Sony DSCW830/B 20.1 MP Digital Camera with 2.7-Inch LCD (Black)

This is a great little camera. I have used it on many occasions and for general picture taking it gives high quality and high pixel photos. It is in now standard form where the rear screen is used to select the picture. The camera has a flash and the focusing has a reasonable range. However there are some things worth noting: 1. I cannot get good macro close ups of flowers. The combination of a poor macro and the rear image have yielded several out of focus pictures. 2. There is a significant time lag between taking pictures, 5 to 7 seconds before you can snap another. I do not know why this is the case so if you are trying to snap some fast motion pics this may not be for you. Overall it fits neatly in a pocket and unless you rely solely upon you smart phone this is a well priced option for quality pictures in general.

This is an open letter/review to the Sony Corporation : First let me say I don't write product reviews, and I buy a LOT of products from Amazon. I am a building / home inspector and as such (recently did the math) I take upwards of 500 - 600 photos a week for my inspection reports that people rely on to purchase perhaps the biggest purchase of their lives - their home. I bought this camera in February of 2015 (14 months ago) and after ~33,000 photos, my beloved DSC-W380 has finally met its match by way of a lens booger. NOW, let me get to the point. Being the centerpiece of my livelihood and the tool that has captured more construction sites, floor decking, landscaping, electrical components, low lighting conditions of every kind, frost, rain, (and yes even falling off a building... action shot ; )) I was troubled when its tiny little heart gave up on me (natural death). Since then I have tried virtually every Point and Shoot on the market $200 and under, $200 and over, Sony, Nikon, Canon, done side by sides, swam in camera specs that would make any sane person's head spin, and have come to one resolute conclusion... If you are in the inspection business and need an amazing quality image on the quick, this is it. I'm not selling cameras here, so let me get back to my letter. SONY... PLEASE, PLEASE... DO NOT DISCONTINUE THIS CAMERA. It is the perfect marriage of low light taking, no nonsense, perfect design for working professional (love the thumb zoom... can and will never zoom with my index finger... thumb on zoom, trigger finger on trigger... amen), perfect optics, aluminum non-plastic tough as nails shell, perfect amount of zoom... I could go on. This is a timeless camera for a no-nonsense user and should NEVER be discontinued. Thank you Sony for the genesis of this camera, and your attention to this open letter, I would guess I'm speaking for a large swath of real estate inspectors everywhere. Phenomenal camera, just repurchased after at least 30 hours of research, hands-on experimentation, etc (03/16)...I will not buy anything other than the DSC-W830 for my main work camera. Kind Regards

I was needing a small camera for product photography. I have a dslr, but wanted something smaller and comparable to a smart phone when it comes to quality and portability. After much research, I settled on the Sony DSCW830. Partially because of the reviews & price, and partially because my current dslr is a older Sony model which has a similar menu. I've already taken a bunch of test shots with it, and so far I'm really digging it. Now, don't get me wrong, this wont replace your dslr camera. I wouldn't use this to take action shots. This would not be my "go to" camera on Christmas morning, as it takes entirely too long for it to snap the picture ... However, for my needs it's perfect. The macro setting is where this camera really shines, as it takes very crisp photos of small subjects. It also seems to perform well for taking shots where the subject can sit still and pose for you. The video quality is more than sufficient and seems just as good, if not better than most smart phones. The battery life is good for this size of camera, and it charges up pretty quickly. All in all, it's a good little budget friendly camera if you use it for the right things. Pros- Size Value Quality Easy menu system Good for shooting 'still' subjects Cons- Doesn't come with a case Not good for taking action shots

