Introduction

Ease of Use

The Sony DSC-WX1 is the sister model of the slimmer and lighter TX1 that we reviewed a couple of weeks ago. Instead of the folded optics and sliding faceplate of the TX1, the WX1 has a more conventional 5x extending optical lens with a faster maximum aperture of f/2.4 and 24mm wide-angle setting, instantly making it a more serious proposition for more serious photographers. The WX1's lens is a joy to use, with the combination of the f/2.4 aperture and the Exmor R sensor making this camera very well suited to hand-held low-light photography. Also, having a 5x zoom in such a small package makes this camera more adaptable than you might first think, with everything from ultra-wide landscapes to candid head-and-shoulder portraits being within reach of the WX1.

The WX1 is still quite a minimalist and slender camera, measuring less than 2cms at its narrowest point and weighing less than 150g with the battery and memory card fitted, with a 2.7-inch 230k-dot resolution LCD screen at the rear. As you'd expect with a screen of that size on such a small compact, the WX1 has no optical viewfinder to fall back on. The other major difference between the WX1 and TX1 is that the former doesn't have the latter's touchscreen interface, instead offering a much more traditional button-driven user interface. Providing the only actual means of gripping the camera is the round mode dial on the rear of the camera which falls naturally under your right thumb - there is no handgrip at all on the front of the rather slippery metal casing. Also located on the front of the WX1 is the lens, a small and narrow window for the flash and a porthole for the self-timer/AF illuminator.

Press the small power button on the top plate and the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX1 readies itself for action in a just over a second, with the rear LCD bursting into life sound-tracked by a musical flourish (which thankfully can be turned off). The adequately sized shutter-release button has a definite halfway point, determining focus and exposure with a bleep of affirmation, focus points highlighted in green on the LCD. Go on to take the shot and a maximum of 10 megapixel resolution JPEG images are committed to memory in a single second, the screen momentarily blanking out and then displaying the captured image before the user can go on to take a second shot. The WX1's built-in microphone is also located on top of the camera, plus a tiny but handily placed button for turning on the various Burst modes, including that headline-grabbing 10fps mode.

Pressing the drive mode button brings up a number of options, including single shot, high-, mid- and low-speed continuous options. Out of these, the high-speed continuous mode is the most remarkable. The WX1 takes up to 10 full-resolution photos at a frankly astounding 10 frames per second, which is faster than most compact cameras and indeed most DSLRs too. The only fly in the ointment is that once the burst is completed, it takes over fifteen seconds for the camera to clear the buffer, during which you cannot take another picture. In the other two continuous shooting modes, the Sony WX1 also takes up to 10 pictures, but at slower speeds of 5 or 2 frames per second.

Front	Rear

A fairly responsive and tactile thumb-operated rocker switch on the rear of the WX1 operates the 5x zoom and alternates between wide-angle and telephoto. The action of the zoom itself is leisurely smooth rather than rapid, gliding unhindered through the focal range in a single, steady motion. Underneath the zoom switch is the afore-mentioned mode dial, which has a nice positive action and lets you quickly switch between the various shooting modes that the WX1 offers.

In addition to the regular Program mode, Sony has included intelligent auto scene recognition in its line-up of shooting modes, accessed via this rear mode dial. This mode works in virtually identical fashion to the intelligent auto modes of Panasonic's and Canon's compact ranges. The user points the WX1 at a scene or subject and the camera analyses it and automatically chooses one of 11 pre-optimised settings to best suit. Adding to its snapshot simplicity, this feature joins enhanced face recognition and smile shutter functionality on board, the former mode biasing human faces in the frame and the latter mode firing the shutter when it detects a smiling subject.

The Sweep Panorama mode lets you capture a panoramic image very easily without the use of a tripod. All you need to decide is whether you would like to start from left or right, top or bottom. Then press and hold down the shutter release while doing a "sweep" with the camera in hand. Exposure compensation is available before you start the sweep, but the exposure is fixed once you depress the shutter button. After you are done with the sweeping, the camera does all the processing required, and presents you with a finished panoramic image. The catch is that it's of relatively low resolution: the shorter side is invariably 1080 pixels, whereas the longer side is 4912 pixels for a 'standard' panorama, and 7152 pixels for a 'wide' one. Note also that if you do the sweeping too slowly, or you let go of the shutter release button too early, the panorama will be truncated.

Front	Front

There are two more shooting modes that are new to the Sony W-series - Hand-held Twilight and Anti Motion Blur. In both of these modes, the camera takes six shots in a rapid sequence, typically at a high sensitivity setting and a (relatively) fast shutter speed, and then combines them into a single image that has somewhat less noise than a single shot taken at the same ISO and exposure settings. In my experience, the difference between the two modes is that in Anti Motion Blur mode, the camera is more willing to pick a really high ISO setting like ISO 1600 to maintain a fast shutter speed, whereas in Hand-held Twilight mode, it will only go as high as absolutely necessary to avoid camera shake at the chosen focal length. If light levels are truly low, however, the WX1 will pick a high ISO speed even in this mode.

There are a couple of options that are useful for taking more successful portrait photos. The enhanced Face Detection system automatically adjusts the focus, exposure and white balance for people in the frame, and can even be set to distinguish between children and adults. Smile Detection, which is toggled on and off by pressing left on the navigation pad, offers three self-explanatory options, Big, Normal and Slight. Used in conjunction, the Face and Smile Detection systems do result in more hits than misses, especially in contrasty lighting conditions, although all those smiling faces could ultimately freak you out a little!

