Thumbs Up:

Reliable auto-shooting; wide angle lens equivalent to 26mm; easy to operate; and 3 inches LCD display.

Thumbs Down:

14-megapixel resolution has questionable use; very less features for the price tag.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W330 is a 14.1-megapixel digital camera that has Super HAD CCD optical sensor of 14,100,000 pixels resolution. The W330 has inbuilt 28MB flash memory. The maximum shutter speed is 1/1600 second and minimum is 2 second. The W330 has SteadyShot Optical Image stabilization, 2x digital zoom, face detection and frame movie shooting mode. Exposure compensation is ±2EV range in 1/3EV steps and exposure modes are Automatic and Program. The exposure metering is of three types: Center-weighted, Multi-Segment and Spot.

3-inch LCD display has a resolution of 230,400 pixels. Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W330 has inbuilt microphone and inbuilt flash. The effective flash range is 1-23 ft. The Flash modes are Red-eye reduction, Flash-OFF mode, Slow synchro, Fill-in mode and Auto mode. The light sensitivity levels are ISO auto, ISO 3200, ISO 1600, ISO 800, ISO 400, ISO 200, ISO 100 and ISO 80. The still image format is JPEG and video format is MJPEG and AVI. The video capture resolution options are 320×240 and 640×480.

White-balance is of three types: Automatic, Presets and Custom. The white-balance presets include Fluorescent light (warm white), Fluorescent light (cool white), Fluorescent light (daylight), Incandescent, Daylight, Cloudy and Flash. Recording modes are Movie, SteadyShot, Scene, Program, Intelligent Auto and Easy. The focus modes are Face Detection AF, Spot AF, Center AF and Multi AF.

Zoom lens for Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W330 is manufactured by Carl Zeiss. This lens is aspherical in nature. It has a focal length of 4.7-18.8 mm with an aperture of F/2.7-5.7 that provides 4x optical zoom. The focal length equivalent to 35mm standard camera is 26-105mm. The W330 has TTL contrast detection auto-focus and nine auto-focus points. The zoom adjustment is motorized drive and focus adjustment is automatic. The digital camera has inbuilt lens shield and self timer delay function of 10 seconds and 2 seconds.

The additional features of Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W330 are Intelligent Scene Recognition (iSCN), Motion Detection Technology, Smile Detection Technology, Self-Portrait Auto Shutter, Dual image stabilization, Digital noise reduction. USB 2.0 compatibility, In-camera red-eye fix, Progressive scanning, PictBridge support, Cropping an image, Inbuilt speaker, Date/time stamp, Auto power save, Audio recording, Face Detection, Direct Print, DPOF support.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W330 has inbuilt Picture Motion Browser Portable 1.1 that will install automatically on connecting the camera to Windows or Mac computer. The full version of Picture Motion Browser 5.0 is supplied inside a software disc, but it is only compatible for Windows. The supported operating systems are Windows XP SP3/Vista/Windows 7 and Apple Mac OS X 10.4-10.6.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W330 has four connectors: 1×HDMI output, 1×Component video output, 1×Composite video/audio output and 1× USB. It has two expansion slots: 1×Memory Stick slot that supports Memory Stick Duo and Memory Stick Pro Duo; and 1×SD card slot that supports both SD and SDHC cards.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W330 has lithium ion battery that has a life of 230 shots. Sony is providing one-year limited labors-and-part warranty with its W330. Accessories supplied inside the package include user manual, drivers & utilities disc, A/V cable, USB cable, power adapter, and wrist strap.

Razzle Dazzle:

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W330 is 2.3 inches tall, 3.9 inches wide and 0.7 inch deep and it weighs around 4.5 ounces. The DSC-W330 is available in red, blue, black and silver color. The camera body is compact and lightweight and fits handbags and pant pockets easily. There is a brushed thin metal plate on the front.

