Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX50 16.2 MP Digital Camera with 5x Optical Zoom and 2.7-inch LCD (Black) (2012 Model)

Well-just opened and set the camera up. I have at least 8 cameras and this is really amazing. I guess the slr's are better, but this is pretty close for a small compact. I mean small! You could lose this in a suit pocket! Anyway I shot it in many functions -it is allot like the Sony NEX 3 I have, menu wise. Pretty intuitive. It also shoots great macro shots-also very close to my 60d Canon with a 1.8 50mm on it-also amazing. The new technology Sony is developing is so far out there just in 1 year. Low light it's good set at 800iso. Did some pixel peeking and the shots were very good-you need to push the camera and explore the settings.I shoot without flash whenever possible, and the colors are quite true. This will be with me quite a bit-probably in my carry bag all the time. Put a light wrist cord on it as it's that small to hold. Less than 100.00 and it beats cameras up to 500.00. I checked them out by doing the wx50vsother cameras in google. There are not many that beat it for sharpness and overall performance. It is a well kept secret. Wish you could see the shots-I'll put some on flicker-Jeff Bissell-take a look. Was bought on Amazon-they are good at any returns within 30 days.

I wanted a pocket point-and-shoot camera that had a faster shutter than what I had. I've been a Nikon girl for a long time. I was reading good reviews on a particular Nikon when I read one where the buyer said it was good, but he wished he had bought a camera like his sister-in-law's and he gave the make and model. It was this camera. He deserves a big wet kiss because this camera is great! It's exactly what I wanted in the price range I was willing to pay. Actually, it's more than I wanted. It has so many fun features on it, and the settings are so darned good. I love to take pictures of the full moon every month. This camera does a great job. It's good taking action pictures, like my grandson running. It's great for pet pictures. And some of the "artsy" settings are just plain fun. I find myself taking 8 or 9 pictures of the same thing with different settings just to see what they look like. It's a great size, so tiny and lightweight, but it really packs a punch. My first few digital cameras were Sony Mavicas (they shot the pictures on removable floppies) and they were great. I don't know why I strayed from Sony, but I won't again.