When I first got this camera I was wondering if I made a mistake. Yes I was looking for the impossible, an inexpensive digital camera with a fairly descent zoom and good features. Can this camera take pictures in rapid succession? No. In continuous mode it will do 3 shots at 1 FPS. Can you zoom in on the pictures and see good detail? Yes and No. Even set at 20meg the images sometimes do not bear close scrutiny if taken under low light, like indoors at night. But with enough light on the subject it takes excellent images. Did I experience a lag when taking pictures? Well yes and no. The camera takes a little getting used to. While the closest focusing distance on full wide is 5 inches, once you start to use the zoom, that close focusing distance extends out to 5 feet. So if what you want to take a picture of is within 5 feet, just keep the camera on wide and walk up to take the shot. If you can't walk up to take the picture then use the zoom. Until I figured this out I was very frustrated wondering why the camera would not lock focus on the subject. So after all of these faults why have I given this camera 5 stars. Well you get what you pay for. I have a Sony DSLR and a Sony all in one. Both cost about $1,000 at the time of purchase. Those take fantastic pictures but you can't fit them in a shirt pocket. It is unfair to compare a camera that costs a little over $100 to those. But for what I intended, this little DSC-W830 is fantastic. I get very descent shots which I view on my 27" monitor. It fits conveniently in a pocket and (once you understand the controls and get used to how it handles) takes pictures quickly and accurately enough for my needs. If I need better I get out my more expensive cameras. But for convenience and ease of use this little camera is a gem.

At this price point, we can't expect miracles. My other camera is a Sony a-6000, but the DSC-W830 was purchased as a simple-to-use camera for my wife--to replace her 2006 model Canon Elph SD600 (6 megapixels, 3x optical zoom, no image stabilization). The image quality and noise levels are definitely much better than the old Elph with this Sony point-and-shoot. But the remaining question is whether my wife should use this camera or her iPhone 6 while on vacation. On paper, the DSC-W830 should be better: its sensor is 50% larger than the iPhone sensor, and it boasts 20 megapixels compared to the iPhone 6's 8 megapixels. And the DSCW830 sports a Zeiss lens. Using the intelligent auto setting, I shot several scenes using the DSC-W830 (lens at widest setting--25 mm focal length equivalent) and the iPhone 6 (29 mm focal length equivalent) and the standard photo app. In the centers of the photos, the DSC-W830 images were clearly sharper reflecting the improved resolution of the sensor. But at the edges of the photos, the iPhone 6 images were much sharper because of the large chromatic aberration for the Sony product. I haven't tried out the P mode on the DSC-W830 in with various settings (exposure compensation, ISO, HDR changes, etc.), and I suspect that by fussing with the Sony camera I could make it perform close to the iPhone 6--in the center of the image with wide angle. The chromatic aberration appears to be a lens issue, and I haven't tested different focal lengths (levels of zoom) to see whether it gets worse or better when focal length is increased. The iPhone 6 probably has less of a problem with this because it uses a prime lens (no zoom). Of course the DSC-W830 has the zoom capability (an advantage), which the iPhone lacks. I tried out the panorama feature on the DSC-W830, and found the resolution of images to be so bad that the panoramas were useless. The iPhone 6 panoramas are excellent--way, way better. The SCN setting on the Sony camera may be useful, but the 4 picture effects are gimmicky in my opinion. The screen menus are simple and easy to navigate. Based on sensor size and number of pixels, I would have thought that the Sony camera might have been better than the iPhone 6, but overall it is equivalent in some circumstances and worse in others. Did Sony use a cheap sensor and other inexpensive electronics? Is their firmware less sophisticated? I was disappointed in the lens performance (chromatic aberration, softness at the edges of the images). I think that the Sony DSC-W830 is suitable for snapshots made by people who may be technically challenged--Aunt Ida or your 12 year-old pre-teen. It is convenient if you are going to an amusement park with the family and just want some fun shots. But if you don't need the zoom, you can probably get comparable to better results with your iPhone 6, particularly if you install the ProCamera 8 app, which makes the iPhone work more like a digital camera. UPDATE Previous shots were done in the evening, when conditions might have been less than optimal. I tested the DSC-W830 in bright sunlight and with different zoom settings. Results were disappointing. The right edge of the image was blurred at 1X, 2X (equiv. to 50 mm), and 4X zoom. I had thought that perhaps a smaller aperture (resulting from the bright sunlight) might help, or that the lens would have a "sweet-spot" at mid-zoom. The blurring would be just detectable with a 4x6 print, but I wouldn't use images from this camera for any greater enlargement of the whole image. You can have an acceptable enlargement if you crop off the edges leaving the center 50% of the image. One of the photos below (about 1/3 of the whole frame) shows the blurring on the right edge. I'm disappointed.

