Sony CyberShot DSC-WX50 Point & Shoot Camera

I am a professional photographer and use the Nikon D90 and the Canon EOS system for my shoots. Frankly, the point and shoot cameras never interested me much due to their small sensor ( 1/2.3 inches) since resolution and detail is missing for my work.nnHowever, its difficult to carry a DSLR with different lenses around all the time and one needs a small pocketable camera which can fit in and take casual shots when required.nnChecked offerings from Canon, Nikon and Sony. Not Fuji or Pana, with my priorities - Pocket able, sharp focus, less shutter lag, sharp images, even in low light and good videonnCanon - problem,since auto focus is slow in almost all their models in their lower range. Fast, snappy shooting is not possible. By the time you compose and lock focus the subject has moved. Not acceptable.nnNikon - Major quirks in the point and shoot. Not really happy with the cameras I have seen.nnSony - Introduced three cameras - the DSC w90, DSC wx50 and DSC WX 150 together.nnDSC W90 - Not happy with the image quality. Focus issues, so ruled out.nnDSC wx 150 and 50 - Checked both, settled for the wx50 basis the followingnnSony G lens vs Carl Zeiss Vario Tessar Lens in the WX50 - nnAlthough the Sony Gold series Lens are really good, Carl Zeiss is used on all their premium selected cameras. Check out the lenses on Sony DSC HX100v or the Sony DSC HX200V their high end bridge cameras which use Carl Zeiss Vario Sonnar Lenses or their latest Sony RX100, one of their premium offerings again with a Carl Zeiss Lens. nnThe Sony G series (gold series) although amongst the best in the industry also has some plastic elements in the construction in some assemblies. Not for me. I want glass in the various lens elements, all the way.nn18.2 Megapixels vs 16.2 Megapixels in DSC wx50 - Sony had to ramp up the MP count to ensure a higher pixel density to compensate for longer zoom and lower aperture, but that came with more noise, both Luma and Chroma, so they used an extremely strong noise reduction algorithm to suppress noise! Found the pictures flat, more painting like. nnCramming so much MP into a small sensor is not a good idea. Amused to see reviews talking about high MP. nnf3.3 vs f2.6 in DSC WX 50 - nnThe DSC WX is brighter at wide angle. More light, lower ISO, better low light, low noise, sharper images. Much better. Period.nn10x zoom vs 5x zoom in the WX50 - Frankly speaking, 5x optical zoom with 10x interpolated zoom is more than enough. nn10x optical zoom - a little bit of shake and blurry images at extreme telephoto. Forget 20x interpolated digital zoom. nnAnd 10x is neither here, nor there. You want a decent zoom? Buy a bridge camera with 35x plus optical zoom and 70x plus digital zoom, not on this small camera. nnSony had to use a G series lens here because a Zeiss lens would have to be a Vario Sonnar,used for longer zoom (30x plus) not Tessar lens,(used for maller zoom) thus jacking up the price. To compensate - Higher MP crammed into a small sensor, higher noise suppression. The compromise? Image quality. Not acceptable.nnAutofocus - No complaints!!nnBurst shooting - 10fps on both - excellent, although I would suggest using a class 10 UHS card since the buffer gets filled very quickly.nnVideo - Full HD at 1080i on both - Sony should have included 1080p instead of 1080i (progressive instead of interlaced since interlaced is jerky in comparison) but I guess the price would have gone up again. As it is very good video quality on both and perfectly acceptable.nnSony claims faster autofocus on the wx150 and no shutter lag, compared to wx50, but I found wx 50 perfectly acceptable.nnFinal verdict? All other things being equal, the WX 50 has 5x less optical zoom and a different level of autofocus and shutter lag than the WX150. nnAdvantages? Higher image quality, thanks to Carl Zeiss lens, brighter aperture, lesser optical zoom, and lesser megapixels!(yup!)nnFor me, choosing the WX50 between the two was a no brainer. Thanks for reading this, hope you got some useful data to choose a camera.

Its really awesome and fully packed with features, full on direct editing on the camera and and latest, liked the 3D stills and 3D panorama and sweep panorama feature, The best feature is drop protection which protects the lens i.e. it automatically senses the drop and closes the lenses if the setting of drop protection is ok.nIt also features blur background feature like the DSLRs.nOverall is worth and highly recommended.