Amazing - another Sony Hit!

This is the 6th Sony camera of camcorder that we've owned. My wife wanted a slim camera to carry in her purse for shots of the children at outings and such. We already own the Memory Stick media and NP-BG1 batteries and chargers so a Sony that uses these was our first choice. No one, NO ONE, else had the new DSC-W150 or W170s on discount other than Amazon when we bought ours. The Smile technology and child first choice are AMAZING. The quality of the pictures is terrific but the ease of point and shoot with presets or all auto is great for pull it out on the spur of the moment, turn it on (fast), point and shoot! The quality of the Very Fine movies is also really amazing. I know that its still 640x480 video but 30fps and the speed of the new Mark 2 cards makes this usable footage - its not the same as our Sony DVCs but its good enough and its with us ALL THE TIME! Wow. Great 5x optics, wider angle than the W150 (which is nice as many slim cameras make it hard to do photos of groups unless you are way back), and it uses the NP-BG1 and newer NP-FG1 battery packs so its compatible with our DSC-H7 and its support materials!!

UPDATE: Nov 12, 2008:
Well, we've had it for several months and two big trips. We took over 2000 photos with it during our week at Walt Disney World. I also had my Sony DSC-H7 with us. After the first day and comparing the two sets of photos that evening, I carried the W170 for the rest of the trip. Its SO much smaller, took great photos, and was easier to use (also was easier on the battery) that I took more photos than I otherwise would have with the bulkier camera. The Videos, when converted with Vista to DVD, are AMAZING! Are they as good as our Digital Video tape Sony? No, but then again this camera is 1/10th the size! Just plain impressed with the performance of this little camera.


Now for the geeky tech specs (that you can get ANYWHERE) - and YES, these are the Manufacturer's Description! (which were put out in various press releases meaning they want them used).


HDTV compatibility: Optional HD solutions include a Cyber-shot cradle/charger with component cable output, or component cable directly to your HDTV.

15 MB internal memory - uses Sony Memory Stick Duo media (up to 16gb)

10.1-megapixel Super HAD CCD: The advanced Sony Super HAD (Hole Accumulated Diode) CCD design allows more light to pass to each pixel, increasing sensitivity and reducing noise.

Carl Zeiss 5x optical zoom lens

9-point Auto Focus Because an off-center subject can make your shot more interesting, a 9-point auto focus measures auto-focus at 9 precision points instead of 5 -- giving you greater creative freedom to compose your image.

2.7-inch Clear Photo LCD display

Memory Stick Duo media convenience A built-in slot accepts optional Memory Stick Duo media or Memory Stick Pro Duo media.

16:9 High-Resolution mode In addition to the standard 2-megapixel size, the convenient 16:9 aspect ratio shooting mode for HDTV display can now be shot in 7-megapixels, making it possible to obtain beautiful, high-definition prints with the same aspect ratio as HDTV.

Automatic Macro shooting Standard Auto Focus now covers the macro focus range, eliminating the need to manually change focus modes for close-up photography. The Macro mode has not been eliminated, and enabling it accelerates Auto Focus when shooting at point-blank range.

Burst mode You can fire off three shots automatically at 1-second intervals (VGA standard mode) or 2-second intervals (full resolution mode).

Convenient Photo modes To adjust quickly for specific shooting situations, you can choose from several convenient photo modes, including Auto, Program Auto, and Scene Selections such as Twilight, Landscape, Soft Snap, Snow, High Sensitivity, and Beach environments.

Dynamic Range Optimization Powered by the exclusive Sony Bionz high-speed processing engine, Dynamic Range Optimization preserves image data in bright highlights and reveals more detail in shadows or backlit areas -- for great results even in difficult lighting conditions.

Easy image management To help you find the right image among many, Date View mode and Favorites mode have been added to the standard Folder View. Date View mode displays a calendar view, while Favorites mode shows only user-selected images. Furthermore, you can filter photos by face types such as portrait, child, baby, and smile.

Easy Shooting mode A simplified camera environment especially attractive to beginners or digital camera users who want to keep things simple, Easy Shooting provides easy-to-read, on-screen instructions and limits the number of camera settings to help prevent misuse of the camera while still providing excellent results.

Face Detection Face Detection technology automatically controls focus, exposure, color, and flash to help reveal faces in shadows, make skin tones look more natural, reduce red-eye, and eliminate harsh facial glare, so your photos bring out every expression on every face in every shot.

Function Guide This beginner-friendly function helps manage various functions and settings by displaying the description of chosen functions or settings on the LCD screen. The Function Guide can also be switched off.

