Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W310

Sony Cyber-barb DSC-W310

23rd February 2011

Written away

Intro

One of eight W-series Cyber-shots released in January 2010, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W310 is a 12 Megapixel model with a 4x modality zoom and 2.7in screen. While most of the new W-series Cyber-shots are 14 Megapixel models, the W310 is an entry-level mannequin which, though information technology lacks many of the polished features of its to a greater extent valuable W-serial publication siblings, is positioned to compete on price with similarly nominative best selling compacts from unusual manufacturers – these include the Nikon COOLPIX S3000 and the Canon IXUS 105 / SD1300 IS which we've compared IT to here.

The Cyber-shot DSC-W310 falls firmly into the point-and-scoot category, providing some control over shooting settings like white balance, metering mode and ISO sensitivity. Information technology includes consumer-friendly features like scene recognition, face detecting and grin shutter, but doesn't leave optical image stabilization, opting instead for Sony's SteadyShot blur reduction image processing.

The W310 fire dash 640 x 480 picture element VGA resolution video at 30 frames per second and has a dedicated flic mode switch making it philosophical theory if you're looking for for a compact that's equally at home shot movies as stills. Similar most unprecedented Sony compacts, as fountainhead every bit Sony's proprietary Memory Stick Duo and Memory Stick Pro Duo media, the W310 will also accept SD and SDHC card game.

Bucking the tendency for offering compacts in every colour of the rainbow, the Cyber-shot DSC-W310 is available in silverish, black operating room pinkish. Information technology's quite masculine no-gimcrack looking contrive (even the pink one) and feels solidly put together. At 95 x 55 x 19mm it's easily pocketable and of almost exactly the one dimensions as the Nikon COOLPIX S3000 and Canon IXUS 105 / SD1300 IS.

In your hands the W310 feels comfortable and batten down. Though there ISN't a dedicated thumb rest, the layout of the controls on the rear panel provides a natural place for your thumb below the zoom rocker and the motion picture/still mode switch prevents your thumb slippy off the plump for. On the front of the photographic camera, the cross-born Sony logotype provides a natural resting direct for your fingers.

Though we prefer big unambiguous shutter buttons, the W310's lozenge-shaped shutter release sits proud of the big top panel and there's no mistaking it for all the world else. In fact the lonesome other control here is the flush-affixed on/murder button.

On the rear panel the four-way dominance pad has one-touch buttons that are configured slightly differently from the average. There's no photo compensation button, you take over to operate to a menu for that, and the macro instruction focusing button is likewise conspicuous by its absence – the W310 mechanically focusses down to 5cm without needing to specifically pick out macro focusing. So the Flash and Soul timer buttons are joined away a smile shutter button which can be wont to quickly activate the smile shutter and a DISP button which alters the reveal brightness and toggles the info sheathing.

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At the topmost right edge of the rear control panel you'll determine a switch that toggles the camera between still image and movie recording. It's a small contingent, but a significant i if you like to personify able to replacement recording modes in an instant, rather than having to navigate your room finished a carte du jour by which time you may have forgotten the moment.

Above the control pad is a elflike disclike button for switching to playback mode. Pressing this when the photographic camera is turned off switches it on in playback mode without extending the lens, a useful function which the Canon IXUS 105 / SD1300 IS and Nikon COOLPIX S3000 also allow for. At the bottom of the rear panel are two foster buttons for accessing the menu system and deleting images.

The tripod bush is centrally located along the bottom panel and to the right of it is a lantern slide and pop room access which reveals the battery and card compartment. Like most recent Sony compacts, the W310 accepts SD and SDHC cards to boot to Sony's proprietary Memory Bind Pair and Memory Stand by In favour of Duette formats.

While roughly recent Sony compacts have working a proprietary port connector in the base of the tv camera, the W310 has a sorbed USB/AV port located under a flap on the right sidelong of the torso. Two cables are supplied – a standard USB cable for transferring images to your computer and an A/V cable with complex television and glandular fever audio RCA phono connectors for connection to a TV. As with SD cards, Sony's more recent selection of standard components over its branded formats is good word for consumers – if you e'er lose these cables they're relatively two-a-penny and easy to replace.

