Sony Cyber-shot W290

[ Background music ] >> Josh Goldman: Hi, I'm Josh Goldman, Senior Editor for CNET reviews and this is the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W290. It's a 12 megapixel camera with a wide angle lens and a 5x zoom. On back is a 3 inch LCD next to a very simple control layout. You have your zoom rocker, your mode dial, play button, directional pad, delete and a menu button for accessing shooting options as well as general camera settings. On top is the power button, shutter release and a button that activates Sony's smile shutter that sets the camera to continually snap photos every time it picks up on someone smiling. Overall, it's a great design except for all the fingerprints the body collects and the flimsy battery compartment door that pops open a little too easily. The W290 features Sony's intelligent auto that combines its auto scene recognition with advanced face detection and optical image stabilization. It's perfect if you rarely, if ever leave in auto mode on your cameras. You also get an HD movie mode, a program auto for manually tweaking things like the and exposure compensation, an easy mode that basically locks down all but a couple of shooting controls, and the requisite scene mode letting you pick from 10 specialty scenes. As with most point and shoot cameras the photo quality from the W290 could be a little bit better and performance a touch faster but neither was disappointing from this camera and if you take into account its attractive price tag, this camera is tough to beat. [Background music] I'm Josh Goldman and that's the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W290