Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony Cybershot DSC-W220 Digital Camera - Black (12.1MP, 4x Optical Zoom)2.7 inch LCD

I bought the Sony W220B as a smaller alternative to my Canon SLR and as a replacement for my Sony P10 5.2MP which I bought some five years ago (excellent camera, but rather small screen).

The W220B is 12.1MP. Personally, I think 12.1MP is too much and the difference in image quality compared to the P10 (which has less than half the amount of pixels) is negligible. But the price of memory has plummeted and a 4GB memory card (good for 800 pictures at 12.1MP) can now be had for around £15. Photos can also be easily converted to VGA for email (as 12.1MP is too big).

The main reason for the purchase was to get a bigger screen (the Sony 2.7" has 230k resolution, the same as my Canon 3" SLR) and for an improved range of features. And the new features are what makes this camera stand out. Shoot in the `P Mode' and you will get Continuous Shooting, Exposure Bracketing and `Steady Shot' Image Stabilisation, all found on the bigger SLR cameras.

In fact, I found the `P Mode' to be good for 90% of all photos. The Intelligent Scene Recognition is decent (select in Auto Mode) and covers a lot of low-light shots and the `Smile Shutter Mode' is a nice touch. A bit disappointing was the `ISO Mode'. I found images to be (perhaps unsurprisingly) quite high on noise. I think the `P Mode' actually produces the best results for most low-light stuff.

Bad Points? Build quality is not quite as good as previous Cybershots (Mode dial bit flimsy) as a growing trend is to make Sony products in China (not Japan, like P10). At this price however it's hard to complain. The `Movie Mode' no longer offers a trim function (even my mobile phone does this now) to edit videos and the P10 had this. That said, movie quality is a massive improvement.

So in short, an excellent camera hot on features for both the enthusiastic and casual user. A 6MP SLR would still beat it hands down for image quality but as a P&S the W220B does the job nicely.

I had been wanting a Sony digital camera for a long time but with only a student loan to survive on I decided on purchasing the Canon A470 from Argos whilst it was on sale over Christmas. I knew it wasn't the camera for me after removing it from it's packaging, mainly because of it's size and weight. Now don't get me wrong the Canon A470 is a great camera and takes excellent quality photos but for me it just wasn't compact enough, mainly due to it taking AA batteries, which it would use up extremely quickly. This was subsequently sold and replaced with camera number two, the Sony T70. Again I knew the Sony T70 was not the camera for me. Firstly it had a touch screen which made it A.difficult to navigate the functions and B. the screen's picture quality was poor compared to a standard non touch screen.

Now we come to the Sony W220B, I bought this camera (after returning the T70) for my trip to the USA. My main requirements were, a compact design with easy functions and excellent quality photos, which the Sony W220B fulfills. The camera has a fantastic battery life, which can be easily charged in the charging dock provided. So far I have taken all manner of different photos i.e close ups, long distant, night, with and without flash and even videos, all of which look fantastic. As for uploading, the speed is really impressive, the photos load on to my iPhoto in minutes. I would highly recommend this camera to anyone and I would also advise that if you know what camera you would like but are unsure about spending a little extra on it, just get it because it will save a lot of faffing about in the long run, plus you'll treasure it for as long you as you have it.

Fabulous camera with excellent results being 12.1MP! Great for carrying around in your pocket for those impromptu photos!
The screen size is more than adequate and the controls are easy to use - even for my 80 year old Dad!Everything seems very straight forward and the end results are crisp and well defined images.
A great camera in its class.

It is an easy to use camera, since its functions are so damn simple. Its quality is absolutely amazing, the flash is ridiculously good/bright which could be a bad thing for the victim of the photograph. and its really small and light so it is 100% worth what was paid. DEFINITE BUY

I was specifically after a digital camera which would take pics quickly in all sorts of light, I haven't been disappointed. The only thing is, as with all sony items, the camera alone will not suffice. You also need some kind of case and a memory stick, maybe even a spare battery and the cost can add up quickly.