.

Face detection By automatically controlling focus, exposure, color and flash, this new Sony feature reveals faces in shadow, makes skin tones look more natural and eliminates harsh facial glare -- to help bring out every expression on every face in every shot, so you’ll capture the personalities and emotions that make memories come alive.

The Sony Double Anti-Blur Solution With Super SteadyShot optical image stabilization and high sensitivity (ISO 3200), the DSC-W90 compensates for shaky hands, minimizes blur, brightens images and allows flash-free shooting to preserve the mood -- with Sony Clear RAW Noise Reduction to take care of the picture noise that can ruin low-light shots.

HD output Thanks to Sony, your photo album can go high-def -- with direct HD output to compatible HDTV screens, so you can view DSC-W90 still photos in spectacular high-definition clarity and detail. Your life never looked so exciting!
_{Note: HD output requires an optional Sony HD connector cable; HDTV sold separately}

HD slide show with music It’s the high-definition viewing experience that makes photos come alive on compatible HDTV screens, accompanied by your choice of visual effects and any of four preset musical selections stored in memory or your favorite MP3 tunes downloaded from PC to your camera for use as background music.

9-Point Auto Focus Because an off-center subject can make your shot more interesting, the DSC-W90 can measure auto-focus precision at 9 points on your screen -- giving you greater creative freedom to compose your image.

D-Range Optimization Powered by the exclusive Sony Bionz high-speed processing engine, D-Range Optimization preserves image data in bright highlights and reveals more detail in shadows or backlit areas -- for great results even in difficult lighting conditions.

In-camera retouching The DSC-W90 lets you add creative effects to photos after you shoot -- including soft edge filter to soften backgrounds, cross filter to place starry "dazzles" at highlight points, partial color filter to mute surrounding colors, even fish-eye filter to create interesting fish-eye lens effects.

In-camera red-eye reduction Irritating "glowing eyes" can ruin even the most creative photos -- so the DSC-W90 provides in-camera correction at the touch of a button to reduce lingering red-eye effect that other systems might miss.

Large 2.5-inch LCD screen The DSC-W90 provides a large, bright LCD screen for composing shots, checking results, sharing your photos on location -- and an optical viewfinder allows shooting in traditional rangefinder camera style.

Simple setup controls A quick press of the Home button opens your user-friendly GUI -- and you can select functions by simply moving a cursor vertically or horizontally to the appropriate icon. Function names and the on-screen Function Guide display make it easier to learn camera setup operations.

31 MB internal memory The DSC-W90 allows you to capture a large number of images without a flash memory card, so it’s great for traveling or for quick candid snapshots.

Memory Stick Duo Media convenience A built-in slot accepts optional Memory Stick Duo media or Memory Stick Pro Duo media -- the compact, high-capacity storage media that make it easily to upload photos to your computer or make lab-quality prints at home on your Sony Picture Station digital printer (sold separately).

15X Smart Zoom Feature The Sony Smart Zoom feature intelligently "crops into" the central portion of interest in your photo, avoiding the image degradation of other digital zooms.

MPEG Movie VX Fine Mode Captures VGA (640 x 480) audio/video clips at high frame rate (up to 30 frames per second), with length limited only by the capacity of your media.

Stamina battery power The DSC-W90 provides up to 350 shots with a fully-charged NP-BG1 Lithium-ion battery -- enough shooting capacity to cover a long weekend or a whole vacation.

Picture Motion browser software Supplied software makes it easier to upload, organize and search photos on your PC -- and provides a convenient map view function to sort photos by location and display their origin on a world map by using an optional GPS unit.

Customer Reviews

Great Camera
To be honest, I never much cared for Sony products before now. This little camera is just what I needed and wanted. It takes really nice pictures and most importantly, its a snap to use. I ended purchasing an extra battery, but to my surprise, the standard battery is capable of taking over 200 shots before needing a recharge. I'm impressed. The lcd screen is cystal clear and very bright. For the money, you just can't go wrong. I wanted a small point & shoot camera because I got tired of having to deal with large camera cases, lens covers and all of the gadgetry required to take picture with my other digital camera. This is small, very simple to use, takes great photos and fits in a shirt pocket. You just turn it on and go. You won't be disappointed.

Updated review
UPDATE: 5/5/07 As mentioned below, my original W90 had some issues. After exchanging the camera, I can verify that my original was bad and the new one performed much better. However, even the new one had serious grain issues in all but the brightest light in "AUTO" mode. In program mode, flash pictures also looked flat and grainy unless you manually reduced the ISO to 200. I really wanted to like this camera, but after struggling with the second camera for a week, I decided to return it and bought a Canon 800IS. In my opinion, the Canon is significantly better in all but near dark conditions. The image stabilization on the Canon is also significantly better.