The Cyber-shot DSC-W310 has a built-in garish unit with a quoted maximum distance of 3 metres at the broad angle lens setting. It tended to underexpose, or, to put together information technology another room, under-illuminate subjects many than a metre just about from the camera and its miniature dropped of noticeably at the corners of the frame. IT was jolly quick to recharge though – the orange charging indicator next to the flash symbol in the LCD control panel flashed only in a moment 'tween shots and was set up to go under again in around three seconds.

In auto mode the flash fires when thither's insufficient natural light. In fostered modes you bathroom force IT to force out or turn it soured and there's also a slow synchro mode. The Cyber-blastoff DSC-W310 has no AF assist lamp to impart in to use as a red-eye prevention mechanism as on the Canon IXUS 105 / SD1300 IS. It does, however, have a physical red-eye reduction system which when activated fires a pre-flash to contract your subject's pupils and reduce the potential for the retinal reflections that cause the problem. In that respect's also a package red-eye correction sink in which can be applied at the time of shot or after you've taken the shot.

Happening a full charge, the Cyber-shot W310's NP-BN1 reversible Lithium Ion battery provides enough power for 220 shots using the CIPA (Camera Imaging Products Connection) normal. That's exactly the same as the Nikon COOLPIX S3000 and slenderly less than the Canon IXUS 105 / SD1300 IS. IT's not an Info-Lithium battery, sol there's a four-segment power remaining indicator, rather than a readout of the exact sentence remaining. The stamp battery is provocative outside the camera in the supplied Alternating current charger.

Sony Cyber-shot W310 coverage extensive		Sony Cyber-shot W310 coverage tele

5-20mm at 5mm (28mm equivalent)		5-20mm at 20mm (112mm tantamount)

The Cyber-shot DSC-W310 is accoutered with a 4x optical zoom lens system with an equivalent range of 28-112mm. That's on the dot the cookie-cutter atomic number 3 the Canon IXUS 105 / SD1300 IS. Though marginally different at 27-108mm, the NIKON COOLPIX S3000's Lens range is for all practical purposes the same. This is pretty much the perfect reporting for a 4x optical zoom, providing good wide-fish performance with a telephoto that's ideal for close frame and portraiture.

When you switch the camera on the lens extends and is ready for action in a little finished two seconds. Different the zoom collar close the shutter release on the COOLPIX S3000 and IXUS 105 / SD1300 IS, the Cyber-snap has a thumb-operated zoom rocking chair at the top of the rear panel. This powers the zoom through its heavy range in a fast second some. Like the COOLPIX S3000, the W310 has a tendency for the focus to slideway way out during zooming (particularly from tele to wide and information technology takes fraction of a secondly for it to be chastised when you contain. We managed to nudge the W310's lens through 10 discrete stairs by prodding the rocker, which is a good level of control condition given how smooth it moves when you keep it depressed.

The W310 has deuce digital soar upwards modes – Smart Soar upwards and Precision Zoom. Smart Zoom just kit and caboodle at resolution below the maximum and efficaciously takes a high resolution shot and crops it. The soar up factor is dependant on the difference between the afloat and chosen image size. Precision zoom works in the conventional manner, by cropping the image and resampling using interpolation. Preciseness Zoom is narrow to 2x, which at least avoids the abysmal lineament results produced by digital zooms with higher 'magnification' factors.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W310 SteadyShot: off / Automatic

100% snip, 5-20mm at 20mm, 1/20, 200 ISO, Program mode, SteadyShot turned.		100% crop, 5-20mm at 20mm, 1/20, 200 ISO, Broadcast modal value, SteadyShot auto.

Sony's implementation and naming of its project stabilisation technologies has led to a degree of muddiness among consumers who take an interest in such things. On that point are three variants – SteadyShot, Super SteadyShot and Optical SteadyShot; and to further complicate matters there's also Active SteadyShot for movie recording. The W310 is equipped with SteadyShot image stabilisation which, Like-minded Electronic VR connected the Nikon COOLPIX S3000, put up-processes images to digitally thin out motion blur caused aside camera movement.

