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(More customer reviews)It was probably a month or two ago that I saw some press releases on a new point and shoot Sony had coming out, the WX1, which intrigued me. Like a lot of photo enthusiasts, while a DSLR is the weapon of choice, the elusive holy grail seems to be a small point and shoot camera that can slip in your pocket so you can be packing at all times, yet would still take good looking photos that are not so riddled with noise (a problem almost always plaguing point and shoots because of their small sensors) that they look like your tv screen when the test pattern has gone off. As the old adage goes, the best camera is the one you have on you when you need it and a DSLR is a little tough to integrate into your daily accessories.
So in evaluating this camera, perspective is required. This is not the camera you would go to for your best work. It is not the same package of everything you have with your DSLR and collection of lenses shrunk down to something the size of a couple of packs of gum. It is a tiny point and shoot camera that easily slips into your pocket with room to spare that does way better than the average point and shoot. In other words, it's a top performer for the junior varsity but its not ready to hang with the varsity.
Here's the reasons I wanted one:
1. I wanted a small camera I could keep in my pocket for daily use. What a lot of photographers call a "street shooter", something you can pull out and use to grab shots of whatever you happen to run into during your day.
This camera is certainly small. I've seen a few people refer to it as "chunky" and they must consider Ellen Page to be fat. This is tiny. I was surprised at how small the box it came in was, and even more surprised when I found the camera in the small box. My first impression was it wasn't much bigger than one of those old minolta spy cameras. My previous point and shoot camera was the Sony W300, which most people considered slim and stylish, and this camera is smaller in all respects than that. Side by side the WX1 seems slight smaller than the W300, but looking at it alone it looks like a tiny toy camera. I gave the W300 to my wife, and when she caught a view of the WX1 her reaction was "But yours is so much smaller." She was thrilled when I gave her the W300 but now has taken to calling it a hand me down. I went from hero to goat. As they say, size matters.
2. Stealth factor - I wanted a camera that I could sneak into places that don't allow cameras.
You could drop this baby into the front pocket of your levis and still have room for a decent game of pocket pool. I can easily get it, a wallet and even a cell phone all in the front pocket of my jeans. Alone in the pocket, it scarcely makes even a bump that a security guard might notice.
3. Low light capabilities - I dislike using a flash and wanted something that could take good pictures in natural light, and could function well in dark places.
The low light capabilities of this camera are astonishing. The camera can basically see better in the dark then you can. Lots of the pictures I took in dark rooms look way more illuminated in the photos then they were in reality.
Because it seemed to be everything I had been searching for in a point and shoot, I went ahead and ordered this as soon as Amazon had them available. Because they were not yet widely available, there were no hands on reviews by the usual photography sites and blogs. While waiting to get the camera, I would check Amazon every day to see if anyone who had actually used the camera had put up any reviews yet. The initial few reviews were alarming. People who said they wanted to love the camera didn't. The gist of their complaints seemed to be that the camera took good pictures in low light (although a few didn't even agree with that) and crappy pictures in good light. Sample photos that people began posting on Flickr also didn't look too hot. Because of this I regretted ordering the camera so quickly and almost just sent it back to Amazon without even opening the box.
I decided to try it for myself before deciding whether to send it back, and found it to be much better than the initial reviews had painted it (and subsequent reviews on Amazon now seem to be swinging towards the positive).
I do have to agree that a lot of the shots I've taken outdoors in bright sunlight seem a little overexposed and dull, but I've also had this problem with my Canon DSLRs when set on automatic. In any case, I've found that with the WX1, all you have to do is open the photo in Photoshop and click "Auto Contrast" and the problem is instantly corrected. A reviewer on Amazon has also noted that you can get more vivid, warm outdoors photos from the WX1 by using the Program mode and moving the White Balance setting from Auto to Flash. I tried this, and with the White Balance set to Flash the pictures basically look the same out of the camera as they do after I've run them through Photoshop and hit Auto Contrast. Another user mentioned in some of his posts that turning off the DRO in the menu greatly improves outdoor photos.
The argument that most people just want nice looking snapshots right out of the camera and don't want to mess with Photoshop is valid, but those are probably not the people who are going to be interested in this camera anyway. The camera's not cheap and those people would be very happy with the snapshots they could get with an inexpensive entry level point and shoot.
In any event, after a couple of weeks with the camera, my recommendation for everyday daylight shots is not to use the Intelligent Auto mode, but rather put the camera in the "P" or program mode. This will allow you to fix the ISO at 160, which is fine 90% of the time. Decrease the EV setting by .07. Most shots will now come out great. If you want warmer colors put the white balance on Flash, or increase the saturation a little after the fact in Photoshop. As noted above, turning off the DRO also seems to help.
As for claims that the WX1 photos come out noisy, I don't agree. Even the low light pictures don't seem to have a noise problem. This is not to say they are DSLR quality, but they don't look bad at all for a point and shoot.
Other positives:
4. A nice 24mm wide angle lens, which lets you get very close to things and is also great for cramped indoor settings, buildings and landscapes. Speaking of getting close to things, the macro feature springs into gear automatically when you stick the camera within an inch or two of an object.
5. Fast on, little lag time between shots unless you're using the Burst, Panoramic, Anti-Blur or hand held Twilight modes which take a little time to process.
6. HD Video. I never really use this but nice to have in case I ever catch the You Tube bug.
7. Panoramic mode. In this mode simply press the shutter and sweep your arm and the camera creates a panorama all by itself. You don't have to take a bunch of single shots and try to stitch them together later with a photo program. The only drawback is that it sets the exposure for the area you start, which can make it difficult to get a good one in uneven lighting.
8. Battery life seems pretty good.
So what's not to like about this camera?
1. No manual controls.
The W300 had full manual controls, and I wonder why Sony couldn't have included them here and really made this a top of the line point and shoot. Many serious amateur photographers who would otherwise love this camera won't even consider it because it doesn't allow them the ability to manually control aperture, shutter speed, etc. This, along with the lack of RAW capabilities, will probably keep this camera from competing with the Panasonic LX3 and upcoming Canon S90.
As note above, there is a limited work around. Using the Program (as opposed to Automatic) Mode allows you to set the ISO between 160 and 3200, which will force the camera to use a slower or faster shutter speed. You should note that if the DRO is on, you can't use a ISO higher than 800. Turn it off if you want to go higher. You can also put the camera in High ISO mode, which allows for faster shutter speed.
Canon's soon to be released S90 seems to have become the great new hope for shutterbugs longing for a small point and shoot that takes great low light photos instead of the WX1, primarily because it not only also has a fast lens and improved sensor, but also manual controls and raw capabilities.
2. No viewfinder.
I read somewhere this morning that 25% - soon to be a third - of the population are aging baby boomers. If they're anything like me, they have a hard time reading a restaurant menu in dim light, or for that matter anything else a few feet from their face without reading glasses. Translated to small point and shoot cameras, it's almost impossible for an older pair of eyes to clearly see what's on a 2.7 or 3 inch LCD screen on the back of camera, even if bright sun isn't washing out the screen. Most of the time with the WX1 I really can't make out what's on the screen, because to me its all out of focus (the problem is my eyes, not the camera). I just have to sort of aim the camera in the direction I want and estimate the framing and have faith. The W300 had a viewfinder, which was why I bought it. Sure wish this one did too, even if they had to make the camera a little bigger.
3. Mediocre zoom.
The WX1 has a 5x zoom, which would seem to be better than the standard 3x zoom found on a typical point and shoot. In practice, because this camera has such a wide angle lens to start with, zooming out 5x doesn't seem to get you any closer than a 3x zoom on a point and shoot without a wide...Read more›
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