Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W270 review: Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W270

If you're going to spend upwards of £200 on a point-and-shoot compact, it'd better be good. The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W270's specs certainly bode well. With its 5x wideangle zoom, automatic scene detection, face, smile and blink detection, and an HD movie mode, it's a pretty tempting proposition.

7.5

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W270

The Good

Elegant design; easy for beginners; 5x wideangle zoom; super-fast autofocus.

The Bad

Indifferent picture quality; no zooming in movie mode; advanced options quickly become complicated.

The Bottom Line

Do you want technology or picture quality? The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W270 certainly does the tech, but while it might improve your hit rate of good shots, the outright quality is underwhelming. The handy zoom range and super-fast AF raise the W270 above the ordinary, but not by much

Positives
This isn't one of Sony's super-slim Cyber-shots, but it's still small enough to slide in a shirt pocket. The finish is plain but smart. It comes in four colours including black, silver, tan and red, so you can choose between a sober snapper or a glammed-up party-cam.

There's not much distortion and the Sony's 5x zoom gives decent definition in the centre of the frame but it's softer in the corners. You need to stick to low ISOs, though, because finer details quickly turn to mush as you increase the sensitivity (click to enlarge)

It starts up fast and focuses even faster. Sony's AF systems remain one step ahead of the rest, and you can use the usual two-stage shutter release -- half-press to focus, full-press when it's locked on -- or if the light's good, you can just stab once at the shutter and get the shot with no discernible shutter lag at all. This is exactly what a 'snapshot' camera should do.

There's no manual focus mode, but there are equally useful distance presets, so that's another way to cut out any lag. The face detection and automatic scene detection are also fast, which is as it should be. Intelligent automation is all very well as long as it doesn't get in the way, and here it doesn't.

That 5x zoom range is definitely worth having. The W270's lens zooms wider and further than the average compact's and it does make a difference, though it can't match the sheer versatility of the new generation of pocket superzooms like the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ6, for example.

This is a great camera for novices and casual photographers, thanks to its fool-proof automation and the provision of an Easy mode where there's practically nothing to know and nothing to adjust.

Negatives
There's a negative side to all the intelligent technology in this camera. It's not that it doesn't work, but that the controls, permutations and restrictions are complicated. The automatic scene recognition doesn't work if you're using the digital zoom or the Smile Shutter, and the list of ‘automatic' scenes isn't the same as those you can select manually.

The test chart looks super-sharp, but the prominent edge halos indicate the W270 is applying some pretty aggressive in-camera sharpening (click to enlarge)

The blink detection option works in some modes but not others. You can 'register' some faces so that they get priority on group shots, but the camera forgets them when you take out the battery to charge it. It's all incredibly clever, but you're not going to remember how half of this stuff works, or when.

Maybe Sony thinks this will distract us from what the pictures are actually like. They are okay, but they're nothing special. The lens is soft in the corners of the frame, and the W270 starts to smudge subtle detail even at ISO 200. It goes all the way up to IS0 3,200, but the chances are you're going to be somewhat hacked off by the image quality long before then.

The HD movie mode is worth having, even if it is only 720p rather than 1080p. But this is no alternative to a camcorder. The quality is there, but you can't zoom during shooting.

Conclusion
The W270 is a worthy mainstream compact with a wider-than-usual zoom range and state-of-the-art face detection and auto scene recognition, if that's what you like. The picture quality and the movie mode are only so-so by today's standards, but Sony's super-fast AF still gives this camera an edge over other brands.