Sony Cyber-shot® DSC-W55 Digital Camera Review

It was not too long ago that for the price of a DSC-W55 you would get a truly junk digital camera that would take photos that resembled multicoloured goose pimples. WIth the substantial advantages in technology Sony has been able to introduce a camera that outperforms the top of the line professionals of just a short while ago and does so with considerable aplomb. It's not exactly a beauty winner of a camera itself, but the photos it takes definitely are!

Let form follow function is the philosophy that Sony applied on the DSC-W55 and you really can't blame them at all. When you have a camera that works this beautifully, why try to beautify it and end up perhaps cheapening the whole thing? Behind the face only a mother could love exterior lies a 7.2-megapixel, 38mm-to-114mm-equivalent 3x zoom camera with a brilliant 2.5-inch LCD screen which weighs in at 147g and has a fairly svelte body at just 57mm of thickness.

The photos the little DSC-W55 takes are quite impressive. The details are crisp, the edges are well delineated and the colours are a cross between true to life and enhanced Technicolour. There is almost nothing that the photographer can to to mess up a photo... except forget to switch to the tungsten white balance setting when in low light settings in which case the images fall ill to an unfortunate case of jaundice.

It would be nice if Sony could visit the local neighbourhood and work its magic on noisy playgrounds like it does with noisy photos. The noise is completely non existent at ISO 100 or even ISO 200. At ISO 400 you have to truly scrutinize the image with a fine toothed comb on a monitor for the slightest artifact which would never reproduce on a print anyway. By the time you get to ISO 800 the noise curve increases significantly, and by the time you've reached the heady heights of ISO 1000, it starts to get pretty ugly, but if you're consistently shooting at these ISO settings, you should go out and spend a thousand quid on a real pro camera and stop messing around with these everyday models.

The little DSC-W55 is one fast camera for the money, with startup and shot frequency at just 1.3 seconds. Even when the flash is enabled which takes far more expensive cameras way past the 2 second barrier, the capable DSC-W55 still hangs on for a very respectable 1.7 seconds. The shutter is also way fast for its class with a 0.5 second time in bright light, again faster than some cameras three times its price.

The DSC-W55 is a well thought out everyday use camera with perfect little touches like a tiny optical viewfinder above the LED screen. You could easily buy no name rubbish for the same amount of money, or you could shop wisely and bring home a truly superlative little Sony.