PMA 2009

The W290 comes in a rather subdued palette of colors.

(Credit: Sony Electronics)

Joining the lower-middle middle-class W220 that Sony announced at CES are the $199 middle middle-class W230 and $249 upper-middle middle-class W290. (Sorry folks, but I'm running out of ways to describe midpriced cameras.) While the W230 only differs from the W220 by $10 and LCD size--it's 3 inches vs. 2.7--the W290 has the same resolution and LCD as the W230 but with a significantly more flexible lens and better movie capture capabilities.

Photos: Sony Cyber-shot W models for spring

In fact, based on the specifications the W290 sounds like a better deal than the W300. It's about $80 less (including Sony recent price drop on the W300 by $20). And though it's only 12 megapixels compared with the W300's 13.6, that's a pretty trivial difference compared with the nontrivial advantage the W290's 3-inch LCD, wide-angle 5x 28-140mm-equivalent lens, and 30fps 720p MPEG-4 movie capture offer over the W300's 2.7-incher, narrow angle 3x zoom lens, and VGA video. The W290 also includes Sony's latest automatic scene- and face-detection technologies, and doesn't include the hideously annoying and confusing Home menu anymore. If it's not abysmally slow and doesn't produce terrible photos, I think the W290 might be a mainstream contender for 2009. We'll get one, get going, and get back to you when it's available later this spring.

The Sony Cyber-shot S950 gets a more megapixeled brother.

(Credit: Sony Electronics)

Because the way sales channels operate forces manufacturers to create too many product SKUs, Sony has announced the Cyber-shot S980--it's identical to the S950, but costs $20 more for 12 megapixels rather than 10. Chances are the street prices will converge a month after it ships in March for $149.

(Credit: Sony Electronics)

(Credit: Sony Electronics)

A modest upgrade over last year's Cyber-shot DSC-H10, this spring's DSC-H20 nevertheless offers a few new nice improvements over its budget megazoom predecessor. Though it keeps the same 10x f3.5-4.4 38-380mm (35mm equivalent) lens and 3-inch LCD, the $279 camera bumps up to a 1/2.3-inch 10-megapixel CCD from 8 megapixels. We complained about the H10's lack of optical zoom in movie capture, and the H20 now supports it. Plus, it now shoots 720p MPEG-4 videos. Like many of the spring models, the H10 will include Sony's updated intelligent auto features, including more advanced automatic scene recognition and auto face detection.

(Credit: Sony Electronics Inc.)

Sony has updated its Cyber-shot DSC-W series of digital cameras with the announcement of four new models, the Cyber-shot DSC-W120, W130, W150, and W170. Sitting squarely between the company's budget-priced Cyber-shot S-series and its more upscale, style-minded T-series, these new cameras should appeal to users looking for a colorful, modestly-featured camera between $200 and $300.

All four new cameras feature a handful of new options based around an improved face detection system. According to Sony, these new cameras can now distinguish between adult and child faces, letting you decide whether the camera will base its auto-focus and auto-exposure on children or adults in your shot. The face detection systems also include Sony's "smile shutter" mode, a shooting mode that automatically takes pictures when your subject smiles. Like the standard face-detection modes, users can decide whether the camera automatically shoots smiling children or adults.

The 7-megapixel Cyber-shot DSC-W120 and 8-megapixel W130 sit at the bottom of the new batch. Both models feature 32 to 128mm-equivalent, f/2.8-5.8 optical zoom lenses, 2.5-inch LCD screens, and optical viewfinders. The DSC-W120 will retail for about $200 and come in black, silver, blue, and pink versions. The W130 will have a suggested retail price of $230, and come in black, silver, and pink. Both cameras are expected to ship in March.

Larger lenses, bigger screens, and a broader feature set justify the 8-megapixel W150 and 10-megapixel W170's premiums over the lower-end models. The W150 comes with a 30mm- to 150mm-equivalent f/3.3-5.2 lens and the W170 features a 28mm- to 140mm-equivalent f/3.3-5.2 lens, and both models feature 2.7-inch LCD screens and optical viewfinders. Both higher-end cameras also include Sony's intelligent scene recognition feature, which Sony claims enables the cameras to automatically choose the right scene preset mode to fit the shot. They also include more playback and storage options than the W120 and W130, including slide shows with multiple music tracks and transition effects, photo filtering by date and smile, and a favorite photo folder for marking your preferred shots. The DSC-W150 and W170 ship in April and will come in black, silver, red, and champagne versions. The W150 will retail for about $250, and the W170 for around $300.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H10

(Credit: Sony Electronics)

The DSC-H10 has a 230,000-pixel 3-inch LCD display, compared to the 115,000-pixel, 2.5-inch version on the DSC-H3 it replaces. Given the lack of an electronic viewfinder, that's a nontrivial enhancement, but pretty much the only one. Expect to see it in mid-April, for $299. Now go read something more interesting.