I'm impressed with this camera's ability to take decent videos in less-than-perfect lighting conditions! My old Kodak shot videos that sometimes turned out almost completely black on the computer, even when I could see just fine in real life while recording. This camera takes videos that look just as bright on the screen as the room does in real life. I was told I couldn't get such a camera for a low price, so that was a nice surprise. They're a little grainy when you transfer them, and quiet for some reason so I have to speak more loudly then usual in them, but still better quality than my old camera's videos were. I'm very pleased with that. The menu is easy to navigate and I was able to get the hang of it and figure everything out quickly without even referring to the manual - which, by the way, contains information about battery life and how long it takes to charge; another nice surprise. I also like having a panorama mode.

Terrible picture quality. I had previous good experience with Sony's CyberShot model line and Carl Zeiss lenses, and that's why I bought this to replace my 9-years old Canon PowerShot A400. To my disappointment, not this time! I took the same frame with this camera and my old Canon that I must have put at least 10,000 shots on, compensating for the difference in focal depth by stepping backward for a mere 5-6 feet (the Sony has a wider viewing angle than my poor old Canon). On the surface, both shots looked ok. On 1:1 scale, the details and edges are completely smudged and lost with this Sony. The tired lens of my 9-years old Canon was able to produce a crisper shot overall and captured more fine details of near and far objects in the frame. Mind you, I had both shots set at the same ISO and light conditions. I have uploaded and noted the pictures of the 2 cameras for everyone to see. The should by under Customer Images page http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-media/product-gallery/B00HNJWUBI/ref=cm_cmu_up_thanks_hdr Then I thought about the difference in Megapixels. The Canon is an old 3.2 MP, this one is 20.1 MP. I'm guessing that the Sony's processor is unable to utilize all these pixels efficiently in the time the camera takes to shoot the image. My experience with older DSC CyberShots have been amazing. But this was also around the time when 4 megapixels was considered high-end for point-n-shoot cameras. So, this is all speculation. But, the bottom line remains: A new camera is unable to produce a crisp, clear, fine detailed image as a 9-years old one with 1/6th the megapixel power and outdated processing technology. I still love an value Carl Zeiss optics. In fact I own several interchangeable lenses from this company and they are superb in every aspect. I just don't understand how Sony managed to smudge this lens's reputation so badly by installing it in this particular model. Another possibility is that this particular camera was a lemon, but I don't have the time or energy to order a replacement just to verify that it was actually this particular piece and not the entire DSCW830 line. Thankfully, it only took me 3 days of testing to make up my mind and decide that I'm not interested in paying for a new camera that gives out pictures that are worse than the one I'm trying to replace. I already started the return/refund process with Amazon and shipped it back yesterday! 5 Stars to Amazon though for their return/refund policies.

I wanted a small, lightweight, easy to use camera that takes good quality photos. I did some research and i chose the Sony W830. The camera is very small and will easily fit in your pocket. It's made of aluminum that looks great. It does not have that cheap plasticky feel. The menu system is very easy to learn. I tried the Full Auto, Program and Scene modes, they work fine. I viewed the photos on my 27" iMac and 50" HDTV and i am very satisfied with the photo quality. The HD movie mode is also good. Battery life is OK but i recommend buying a second battery and a case. In my opinion this is a 5 star camera.