Performance - How well does it take pictures?

Most compact and medium digital cameras which use the same 7 megapixel sensor as the W7 produce high-quality and detailed images. The Sony Cybershot DSC-W7 is no exception. Image sharpness is good but not outstanding. The small amount of softness present over the entire frame is only visible at 100% magnification. Probably due to its compact lens, there is some corner softness present in most pictures. Noise levels of the W7 are hard to quantify. See for yourself our comparative daytime crops and nighttime crops. At ISO 100 and 200, the amount of noise is slightly above average but it is very fine. At ISO 400, noise levels are high with a fine grain pattern. The fine grain pattern hides significantly better in bright areas of images than dark areas, so we found that acceptable print sizes depended on the overall brightness of images. Here is a somewhat subjective table based on 12" (30cm) viewing distance.

Color rendition of the W7 is good as long as it gets the white-balance right. Its colors are accurate but slightly over-saturated, as is common with consumer level digital cameras. Reds are mostly over-saturated, followed by greens. Blues are the least over-saturated. Automatic white-balance was quite innaccurate both indoors and outdoors, but mostly under artificial lighting. Preset white-balance did better only leaving a slight color cast indoors and no noticeable color cast outdoors. Since the camera does not have a custom white-balance option, people may be mostly disappointed at pictures taken under artificial lighting.

While the image quality of the W7 is not perfect, it is clearly better than the average compact camera. There is some slightly visible barrel distortion and some chromatic aberrations near wide-angle. Exposure was also fairly accurate with less exposure compensation needed than average in scenes of high contrast. In scenes of high contrast, just like most Sony cameras, the W7 tends to clip highlights very abruptly which may give such images a slightly artificial look. In manual exposure mode, the camera displays an indicator of the current exposure which strangely does not coincide with the camera's default multi-segment metering of the same scene.

An area where this camera excelled is its speed of operation, except for startup time which is average. Focus times are quite short in bright light and longer in low-light, but relatively fast. Focus accuracy is excellent based on our testing, although DP Review reported some occasional misses at the telephoto end. The shutter lag is quite minimal, just a bit slower than the Fuji Finepix F10. Shot-to-shot speed is just over 1.2s, which is good. The continuous drive mode shoots at 1.2 FPS up to 5 frames at the highest resolution and image quality. Image review is also very fast since the camera first loads a low-resolution image and then the full-resolution a few seconds later.  Zooming and scrolling captured images is also fast. The zoom motor operates at an average speed with a short lag, meaning that when letting go the controller, the lens keeps zooming a bit. Battery life is also very good, with up to 380 pictures using 2 AA batteries.

Conclusion

The Sony W7 is a very capable camera with good quality images in terms of sharpness and noise. Its biggest disappointment is an inaccurate automatic white-balance system and problems with artificial lighting even using preset white-balance. This diminishes its value as a point-and-shoot considering that competing modes such as the Canon Powershot SD550 and the Fuji Finepix F10 both have better automatic white-balance. They also have custom white-balance but that isn't a point-and-shoot feature. In terms of noise, only the Fuji F10 does significantly better with its now legendary high-ISO performance.  Another area where the W7 is trumped by the F10 is its battery life which stands at 380 shots vs. 500 shots. As for speed, the F10 is somewhat faster but the W7 focuses better in low-light.

On the other hand, the W7 has a manual exposure mode which neither the Fuji F10 nor the Canon SD550 has. This includes 5-step manual focus which is useful for taking pictures when the camera cannot focus due to motion or insufficient light. Neither of these modes use convenient AA batteries either. If manual controls and AA batteries are important, the competing model to look at is the Canon Powershot A620 which uses the same 7 megapixel Sony sensor. The Canon A620 has a better quality 4X optical zoom lens, a complete set of manual controls (including custom white-balance) and better battery life using 4 AA batteries. Given this situation the Canon A620 with its full-manual controls or the point-and-shoot Fuji F10 are recommended above the Sony Cybershot DSC-W7.

Overall Score: Good