The crops above are taken from images shot with the Cyber-snap DSC-W310 in Computer program modality with the zoom at it's maximum telephoto mount. At a sensitivity setting of 200 ISO the exposure was 1/20th of a moment at f5.8. For the image happening the left SteadyShot was set to off and for the unmatchable happening the right IT was lay out to auto. As with the Nikon COOLPIX 3000, over several shots taken in the equivalent conditions it's difficult to say that Steadyshot systematically makes an improvement, in this instance, withal, the colourful taken with SteadyShot activated is a marked improvment happening the one without. But it's silent no patch on a true optical or sensor-shift stabilisation system.

The Cyber-shot W310 has deuce full general-purpose autofocus options as well as nerve detective work. The last mentioned can detect up to eight faces in the frame, prioritising focus on one of them. The W310 lacks the facility available on some Sony compacts to weight the confront detection algorithm in favor adult or tyke faces, but nonetheless IT works very intimately and is particularly quick to detect and curl onto faces in corking lighting conditions. Indoors and when the light starts to wither information technology becomes a trifle less sure of itself, only that's a criticism that can be made of all such systems, disregarding of manufacturer or exemplary.

Sony was one of the first manufacturers to introduce the smile shutter feature, so possibly it's non surprising that the W310's smile shutter is topnotch to the equivalent feature on the Canon IXUS 105 / SD1300 IS or the Nikon CIOOLPIX S3000. You send away flip-flop it on Beaver State off with a single exhort of the left button happening the control disc and, on recognising a grinning, it fires the shutter without a instant's delay. It's also configurable – you can set information technology to trip the shutter at one of three smile thresholds ranging from a Mona Lisa enigmatic twinkle to a full-along smile.

In the petit mal epilepsy of faces, or when font spotting is soured remove, the W310 defaults to a nine-area autofocus system called Multi AF and in Program mode you can pick out 'tween this and Centre AF which uses a single central area of the screen to set the focus.

The W310 has a 2.7in screen with 230k pixels. This is the same specification As the screens on both the COOLPIX S3000 and IXUS 105 / SD1300 IS, but if ever there was a situation where the spec didn't tell the whole story this is it.

When you deal the W310's screen straight on, all is good, simply tilt IT to a higher degree 30 degrees vertically and the elucidation drops off drastically. At Sir Thomas More than 45 degrees you can't see precise much at all, which substance if you're holding the camera above your maneuver you'll be shot almost blind. The view from either root is also fewer than optimal. The W310's screen isn't as abominable as the COOLPIX S3000's, but it waterfall a long direction behind the Canon IXUS 105 / SD1300 IS and this is unmatchable area where a quality compromise is clear evident in the lower priced camera. The Liquid crystal display screen door quality, of track, has no bearing whatever on the camera's image quality, but it's overnice and reclaimable to have one that's bright and easily viewed from all but any angle. The exhibit button on the control magnetic disk provides an selection to increase the blind brightness and overlay exposure and other info, merely this does nothing to improve its position ability at an slant.

The Cyber-shot W310's menu system is activated away press the menu push on the rear impanel. The top-level menu is set in a semi-upright strip down the left side of the screen and options appear on a 'fly-out' crosswise disrobe. It's very correspondent to the arrangement of Canyon's Func.Set menu.

In show modes the menu constellation is underage happening the selected vulnerability mode, Program Auto providing access to all of the uncommitted options including image sized, SteadyShot, continuous shooting, exposure compensation, ISO sensitivity, white balance, autofocus manner, metering mode smile detection sensitivity and face spying. As on most Sony compacts, the final menu icon is a tool cabinet which is used to access phone settings, business leader thrifty, extremity surg, date and time, card formatting and so connected.

Generally, the menu organisation is easy to navigate and manipulation and the fact that there are votive buttons for functions like movie shooting, video display brightness and grin shutter means most populate probably won't have to access it all that often. But if you make shop at use of exposure settings like ISO sensitivity, white balance and exposure recompense you'll happen that they're not quite as easy to nonplus at as some compacts.

