What's Up With The Cybershot W270?

[MikeyIdea]

I thought I had lost my wife's old Sony Cybershot W-55 and went and bought a new Cybershot W-270 to her as a replacement. Big, Big disappointment

The old W-55 took very sharp photographs as long as light was good, I (and my wife even ) took many photographs that really impressed with their sharpness (I used to be a "big camera" man before I turned lazy and started to use point-and-shoot and have plenty of photo experience - pics from the little W-55 impressed with their sharpness)

The W-270 on the other hand is surprisingly bad, most pictures aren't sharp even in good light, and they are bad to awful in-doors and in bad light. I bought it for its larger zoom expecting quality when zooming a lot to be pretty bad but I didn't expect sharpness to be bad all over, regardless of if I zoomed or not. Adding to the story - I mis-laid the new W-270 I bought after a couple of weeks and had to go and buy a new one again and the second W-270 is equally un-sharp. I did check reviews before I bought and no one said anything about the W-270 taking unsharp pictures. Adding to the story again... I found the old W-55 a short while ago and the wife immediately took it back because the pictures were so much better so now I'm stuck with a camera that's sharp only when it comes to gimmicks

Anyone has any advice? I think that sharpness is so bad (especially compared to the old small W-55) that I wonder if something is wrong, but then, I have actually tried two of the same model so maybe not. Does the larger zoom capability actually "eat" so much light that pictures regardless of if I zoom or not are generally unsharp?

Any use taking it to a Sony authorised service center for a check?

Attach 2 pics (both are taken with fairly little zoom) :

0054 is outdoors in good light showing the standard unsharp characteristics of the W-270 (the 3 meg pic)

9187 is outdoors and pretty characteristic of the sharpness the W-55 can deliver (the 2 meg pic)

Edited April 2, 2010 by MikeyIdea

[tw25rw]

Do you have them set the same? Ie, fine jpeg and the same ISO?

[MikeyIdea]

Number of pixels make no difference, I generally have the W-55 on 5 megapixel, that's more than enough. I ran the W-270 on the same 5 megapixel first, popped it up to 7, 10, 12 megapixel, still unsharp so didn't help, got bored with the longer time it took before the camera was ready for the next pic and moved down to my "standard" 5 megapixel again

Never bothered to change ISO on the W-55, good enough as it is. I have changed the W-270 and it doesn't help, have tried 80, 100, 200, 400 and 800 ISO, not sharp on any setting.

Edited April 2, 2010 by MikeyIdea

[tw25rw]

It might be the camera's software trying to reduce noise and blurring the images. Does that camera have a different name anywhere? I can't find it on dpreview.

[MikeyIdea]

It's a Sony DSC-W270

[astral]

If the photos are as unsharp as you say then get it to your nearest Sony Service centre under the guarantee.

[MikeyIdea]

That's what I hesitate about, the sharpness I mean. Is the difference enough to show a problem or is it maybe all that the W-270 can deliver? View the pics please and the difference is very clear I think

[fabianfred]

I recently got the new Fuji F200EXR and was similarly disappointed. On the forums at DPReview it became apparent that it only has two different apertures and uses a neutral density filter....so that on auto settings in bright sunlight it is choosing the high aperture which causes the shutter speed to be slow and causes camera shake.

Users have been trying other settings which cause it to use a better shutter speed with success.

Perhaps this is a trend and your camera uses similar methods and has similar problems.

I could not see the exif details of your two pix...that might tell us something.

Try looking and asking in the DPR forums in case anyone else has mentioned it.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1009