The reason I got this camera is because its potential is really high. Unfortunately mine has some problems and yours will too... All my problems, but don't fret if you don't see yours in here! The internet has more info on it maybe! disclaimer: I am no professional. My solutions are what I did to make this camera work/ keep it working. Doing any of the following stuff puts everything at risk. My suggestion is to not do any of them, and work hard and buy a more expensive camera without these problems. If you still decide you like my solution and go forward with it, you're doing it at your own risk. 1) the lens extender doesn't retract/close all the way when the camera is shut off. my solution was: turn camera on again and off again and hope it retracts all the way NOT A SOLUTION: put any pressure on lens or force it down a little. This will break the super fragile camera forever and you probably can't get a new one from the warranty if you do. In fact don't even touch the lens or its extender or you'll likely break it. Not kidding. 2.a) the lens is super fragile, one bump against the super fragile extended lens will break it my solution was: treat it more cautiously than newborn baby. You can drop a baby and it will survive. This camera will not. ESPECIALLY if the lens is extended when the camera drops. 2.b) the lens might extend in a travel case if its bumped too hard or if the button somehow gets hit. The super fragile gears in it and its motor can't handle that kind of strain and it will be ruined. my solution was: make your own case with an inside lining of bubble wrap to protect against short falls or approximately "leg high" accidental drops, so that there is no way the button will be hit... but IF it is hit anyway you have made your own case so that the lens can FULLY extend inside the case and won't touch anything anyway... Thus ensuring it won't break. <3 3) flash is worse than no flash my solution was: learn to turn off flash. Its not that simple in the dark? Either use a flashlight or stop taking pictures with no light source... 4.a) camera software doesn't install on my computer properly, ALSO my SD card doesn't work in my computer after it has been put in the camera and the camera was turned on with the card in it. my solution was: Tough luck chum, that is the future for you. Its not bad enough that things don't work on their own and break super easy. Now having them come into contact with each other breaks them. You have to scour the internet and figure out your problem. Sometimes its simple. It took me registry editing and about a week and a half of working 2-3 hours a day to fix mine. Here's another note. If you have a webcam on your laptop and you disable it or uninstall its software AND unhook it that could be part of the problem of why your camcorder won't install the software. Also remember to try different USB slots because that was another problem. Also get the software online and install it directly because, again, the camera wouldn't do it properly for me and just kept freezing my OS. 4.b) My SD card still doesn't work? What the hell? This is a mountain of crap I already read through and I just want to take some simple freaking pictures?!! How do you rate this thing as 4 stars?! my solution was: Your SD card is probably 30mbs and type 6. Get a better one. Only the latest technology "works properly" when conjoined... and I use the words "works properly" veeeeeeery loosely. You bought a camera that takes amazing pictures and movies with surprisingly good audio. You knew "SOMETHING" wasn't right with the price when you bought it. 5) I turned on my camera to take a quick picture to share with a friend and it wouldn't turn on? I bought this thing to take quick pictures?! It can't even do that? my solution was: about every 4th time this thing won't turn on... so just pop the battery out *super CAREFULLLY!!* so as not to drop the also super fragile battery which will break the thing with any significant fall on a weak spot, then pop the battery back in and there you go! Too bad you missed your chance to take that quick picture and the moment is gone now. my Solution #2: get a good camera-phone and use it for those kinds of pictures because this camera is too fragile to be handled so quickly, and can't be reliable for that kind of (catch the moment!) or (I only have a few seconds!) picture taking. Conclusion: Perfect poor-man's camera. Has a bunch of weaknesses that drive its price down in the market; but to someone who wants super quality for low-low-loooow price and will protect it like its your only child, and the child has a skin condition that lets it's flesh rend and tear with just a simple touch in the wrong spot kind of fragile child... lets call it super fragile paper thin plastic piece of Chinese crap... from any and all realistic-use-situation perspectives. PROS: super cheap super quality! all the bad things drive the price down into affordable for you! Woohoo! CONS: super ultra mega fragile with problems you have to constantly and I MEAN CONSTANTLY consider because they will break it sooooo easy fragile problems constantly never-blink!! I'm pretty sure just THINKING too hard will break it.(joking, but no... really...) Final words: Buy this because you want cheap camera with ultra quality and you'll babysit it better than your own child. Don't buy it for "quick pics", or "if you don't know how to edit your computer's registry", or "if you don't know what the difference between a 4 sd card and a 6 sd card", or "if you don't know how and/or don't have a program that can edit HD videos and records", or "if you don't know how to mess with deinterlacing", etc... Personally I love it and the pictures and the movies I get from it, but I expect it to break within 6 months from normal use/dust/electromagnetic interference from a common cellphone or something. One year warranty gets me another that hopefully doesn't arrive broken that will last me maybe 3 more months if I'm lucky. Hope my review helps! <3 love love and good luck! <3 (~secretly I bought it to film arousing videos and artwork... *cough cough* pornography *cough!!* and I'm a bit saddened I can't risk letting fluids get on the lens sometimes, but the quality makes up for it~)

I bought this Camera two years back and I am still finding pretty good. I would recommend this camera if you are looking for following features, Size vs Zoom : I was looking for a small cam which can fit into my pocket but it should have a descent zoom. This one had both the options. There were few others, which had higher zoom than this one but other features made it winner for me. Easy to operate : I gifted this camera to my parents and I wanted something which has all the cool feature but not very complex for them to use. It has intelligent photo mode and auto focus, which provides you very good picture quality. Screen size and type: This one has pretty descent screen size. At one time I was more interested in touch screen but then later I realized that touch screen in not easy to use always. It makes it difficult to operate in sun light and kids cant handle it either. Extra feature: This was the first camera with sweet panorama, which I found very useful. Its low light mode is very effective and picture quality is one of the best in class (don't compare it with high end DSLR). I have compared its picture with many other cams and found it very impressive. So if you are looking for a small camera, which isn't very complex to operate but still has lots of features then this is the best option.

