Rather than forcing the shooter to boost ISO equivalency in order to take a brightly exposed photo in low-light situations without a flash, the WX1's Handheld Twilight Latitude D620 Battery snaps up to six shots at different exposure settings in rapid succession, then overlays the images to create a sharper photo than most point-and-shoots produce in low light. The Handheld Twilight option works best in pitch-black settings; the sensor is so sensitive to light that any exposure to a light source in an otherwise dark environment can make those well-lit areas look a bit blown out and murky.
For example, in the first shot below, the light coming from the Dell XPS M1530 Battery is muted enough to create a fairly sharp picture. But in the second shot, the neon lights and the moon are bright enough to create a blobby glow around them.
Besides the Handheld Twilight mode, the WX1 has an "Advanced" setting in its Scene Recognition mode that lets you take two shots with one press of the shutter button: one with the flash on, and one with the flash off. It displays those two shots side-by-side, letting you pick the one you think looks better and eliminating some of the guesswork involved when taking photos in low light.
The Thinkpad T60 Battery also comes with the excellent Sweep Panorama mode found in other new Sony cameras. This mode allows you to press the shutter button once, pan the camera from side to side, and create an instant panoramic image with surprisingly little effort. It works best with static landscapes, as any moving objects in the frame can appear to stretch across a large portion of the panoramic scene.
In the PCWorld Labs' imaging tests, the Cyber-shot DSC-WX1 IBM Thinkpad T61 Battery outshone earlier point-and-shoot cameras from Sony in image quality. Our panel of judges rated color accuracy and overall image quality excellent in test shots taken with the WX1, but images did show a bit of distortion and lack of sharpness. Despite that, the WX1 earned an overall image rating of Superior when compared with other pocketable digital cameras.
Battery life is also strong, as the Dell XPS M1330 Battery took 394 shots on a single charge of its lithium ion battery. That was good enough for a PCWorld Labs battery-life rating of Very Good.
This Cyber-shot is an extremely compact camera, a bit smaller than a deck of cards, and unassuming enough to fit in a shirt pocket without a problem. Although the wide shutter button is big and comfortable to use, those with Dell D830 Battery hands may have trouble with the smaller mode dial, back-camera buttons, and zoom bar.
A small button next to the shutter release places the camera in burst mode, which is capable of taking up to 10 shots per second. The mode dial on the back of the camera provides quick access to such modes as Handheld Twilight, Sweep Panorama, Automatic Scene Recognition, program, scene selections, Easy, antiblur, and Inspiron 1520 Battery video (the WX1 records 720p video at 30 frames per second).
The 2.7-inch LCD screen, which serves as the camera's only viewfinder, is bright, crisp, and sharp. In fact, it may be a little too sharp: Even though the camera's image quality is very good, photos look better on the camera's LCD than after you've uploaded them to your computer. This is especially evident in Handheld Twilight mode shots, where brightly-lit Dell 1501 Battery look noticeably less sharp than they do in images played back on the camera itself.
As with many Sony products, the WX1 comes with a couple of proprietary issues to think about before buying: It is one of the last Sony cameras that supports PA3535U-1BRS Battery Stick format storage, and the USB cable used to offload photos directly from the WX1 has a proprietary connector on the camera's side of the equation.
At around $330, the WX1 does cost a bit much for a camera with no manual shutter or aperture controls. However, for the price, you get a very compact, very stylish camera that takes excellent photos in dark settings, and its unique in-camera modes make it a great all-purpose pocket camera
The holiday season is here, as are the accompanying parties and celebratory events. If you're all gussied up, you might as well bring a camera like Sony's fashion-conscious, 10.2-megapixel Cyber-shot DSC TX1 ($380 as of 11/23/2009), a touchscreen camera that lets you party instead of fussing with camera settings.
Measuring 3.75 by 2.38 by 0.66 inches and weighing five ounces, the DSC-TX1 is small enough to fit into a coat pocket, and it won't take up a lot of room in a purse. The metal body has a front panel that slides down to reveal the camera's 4X Carl Zeiss optical-zoom lens, which has a range of 35mm to 140mm. A power Studio 1555 Battery is on the top, so you can turn on the camera to peruse your pics and still have the lens protected while the camera is in your hands.
Next to the power button is the shutter button, which, like the rest of the camera, is narrow. When using autofocus, I had a difficult time feeling whether the button was pressed halfway down; I relied on the audible cue to tell me when I had pushed the shutter button down far enough for focus. Fortunately, the button responds well when you push it down completely to take a picture, and I saw no shutter lag.
The zoom toggle is conveniently placed next to the shutter button, and very little lag occurs when you're zooming in and out to find the proper zoom point. However, the switch is a bit loose and doesn't feel sturdy, which made me wonder if it would snap over time.
