An Ultra compact camera
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W290 ($250) is an ultra-compact camera featuring a 12 Mega pixel CCD, 5X wide-angle zoom lens, image stabilization, a 3-inch LCD, HD movie recording, and more.The price of this camera in India was Rs 12889 (approx) at the time of writing this review. It has two other of its kind, the DSC-W220 and W230.Sony's confusing Home and Menu buttons setup from previous models is absent from this model that expected the user to remember what to press to access context-sensitive shooting controls and which goes to the menu for all settings. Now there's just one Menu button giving access to all controls as well as a selection for seeing all settings.
Sturdy look with variant colours
What's also nice is the camera's ability to tell about adjusting certain settings. For example, if the camera is set at W290 to spot meter light the Face Detection can not be turned off.
The W290 will show onscreen that Face keeps the user guessing what needs to be shut off in order to turn on a blacked-out option.Similar to all other of Sony's compacts the W290 is a nice looking camera, and it is sturdily made. This Sony Cybershot has a strong aluminum body,and is available in black, blue or silver colours. However the W290 isn't a principally small or lightweight camera by modern ultra-compact standards.
Issues with HDTV display
The weight of DSC W290 weight is substantially 164g including battery and memory card, and the 97.6 x 56.6 x 22.6mm measurements quoted in the spec sheet aren't entirely accurate. The lens surround is ignored so in fact the camera is 26.5mm thick.Video quality of Sony DSC W290 cybershot camera is quite good, too, but again 5x zoom usage is missing while you're recording. Also, viewing the recording on an HDTV poses a problem. A pony up for a proprietary component cable that connects to the multi-use terminal in the camera's bottom needs to be done.
All in all the performance of the camera is very good. Startup to first shot is a relatively quick 1.3 seconds. Shutter cover in good lighting is at an average 0.4 second; in more difficult dim lighting, it goes up to 0.7 second. Without the flash on an average of 2.3 seconds between shots is the waiting time, which only jumps up to 2.7 seconds with the flash on. Lastly, the W290 turns in an impressive burst speed of 2.1 frames per second.