Product Reviews

At first, we couldn't quite believe the price of Sony's new Cyber-shot DSC-W35. Considering that it sports a 7.2-megapixel resolution and a 3x optical zoom lens from Carl Zeiss, we weren't sure whether or not £114 was a mistake on Morecomputers' website. The good news is that it wasn't and the solidly built DSC-W35 is one of those rare examples of a product that isn't too good to be true.

The only noticeable compromise can be found around the back of the Cyber-shot - a 2in TFT screen rather than the 2.5in versions that are more common on brand new cameras. Thankfully, it's bright enough to use outdoors in sunny conditions and there's even a tiny viewfinder for times when the sun is shining directly onto the screen. It isn't difficult to see when your subject is in focus, as the DSC-W35's default focus mode shows multiple points on-screen to indicate where it has locked on.

Tinker, Tailor

If you like to tinker, then you can change this to centre-weighted focusing, or manual if you prefer, and control over metering is also offered with the choice of multi, centre-weighted or - most usefully - spot. A crucial feature missing from other digital cameras in this price range is flash compensation - you can select between three positions, depending on whether you want a dimmer or brighter flash.

The menu system is simple to navigate using the direction pad on the rear, which doubles as the control for flash, exposure compensation, macro mode and self-timer when you're shooting. Image size is accessed via a dedicated button, which is handy if you ever forget to take

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a memory card out on your travels.

The DSC-W35 has a healthy 56MB of memory, but that's only enough for 16 shots at full quality. Switch to 5-megapixels - still enough for A4-size prints - and you'll fit 23 shots in it. Changing to the right mode is simple using the command dial. It offers anti-shake, portrait, landscape, night, beach, snow and movie modes.

Image is everything

Overall image quality is superb for the money. Outdoors in good light, shots showed great levels of detail and realistic colours were always correctly exposed. The default sharpening is a little excessive, but this can be reduced through the menus. Indoors in proper light, we found photos were still sharp and the auto white balance wasn't easily fooled under different types of lighting. Shots with flash also had good white balance, and the ability to soften the flash for close-up portraits proved useful to avoid reflections from people's faces. It was also good to see noise kept at bay when using the anti-shake mode in low light.

Macro ability is excellent, allowing you to get impossibly close to subjects and video clips were the best we've seen from a compact camera. At TV quality, clips were simply superb, with excellent detail levels and the microphone eliminated wind noise in our test. Beware though, that although length is unlimited, each second of footage will eat up over 1MB of space on your memory card.

On and on

Unlike most other cameras around this price, which come with non-rechargeable AA batteries, the Sony boasts a long-lasting lithium-ion battery. Sony claims that it will last 380 shots and our testing certainly suggests this is true. Another advantage is that the W35's easily pocketable size, which means you're more likely to carry it around everywhere with your than a chunkier camera.

Overall, the Cyber-shot is a real bargain. It looks far more expensive than it is, and matches the looks with excellent photos and movies. It's easy to use, yet has enough controls to satisfy those who want to tweak settings for the best quality photographs. Our advice is to buy one before Sony changes its mind about the low price.