Inside Dope:

Sony is one of the most famous manufacturers of digital cameras and camcorders. Now, the company has launched new Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W330, which costs around $169.99. When you see and use the camera, you will notice what Sony has done to reduce the cost. As compared to $199.99 priced W350, the W330 has only VGA video mode without optical zoom. The features like Sweep Panorama mode, optical image stabilization, un-sharp masking while Playback, manual white-balance, child and adult priority for face-detection, best quality noise reduction and auto focus illuminator light have not been included in the Cyber-shot DSC-W330. Not only this, but the DSC-W330 also has less internal memory. Sony has also not included its Bionz processing engine in the W330. This new model, the W330, has only large display and wide-angle lens. Instead of the W330, Sony’s W350 is obviously the best deal that provides better quality and features in just $30 more. Still, if you think that you may not need the above features and can adjust poor picture quality then you can buy Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W330, you save $30.

The previous Sony cameras were accepting only Memory Stick media. It is good to see that Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W330 accepts SDHC, SD cards and Memory Stick Pro Duo. The battery compartment and card slot are locked inside a door. You’ll have to open this door to remove and charge the battery. The DSC-W330 has inbuilt software – Picture Motion Browser Portable 1.1 that will install automatically on connecting the camera to a Mac or Windows computer. You can use this software to quickly upload the videos and photos at online sharing Web sites. We are disappointed that still full version of Picture Motion Browser 5.0 is not compatible with Mac OS.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W330 has straightforward controls. Shutter release button and power button sits on the top and flushed with the body. The new users have to look for these buttons, but they can be pressed easily. The other controls are located on the backside of LCD display. A vertical slider to change from still capture to video recording is located on the right edge of camera’s body. Zoom rocker is located above thumb rest. You will also find the circular directional pad, Delete, Menu and Playback buttons. You can use the pad to navigate through menus, activate the smile detection, and to change display information, flash and timer functions. We appreciated the Sony as it has revamped its Menu system.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W330 is automatic snap shot camera. There is a Program Auto mode that allows to adjust exposure values, light metering, auto focus points, white balance, ISO and to control the Sony Dynamic Range Optimization to rescue shadow detail. Intelligent Auto scene recognition mode provides good result without making any adjustments. However, it allows adjusting some options such as settings for smile detection sensitivity, activating burst shooting and adjusting exposure. Easy Mode disables all the options except for adjusting image size and onscreen text. It is good that the DSC-W330 also has ten different shooting options such as Underwater, Pet, Food, High ISO, and more. SteadyShot mode allows adjusting shutter speed and ISO sensitivity to counteract motion blur and camera shake. However, this SteadyShot mode does not have any mechanical or optical image stabilization. Last but not least, Movie mode records VGA quality video with mono microphone for audio, but there is no optical zoom.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W330 is a quick and good camera for stationary objects. The power on to first shot time is 1.8 seconds. The shot-to-shot time is 2.6 seconds and 3.6 seconds with flash. The continuous shooting speed is 1.1fps (frames per second). The shutter lag is 0.4 second for bright light and 0.7 second in dim light.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W330 delivers passable photo quality; however, still it depends upon your choice. At all ISO levels, the graininess and noise is visible while viewing the images at full size. The photo quality is good at ISO 200. However, there is a loss in fine details and definition lacks at higher ISO levels. The photos are usable in small sizes up to ISO 800. The colors are shifting with combined noise and its reduction on high ISO levels that result in poor photo quality. ISO 1600 or 3200 will give you really poor quality photos.

The images captured by 14-megapixel camera cannot be cropped too much for large printouts. Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W330 delivers soft images that has lacks in fine detail while viewing at full size. The digital camera can create 45×60 inches photographs; still Sony recommends print outs up to 13×19 inches.

Sony keeps barrel distortion in check for wide-angle lens. There is no pin-cushioning even at fully extended lens. However, there is passable amount of purple fringe but that is not unexpected in cameras of this class. The center sharpness is relatively good on Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W330, but subjects on the side corners are visibly softer.

The colors are accurate, natural and bright. However, the blues look pumped up. The Flash setting and auto white-balance looks a bit warm. The exposure is also good, but the highlights are clipping. The video quality is good for online Web sharing and small size.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W330 has a battery life of 230 shots.

Nitty Gritty:

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W330 sacrifices a lot in order to keep the price low. We will recommend you to put in $30 bucks more and go for the W350, it has better quality.

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