HD Slide Show with music It’s the high-definition viewing experience that makes photos more entertaining to watch, accompanied by your choice of visual effects and any of four preset musical selections stored in memory or your favorite music downloaded from PC to your camera for use as background music.

High Sensitivity (ISO 3200) mode With high sensitivity of ISO 3200, you can shoot effectively in low light without flash to preserve the mood, while the Sony Clear RAW Noise Reduction system helps suppress the color noise that can degrade low-light shots.

In-camera retouching Add creative effects to photos after you shoot using any of 10 editing functions, including: Trimming, Red-Eye adjustment, Soft Focus filter, Unsharp Mask, Cross filter, Partial Color filter, Fish-eye filter, Retro, Radial Blur and Happy Face. The Happy Face effect uses photo retouching to put a smile on faces, with smile levels adjustable from 1 to 5.

In-Camera Red-Eye Reduction Irritating "glowing eyes" can ruin even the most creative photos, but in-camera red eye reduction corrects your photos at the touch of a button to reduce lingering red-eye effect that other systems might miss.

Intelligent Scene Recognition mode Intelligent Scene Recognition mode automatically detects six different types of scenes and selects the appropriate camera setting: Backlight, Backlight & Portrait, Twilight, Twilight & Portrait, Twilight with Tripod and Portrait. Intelligent Scene Recognition has two different modes, advanced and auto. Advanced mode takes two shots, one with the standard automatic settings and the other with optimized settings. Auto mode takes a single shot, arbitrarily deciding on the proper setting.

MPEG Movie VX Fine mode Capture VGA (640 x 480) audio/video clips at a high frame rate (up to 30 frames per second), with the length of your video limited only by the capacity of your media.

Multi-resizing function Resize your photos in-camera for virtually any purpose! Standard 4:3 images can be resized to widescreen 16:9 and 2 MP resolution for display on an HDTV. Conversely, high resolution, widescreen 16:9 images can be resized to 4:3 size with VGA (640 x 480) resolution -- perfect for sharing with friends and family via e-mail (internet connection required). A simple 4-direction touch-screen control also makes it easy to trim photos.

Optical viewfinder In addition to the LCD display, a built-in optical viewfinder lets you compose your photos in traditional rangefinder camera style, and also helps save battery power by turning off your LCD display.

Photo Music Expanding the HD Slide Show with Music feature, PhotoMusic combines images with music to produce fun and entertaining slide shows. The five standard visual effects (Simple, Basic, Nostalgic, Active and Stylish) have been supplemented for a total of eight effects. Additionally, the number of music tracks stored in the camera memory has been doubled from four to eight, and music playback time has been extended from three to five minutes per track. More personalized slide shows are also possible by transferring music from a PC to the camera.

Photo TV HD PhotoTV HD compatibility allows the camera to be connected to a PhotoTV HD-capable Sony Bravia HDTV via the optional HD output adaptor, for highly detailed, high-definition color images displayed in unprecedented realism and full HD quality.

Picture Motion Browser software Supplied software makes it easier to upload, organize, and search photos on your PC. When shooting photos using your camera and an optional GPS unit, the software even provides a convenient map view function that lets you sort photos by location and display their origin on a world map.

Simple setup controls A quick press of the Home button opens your user-friendly graphical interface -- and you can select functions by simply moving a cursor vertically or horizontally to the appropriate icon. Function names and the on-screen Function Guide display make it easier to learn camera setup operations.

Smart Zoom feature The Sony Smart Zoom feature intelligently "crops into" the central portion of interest in your photo, helping avoid the image degradation of other digital zooms.

Smile Shutter mode Smile Shutter mode helps you capture smiles automatically as they happen. Used in conjunction with Face Detection technology, Smile Shutter is able to differentiate between children and adults, and can be set to automatically shoot a picture when your subject laughs, smiles, or even grins -- only when focus is fixed. You select the person to watch and the expression to catch -- your Cyber-shot camera does the rest!

Sony Double Anti-Blur Solution The combination of Super SteadyShot optical image stabilization and high ISO sensitivity helps compensate for shaky hands, minimizes blur, and allow flash-free shooting to preserve the mood.

Stamina Battery Power Provides extended battery life and shooting capacity when using a fully charged Lithium Ion battery-- enough to cover a long weekend or a whole vacation.

Super SteadyShot Optical Image Stabilization Super SteadyShot Image Stabilization compensates for shaky hands and minimizes blur with optical sensors that detect camera movement and send correcting signals to a stabilization lens -- so there’s no need to crop in on your shot to reduce blur.

Wide Zoom Display To use the entire image area of the camera’s widescreen LCD and compatible HDTV screens, Wide Zoom automatically expands standard 4:3 images to 16:9.