Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W35 Digital Camera Hands On Preview

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W35 is at the bottom of the current line of W models from Sony, but it's still quite a capable camera. It's a 7.2 megapixel camera with a 3x optical zoom and 2 inch LCD. Our full review will be done in a few days, but in the meantime, we wanted to give our our initial impressions about the camera.

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While it's at the bottom of the W line, it's no slouch. The camera is built well with a nice sturdy body and accessible controls. It's also pretty compact, measuring 3.5 inches x 2.25 inches by 7/8 inches. Even though the LCD is smallish (2 inches), it's bright and easy to see in most conditions. The W35 also has a tiny optical viewfinder if the LCD isn't going to work. Also, you can always buy the next model up (W55) for a larger screen.

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The W35 accepts Memory Stick Duo and Memory Stick Pro Duo memory media and has about 56MB of internal memory.

Camera performance is very snappy in all categories. Shutter lag is minimal, auto focus times are good, shot to shot times are good, and flash recycle times are good. Battery life is also excellent - the camera uses a "G" type lithium-ion battery pack.

So far, the image quality is very good for such a compact camera. Colors are bright (too bright for some) and images have nice, crisp details. Is expected, the W35's images are better than the Sony S700 that I reviewed recently.

We'll have more comments about this camera in our full review, so stay tuned!