I had my choices narrowed down between a Canon and the Sony W90. My daughter has an older P200 Sony and it takes fantastic pictures so I opted for the W90. The first few daylight pictures I took showed color blotching (not noisy or grainy) when viewed at actual size on the computer. Low light photos also had MUCH more noise visible than the P200 even at ISO 200. I have now taken ~1000 pictures in all lighting conditions and would rate the camera as follows:

Bright light/ daylight outside: Excellent pictures
Medium light /clouds: Very good to excellent
Dusk and night shots: Amazing! especially with high ISO setting
Medium/Low indoor lighting: good (with post processing)
Indoor lighting with flash: Grainy with auto setting, Good with 200ISO

I was initially disappointed that the picture quality with indoor lighting without flash was not as good as my daughters P200. However after many test shots comparing the two, I believe the major difference is that the W90 takes a lighter picture with more detail while the P200 is darker with more noise reduction done inside the camera. Any simple photo program can remove the noise and make the pictures as good with at least as much (or more) detail than the P200. Note that these pictures were taken at a low room light level that would normally require flash so this will likely rarely or never be an issue for most users.

Although I have not taken many pictures with flash, all I have taken have turned out very crisp and well lit with no noticeable noise. The noise issue above is ONLY with low light and no flash.

The dusk and night shots were what really impress. I took about a dozen hand-held shots after sunset. Although about 1/2 of the shots were blurry due to my hands shaking, the other 1/2 were excellent with good exposure and excellent detail and no detectable blurring. Obviously the image stabilization can only do so much. The pictures were obviously grainy (ISO1600) at actual size zoom on the computer, but looked good when viewing the whole picture. I emphasize that these were taken in lighting that my daughter's ISO400 camera just would not have been able to take at all.

Several of the options are also very handy. The ability to select the light metering point is extremely useful when shooting at sunset or with lighted objects at night. The camera allows either full frame, center frame, or center point metering. Similar options are available for focus.

Continual burst mode was actually useful as the camera takes pictures quickly. I was able to capture a bird from perched to about 5' in the air using the burst mode (~4 pictures)all with excellent clarity and capturing the birds wings without blur.

If it were not for the color blotching at ISOs from 125 to 400 I would give this 5 stars. I have decided to exchange this camera for another to see if I just have one that is defective. It is such an obvious problem that others would have certainly mentioned it if it was a design flaw.

I love my W90!! Red eye issues but they can be corrected right on the camera.
I upgraded to this from the Sony Cybershot DSC-W50. They have made some great improvements but they have made some changes that I don't like also, which is why I give this 4 stars and not 5.

If you're looking for a small point-and-shoot camera, this one is great, but it definitely has red eye issues for indoor pics with the flash, so be warned! The good news though is that this camera has red-eye removal software right in the camera. I would say it works about 80% of the time, which I think is very good. The rest I just remove in Photoshop or Shutterfly.

I did some research online and talked to some camera experts and I found out that red-eye is a very common problem with these small point-and-shoot cameras. It's unfortunately just the way this camera is designed - the lens is just so close to the flash.

If you buy this, definitely get a big 1 gig (or bigger) card so you can hold lots of pictures and video. Also I would recommend a 2nd battery so when 1 is charging in the wall, you can be using the other one.

PROS
- Small and compact
- Very slick design & very attractive (I have the black one)
- Good menu navigation
- Good photo quality, especially outdoors
- Red Eye Removal Software right in camera
- I love the Lithium Batteries - Great battery life
- Image Stabilizer and Face Detection - not as many blurry pics as the W50
- Decent Zoom
- 8 megapixels
- Video with sound
- Lots of different modes, although I never use them
- Timer

CONS
- Major red-eye issues
- Still some blurry photos with flash off
- I can't crop the videos!!! :( I could with my W50. I don't know why they removed this great feature. I am VERY disappointed.
- The video mic is in such a stupid spot - on the top right where your right finger sits - so if you don't think so move it, the sound on the video is muffled. It was on the top left on the W50 which was also stupid because that is where your left finger sits. WHY can't it just be on the front where your finger would never be?
- Why did they move the battery/card door to the side? I liked it much better on the bottom like the W50. On the side, I am always accidentally opening it up.
- The menu wheel is much better on this than the W50. They have it more embedded now so it can't move as easily on it's own. Thank goodness!

I really do love these Sony Cybershot cameras. I've tried Olympus, Canon, and Kodak and I just like Sony's better. ALL of these little cameras have red eye issues, no matter what brand.