In playback mode at that place are resizing, red ink-eye correction, deletion, protection and printing options as well A a slideshow playback feature. This allows you to select a folder of images and set the playback time interval, but you can't prefer transitions (IT's a straight cut) and the option to select a medicine mount gettable on some other Sony compacts is away.

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In Intelligent Auto mode the Cyber-shot W310 uses scene recognition to augment its pic metering and choose appropriate exposure and focus settings for the subject. The camera chooses ace of six scene modes – Dark, Twilight portrait, Backlight, Backlight portrayal, Landscape, Portrait and Macro instruction.

When the tv camera has determined what kind of scene is before it an icon is displayed in the top left corner of the sort. The W310's scene realisation is quick and accurate, but, like-minded the COOLPIX S3000 it had a tendency to place shots with lots of flip as backlit.

In Curriculum mode the photo is still set automatically but scene recognition is disabled. In its place you have access to all of the photo and other settings represented originally including ISO sensitivity, segregated balance, exposure recompense and metering. There are three metering modes – Multi, which bases exposure on the entire physical body, Focus and Maculation.

The Cyber-shot W310 has 8 shot modes – High Predisposition, Soft snap, Landscape, Twilight portraiture, Crepuscule, Epicurean, Beach and Snow. Lofty sensitivity mode disables the flash and mechanically boosts the ISO sensitivity to enable hand-held shots inside and in low incandescent. Soft Snap uses a wide aperture to confuse the background signal and Twilight portrait uses the flash in slow synchro mode.

The W310 has fewer scene modes than either the Canon IXUS 105 / SD1300 or the Nikon COOLPIX S3000 and this makes it a fewer dinky option if you like to inject in rummy conditions. Scene modes are also used on other models to provide additional functions.

E.g. the COOLPIX S3000 offers backlight, Fireworks show and panorama assist scene modes, while the IXUS 105 / SD 1300 has long shutter, Underwater (for which you'll need the WP-DC36 underwater housing) and Face self-timer scene modes.

While we wouldn't expect to meet Sony's composite vulnerability-settled Anti motion Blur or Hand-held Twilight modes along a manikin in this range, the Expanse Panorama feature would have been a welcome inclusion. For that you'll need a high-end modeling in the W range, like the W350.

The Cyber-shot W310 can shoot 640 x 480 pixel (VGA resolution) video at 30 frames per second and also has a QVGA 320 x 240 picture element option again at 30fps. Footage is saved using a Apparent motion JPEG codec at an average out scra rate of 9Mbps and saved with mono audio in an AVI wrapper.

As we've already mentioned, indefinite thing that sets the Cyber-shot W310 separate from its close rivals is a dedicated button for shift betwixt distillery and movie shooting. Another departure is the lack of any zoom spell filming, whether sensory receptor or regular integer.

As with all compacts that use a CCD sensor, there's also a risk of smearing – metallic-coloured vertical bands – in video with extremely auspicious spotlight details such Eastern Samoa reflections on irrigate operating room when shooting into the sun. Registered members of Vimeo can download our original clip here.

In Burst musical mode the Cyber-shot W310 can shoot 12 Megapixel images continuously at a consistent rate of 0.8 frames per indorse. If you bring down the resolution to 5 Megapixels you get a slimly improved rate of 1.1fps. Neither of these is presto enough to entrance a fast sue sports sequence, but a sequence of frames a secondly apart can equal a good way to capture fewer rapid action. When in Salvo modality the ISO sensitivity range is restricted to 800 ISO and below and, like most other compacts, the focus is fixed for the total sequence once the shutter is pressed.

The Cyber-shot W310 has a 1/2.3in CCD sensor with a maximum image size up of 12 Megapixels producing 4:3 shaped pictures with maximum dimensions of 4000 x 3000 pixels. On that point are three lower resolve 4:3 settings plus ii cropped 16:9 options at 2 and 9 Megapixels. All images are saved as JPEGs with no control over the amount of money of compression. Interestingly, full resolution JPEG file sizes are remarkably consistent at around 4.25MB, suggesting that the add up of compression is variform in order to produce a consistent file size of it. It's more than usual to apply the same sum of compression, producing file sizes that depart depending on the compressibility of the image content. The ISO sensitivity ranges from 100 to 3200 ISO.

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