This is an open letter/review to the Sony Corporation :
First let me say I don't write product reviews, and I buy a LOT of products from Amazon. I am a building / home inspector and as such (recently did the math) I take upwards of 500 - 600 photos a week for my inspection reports that people rely on to purchase perhaps the biggest purchase of their lives - their home. I bought this camera in February of 2015 (14 months ago) and after ~33,000 photos, my beloved DSC-W380 has finally met its match by way of a lens booger.
NOW, let me get to the point. Being the centerpiece of my livelihood and the tool that has captured more construction sites, floor decking, landscaping, electrical components, low lighting conditions of every kind, frost, rain, (and yes even falling off a building... action shot ; )) I was troubled when its tiny little heart gave up on me (natural death). Since then I have tried virtually every Point and Shoot on the market $200 and under, $200 and over, Sony, Nikon, Canon, done side by sides, swam in camera specs that would make any sane person's head spin, and have come to one resolute conclusion... If you are in the inspection business and need an amazing quality image on the quick, this is it.
I'm not selling cameras here, so let me get back to my letter. SONY... PLEASE, PLEASE... DO NOT DISCONTINUE THIS CAMERA. It is the perfect marriage of low light taking, no nonsense, perfect design for working professional (love the thumb zoom... can and will never zoom with my index finger... thumb on zoom, trigger finger on trigger... amen), perfect optics, aluminum non-plastic tough as nails shell, perfect amount of zoom... I could go on. This is a timeless camera for a no-nonsense user and should NEVER be discontinued.
Thank you Sony for the genesis of this camera, and your attention to this open letter, I would guess I'm speaking for a large swath of real estate inspectors everywhere. Phenomenal camera, just repurchased after at least 30 hours of research, hands-on experimentation, etc (03/16)...I will not buy anything other than the DSC-W830 for my main work camera.
Kind Regards
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This Item  Sony DSCW830/B 20.1 MP Digital Camera with 2.7-Inch LCD (Black) |  |  |  |  |  | |
| Price | $349.99 | -10% $89.99 List: $99.99 | $139.99 | $69.99 | $69.99 | $139.00 |
| Delivery | — | — | Get it May 1 - 3 | Get it as soon as Friday, May 3 | Get it as soon as Friday, May 3 | — |
| Customer Ratings | ||||||
| Zoom | ||||||
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| Sold By | HDD Shop | Amazon.com | Focus Camera LLC | YOODEE | YOODEE | Focus Camera LLC |
| display type | LCD | LCD | LCD | LCD | LCD | LCD |
| display size | 2.7 inches | — | 2.7 inches | 2.8 inches | 2.8 inches | 2.7 inches |
| lens type | Zoom | Wide Angle | Wide Angle | Macro | Macro | Wide Angle |
| zoom type | Optical and Digital | Optical Zoom | Optical Zoom | Digital Zoom | Digital Zoom | Optical Zoom |
| shooting modes | High sensitivity, soft snap, soft skin, landscape, night portrait, night scene, gourmet, beach, snow, fireworks and pet | Easy | Automatic, Portrait, Landscape, Macro | Automatic | Program | Automatic |
| connectivity tech | USB | USB | USB | USB | USB | USB |
Reviews with images
Is this better than the camera on the iPhone 6?
At this price point, we can't expect miracles. My other camera is a Sony a-6000, but the DSC-W830 was purchased as a simple-to-use camera for my wife--to replace her 2006 model Canon Elph SD600 (6 megapixels, 3x optical zoom, no image stabilization). The image quality and noise levels are definitely much better than the old Elph with this Sony point-and-shoot. But the remaining question is whether my wife should use this camera or her iPhone 6 while on vacation.On paper, the DSC-W830 should be better: its sensor is 50% larger than the iPhone sensor, and it boasts 20 megapixels compared to the iPhone 6's 8 megapixels. And the DSCW830 sports a Zeiss lens. Using the intelligent auto setting, I shot several scenes using the DSC-W830 (lens at widest setting--25 mm focal length equivalent) and the iPhone 6 (29 mm focal length equivalent) and the standard photo app. In the centers of the photos, the DSC-W830 images were clearly sharper reflecting the improved resolution of the sensor. But at the edges of the photos, the iPhone 6 images were much sharper because of the large chromatic aberration for the Sony product.I haven't tried out the P mode on the DSC-W830 in with various settings (exposure compensation, ISO, HDR changes, etc.), and I suspect that by fussing with the Sony camera I could make it perform close to the iPhone 6--in the center of the image with wide angle. The chromatic aberration appears to be a lens issue, and I haven't tested different focal lengths (levels of zoom) to see whether it gets worse or better when focal length is increased. The iPhone 6 probably has less of a problem with this because it uses a prime lens (no zoom). Of course the DSC-W830 has the zoom capability (an advantage), which the iPhone lacks.I tried out the panorama feature on the DSC-W830, and found the resolution of images to be so bad that the panoramas were useless. The iPhone 6 panoramas are excellent--way, way better. The SCN setting on the Sony camera may be useful, but the 4 picture effects are gimmicky in my opinion. The screen menus are simple and easy to navigate.Based on sensor size and number of pixels, I would have thought that the Sony camera might have been better than the iPhone 6, but overall it is equivalent in some circumstances and worse in others. Did Sony use a cheap sensor and other inexpensive electronics? Is their firmware less sophisticated? I was disappointed in the lens performance (chromatic aberration, softness at the edges of the images).I think that the Sony DSC-W830 is suitable for snapshots made by people who may be technically challenged--Aunt Ida or your 12 year-old pre-teen. It is convenient if you are going to an amusement park with the family and just want some fun shots. But if you don't need the zoom, you can probably get comparable to better results with your iPhone 6, particularly if you install the ProCamera 8 app, which makes the iPhone work more like a digital camera.UPDATEPrevious shots were done in the evening, when conditions might have been less than optimal. I tested the DSC-W830 in bright sunlight and with different zoom settings. Results were disappointing. The right edge of the image was blurred at 1X, 2X (equiv. to 50 mm), and 4X zoom. I had thought that perhaps a smaller aperture (resulting from the bright sunlight) might help, or that the lens would have a "sweet-spot" at mid-zoom. The blurring would be just detectable with a 4x6 print, but I wouldn't use images from this camera for any greater enlargement of the whole image. You can have an acceptable enlargement if you crop off the edges leaving the center 50% of the image. One of the photos below (about 1/3 of the whole frame) shows the blurring on the right edge. I'm disappointed.
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