Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX10

Page 1: Introduction, Hardware & Design

With a body measuring about the width and height of a stack of business cards, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX10 point-and-shoot camera packs a surprising amount of features into a slight frame. It offers not only (very limited) manual controls for shutter and aperture, but also a buffet of futuristic extras: three separate ways to capture 3D images, 1080i video capture at a smooth 60 frames per second, and modes for low-light shooting, panorama images, and backlight correction. What's more, it has a 7X-optical-zoom lens, which is slightly mind-boggling given the camera's size.

While the camera scored well in most categories, image sharpness was a major shortcoming.

Although it shoots good-quality photos and videos, they're not amazing; the WX10 doesn't take the sharpest pictures, and its price is a bit high. But if you value genuine put-it-in-your-pocket portability as well as innovative in-camera extras, the WX10 is among the leaders of the ultracompact class.

Hardware and design

The Cyber-shot DSC-WX10 boasts a 16-megapixel Exmor R CMOS sensor; like most recent Sony CMOS-sensored point-and-shoots, it does a good job in low-light situations. Its optically stabilized 7X-optical-zoom lens offers an ultrawide 24mm at the wide-angle end and 168mm at full telephoto (in 35mm film equivalent), with maximum apertures of F2.4 at the wide-angle end and F5.9 at full telephoto.



Wide Angle

The WX10 provides decent but not outstanding performance in macro mode: You need to be about 2 inches away from your subject to capture a crisp shot. Even though most images taken with the WX10 look great on the camera itself and at smaller sizes, photos tend to appear soft once you offload them to a computer and view them at full size.



Full Telephoto

At 3.9 by 0.9 by 2.0 inches (width by depth by height), this is a very small camera. As such, the physical controls are small and slightly cramped the major trade-off for its ultracompact size. The mode dial offers eight selections, but the dial rests flat on the back of the camera, making it hard to adjust correctly at times.

Likewise, the WX10's combination directional pad and scroll wheel, which you use to navigate menus and dial in manual settings, is somewhat small and tricky to operate. Four more buttons: a dedicated movie record button, a playback button, a menu button, and a delete button ”reside on the back of the camera. The power button, shutter button, and zoom controls all sit on the top of the camera, and an HDMI-out port (covered by a plasticky door) is on the side.

Overall the camera's back-mounted controls feel a little finicky and cheap, even though the overall camera body construction is more solid. It has no handgrip, but you will find a slightly raised lip along the edge of the camera.

The eight options on the mode dial consist of Intelligent Auto mode, a Superior Auto mode that makes digital antiblur adjustments, program mode, a very limited manual mode that lets you adjust the shutter speed and aperture settings (but only two f-stops per focal length), Sweep Panorama mode, the scene-mode menu, movie mode, and a 3D menu that lets you select from three different 3D-shooting modes (more on that in the "Shooting Modes" section below).

The Cyber-shot DSC-WX10's battery charges inside the camera, which is a bit odd. What's more, charging and offloading images from the camera to a computer is handled via a proprietary-to-USB connector included with the camera. The WX10 accepts both SD/SDHC/SDXC and Memory Stick cards, and it's also compatible with TransferJet devices for wireless transfer of images and video clips.