The DSC-TX1 has a three-inch LCD that looks gigantic; it takes up practically the whole back of the camera, which has none of the buttons you'd usually see, because the DSC-TX1 uses an Vostro 1500 Battery touchscreen interface.
The icons Sony uses are clear and intuitive; for example, the Mode icon, used to change the shooting mode, is labeled "Mode," the playback icon uses the familiar Play arrow, and the flash icon uses a lightning bolt-like arrow. The touchscreen itself works well. The icons are responsive, lighting up when you touch them, and the audible response provides good feedback (you can turn the audio off if you wish).
The problem with the touchscreen isn't in its implementation. The problem is whether it's entirely practical: The touchscreen is a time-hogging hindrance when you want to quickly change settings. With the typical mode dial that you find on most cameras, you can almost instantly change from, say, automatic mode to video mode by simply turning the dial. When you want to make such a change on the DSC-TX1, you have to push the Mode icon on the touchscreen, wait maybe a third of a second, and then press the icon of the mode you want. These steps take a couple of seconds, which doesn't sound like much, but in reality, it can be the HP Compaq 6710B Battery between capturing or not capturing a key moment.
With this in mind, the DSC-TX1 is best for situations where you won't anticipate needing to adjust the camera (casual snapshot situations, parties, and other get-togethers), or when you don't think you'll need to switch between photo and video modes in an instant. Set the camera, and forget it.
If you do decide to change the recording mode, you have seven modes from which to choose. The Intelligent Auto Adjustment mode, which automatically sets the Compaq 6720S Battery to what the manual calls a "guide," is what you'll probably have the camera set to most of the time. The camera has nine guides: Backlight, Backlight Portrait, Close Focus, Landscape, Portrait, Macro, Twilight, Twilight Portrait, and Twilight using a tripod. A Scene Selection mode lets you set the camera's settings to one of 12 scene types, such as Pet, Beach, Gourmet, and Snow. The other five recording modes are Sweep Panorama, Program Auto, Anti-Motion blur, Hand-held Twilight, and Movie Mode.
Using the Intelligent Auto Adjustment, you can see the camera change its settings. For example, if you're in a park and you aim at the scenery, the camera Intelligent Auto Adjustment switches to landscape mode. If you then decide to focus on an ant on the picnic table you're sitting at, the camera Intelligent Auto Adjustment switches to macro mode.
The Anti-Motion blur mode takes six pictures at one pressing of the shutter button. Sony says the camera then combines the information of all six pictures to create one sharp image. When I used this feature with moving people, I had a hard time noticing if the picture was truly a combination of information. To me, the pics looked like Dell Inspiron 1525 Battery image.
In my informal tests, the overall image quality was pleasing, with good color representation, although some skin tones weren't as smooth was they should be. The pictures also lacked sharpness; detail was noticeably soft. In pictures with shadows, image noise was visible.
In low-light situations--say, a fancy restaurant--the DMC-TX1 does a very good job of picking up detail, but images are still soft and lack sharpness, and you'll see some noise, but not enough to detract from the overall image quality. In fact, for common low-light scenarios, the quality is satisfying.
The DSC-TX1 has face detection, which sets the focus area on a person's face and optimizes exposure for portrait shots. It also has smile detection, which automatically triggers the camera to shoot when it detects a smile. The face detection worked fine, but the smile detection was hit-or-miss, even though you can set the smile detection to one of three levels, with a simple smile at the first level and a big toothy grin at the third XPS M1730 Battery. Smile detection is very handy when you're doing a self-portrait.
Sony's implementation of Sweep Panorama in the DSC-TX1 is so well done that other camera manufacturers should consider a similar method; it's the same feature found in the Exmor sensor-equipped Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 and Cyber-shot DSC-WX1. When you take a panoramic picture, instead of taking multiple pictures that the camera stitches together, the DSC-TX1 has you simply pan from left to right in a single shot. The result is a seamless panorama that's very impressive. About the only problem is if you have extreme variances in brightness in a scene; detail in dark shadow areas are lost if the starting point is very bright.
The DSC-TX1 is capable of shooting video at 1280-by-720 HD resolution, and the videos are saved in MP4 format. If you decide to drag-and-drop the DSC-TX1's videos from the MemoryStick card, know that the camera keeps the video in a separate folder from the still photos.
While shooting videos, the zoom works smoothly. The dell D820 Battery quality is like that of the stills: soft, with some skin tones not as smooth as others, but overall acceptable quality.
The Cyber-shot DXC-TX1 works great as a casual camera at times when you would rather socialize and enjoy your company than mess with a camera's settings. It's about the size of a mobile phone--but it takes much better pictures--so you might consider leaving your phone behind and taking the DXC-TX1 to that party. The touchscreen interface borders on gimmicky rather than practical, but it is well done--and would work even better if it were combined with quick-access hardware controls.
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