I have experienced the power on issue as others did, Remington and reinserting the battery works unless the battery drained during the time of non usage. Having experiencing the nonsupport by Sony, I cut my losses and go back to Panasonic,

PROS: Small size, low light capability, special features CONS: Lens wobble during video zooming, image noise above ISO 200 I've been searching for a point-and-shoot camera that can rival my six year-old Fuji F30. The F30 set the standard for low noise, low-light photo quality in small-sensor cameras and its performance has been difficult to beat --and I've tried, and purchased, several cameras since the Fuji. The Sony Exmor R sensor appears to be the low-light performer I've been looking for and so I purchased and tested both the Sony WX50 and the Sony WX150 for comparison. The specs for the Sony WX50 and WX150 are virtually identical except for the optical zoom range (5X Carl Zeiss lens vs 10X Sony G lens) and sensor size (16MP vs 18MP). I fully expected the WX50 with its 5X lens and 16MP sensor to have a slight edge in image quality due to simpler optics and fewer megapixels in the Exmor R sensor. What I discovered was exactly the opposite. I took several photos of the same low-light scene using each camera set to ISO 200, 400, 800, and 1600 in the widest angle setting (no zoom). When reviewed at 1:1, the WX50 photos showed considerable noise at ISO 400 and above (800 and 1600 were nearly unacceptable) whereas the WX150 was extremely noise-free even at 800 (with 1600 being quite impressive). The WX150's images were even slightly better than my trusty Fuji F30 --finally! There was no comparison --the WX150 lens/sensor combination provides noticeably clearer, lower-noise images at high ISO than the WX50. The WX150 has better shadow detail and clarity despite its longer zoom range (usually a compromise) and higher MP (higher MP sensors are usually noisier). However, I was most disappointed in the WX50's video results when using the optical zoom. When zooming during video recording, the WX50 lens is very "loose" and wobbles side-to-side during zooming in and out. The result is that the video image jitters left and right when you're watching any video sequence with zooming. The WX150, on the other hand, is rock-stable during zooming (which should be more difficult with the longer 10X zoom) and indicates that the WX150 has a more robust lens mechanism than the smaller 5X zoom in the WX50. Just to be sure I didn't have a sample defect, I purchased and tested a second WX50 camera and it had exactly the same lens wobble. Very disappointing! Overall, the Sony WX50 is a good performer compared to similar cameras from Canon and Panasonic. The Sony Exmor R sensor is an excellent low-light performer as advertised and finally gives me a reason to retire my trusty Fuji F30. Whereas the WX50 takes very good photos and video, I have to rate the WX150 performance as excellent in comparison. If you desire the lowest image noise at high ISO settings along with a stable lens during video zooming, then the big brother Sony WX150 is the way to go. Yes, the WX150 is more expensive but to me the performance difference, including a longer optical zoom, is well worth it since we're still talking about cameras under $200 (edit 1/5/13: at the time of this review, the WX50 was selling for $119 and the WX150 was $169 on Amazon. It looks like the WX150 price has recently gone as high as $228 due to demand).

This is an amazing little camera, and I do mean little - it's very compact. I went on snapsort.com to find a camera expecting to pay several hundred dollars, but this one out-scored the vast majority of them - there was one I would really have liked, but going on vacation, I don't want to lug around a huge camera and case and accessories. This one you can slip in your pocket and use it for anything from 3D panoramas to HD video. The features are as indepth or as basic as you want to go. It can take great snapshots if thats all you want it for, or you can get as artistic and technical as you need. While it doesn't really have a manual mode, once you get familiar with the different modes and adjusting the EVs, you can customize your shots far better than a manual camera. The software is incredible, as it will take several shots and create the best picture from the data in all of them - it's incredible once you understand how it works and what works best in the different situations. I got a cheap 64gb SDXC card and at 16MP it will hold over 10,000 shots, and 5mp will hold 23,000 shots. I also picked up a couple of batteries and a charger pretty cheaply (around $22, and it would have been 150 through Sony).

I bought this because I had a crappy $40 camera I bought from a drug store and wanted a nicer one for my semester abroad. It takes excellent pictures, even at night with the flash off. Sometimes it is a little confusing to use and there is a bit of learning curve. Just play with it a little and you will get the hang of it. There's a nifty feature where it takes a bunch of pictures in a row really quickly and it compiles them to give you the best image. Probably the best non-professional grade camera you will find for the price. It is really tiny and easy to fit in a purse or even a larger pocket. I advise you to put the wrist strap on it because its size makes it easy to drop. Pretty good battery life too.