Underneath the mode dial, you'll find a small button for playing back your images. Users have the ability to dip in and out of created folders of images or the calendar view, view thumbnails, select slideshows and choose transitional effects and accompanying music, or delete duff shots. Press the shutter button halfway and you're helpfully catapulted back into capture mode. And that's basically it. With a press of the Menu button in playback, users have access to a few in-camera retouching effects, including the ability to crop and sharpen an image and apply red-eye correction.

Memory Card Slot	Battery Compartment

There's also a traditional round navigation pad which you can use to navigate through menus and options, in conjunction with the small button in the middle which activates whatever it is you've chosen. The four directions on the navigation pad also provide a quick way of setting the Display, Flash, Timer and Smile Shutter options. Finally, there are buttons for the camera's menu system and for deleting images underneath the navigation pad. The menu button accesses most of the camera's main functions - shooting mode, image size, macro mode, EV, ISO, white balance, Focus mode, Metering Mode and others - plus an icon at the bottom to open the four Settings menus. The latter includes the ability to deactivate the camera's 'bleep' that otherwise sounds at every button press.

Sony has fitted a dual image stabilisation mechanism in the shape of both optical SteadyShot and an ISO range that extends up to ISO 3200. If not quite class leading, it's better than you'll find on an average point-and-shoot. As with its recent predecessors, present and correct on the WX1 is the increasingly ubiquitous ability to shoot High Definition video clips at a maximum 1280x720 pixels video at 30fps, here in PC friendly MPEG-4 format with full use of the optical zoom and the ability to fire off a still image in the middle of filming. The movie mode also has its very own underwater shooting mode, plus the ability to change the EV level, white balance, metering and steadyshot options. There's also a direct HDMI output from the camera, useful for playing back the 60 minutes of footage that can be stored on a 4GB Memory Stick (Duo or Pro variety), although sadly there's no HDMI cable supplied in the box.

The bottom of the Sony WX1 features a standard screw thread for attaching it to a tripod, alongside which is a narrow flap with lockable catch that protects the shared lithium-ion battery and removable media (an optional Memory Stick Duo or Pro variety with a hardly worth it 11MB internal memory to fall back on). Sony claims the battery is good for up to 350 shots or 175 minutes of video from a single charge, which is fairly long-lasting but nothing out of the ordinary.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 10 megapixel JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 4Mb.

The Sony CyberShot DSC-WX1 produced images of very good quality during the review period. This camera handled noise very well, not becoming obvious until the relatively slow speed of ISO 800 and then becoming progressively worse at the fastest settings of ISO 1600 and 3200 - still, not bad for such a small image sensor.

Chromatic aberrations were virtually non-existent, with just some limited purple fringing effects appearing in high contrast situations. The 10 megapixel images were a little soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpen setting and require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, as you can't change the in-camera sharpening level.

Macro performance is quite good, allowing you to focus as close as 5cms away from the subject. Commendably barrel distortion is well controlled even at the 24mm wide-angle focal length. The built-in flash worked well indoors, with no red-eye and adequate overall exposure.

Anti-shake works very well when hand-holding the camera in low-light conditions or when using the telephoto end of the zoom range. The only real fly in the ointment is the disappointing maximum shutter speed of 2 seconds, which doesn't allow the camera to capture enough light for most after-dark situations.

Noise

There are 6 ISO settings available on the Sony CyberShot DSC-WX1. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting.

ISO 160 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)
ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)
ISO 1600 (100% Crop)	ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

Focal Range

The Sony CyberShot DSC-WX1's 4x zoom lens offers a fairly versatile focal range, as illustrated by these examples:

24mm	120mm

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are a little soft and ideally benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. You can't change the in-camera sharpening level.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

The Sony CyberShot DSC-WX1 handled chromatic aberrations excellently during the review, with very limited purple fringing present around the edges of objects in certain high-contrast situations, as shown in the example below.

Example 1 (100% Crop)

Macro

The Sony CyberShot DSC-WX1 offers a Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is 5cms away from the camera when the lens is set to wide-angle. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.

Macro Shot	100% Crop

Flash

The flash settings on the Sony CyberShot DSC-WX1 are Auto, Forced Flash, Slow Syncro, No Flash, with a Red-eye Reduction option in the Main menu. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.

Suppressed Flash - Wide Angle (24mm)	Forced Flash - Wide Angle (24mm)
Suppressed Flash - Telephoto (120mm)	Forced Flash - Telephoto (120mm)

And here are some portrait shots. As you can see, neither the Forced Flash setting or the Red-Eye Correction option caused any red-eye.

Forced Flash	Forced Flash (100% Crop)
Red-eye Reduction	Red-eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night Shot

The Sony CyberShot DSC-WX1's maximum shutter speed is 2 seconds, which is not good news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 1/8th second at ISO 100. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like.

Night Shot	Night Shot (100% Crop)

Anti Shake

The Sony CyberShot DSC-WX1 has an anti-shake mechanism, which allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds than other digital cameras. To test this, I took 2 handheld shots of the same subject with the same settings. The first shot was taken with anti shake turned off, the second with it turned on. Here are some 100% crops of the images to show the results. As you can see, with anti shake turned on, the images are much sharper than with anti shake turned off. This feature really does seem to make a difference and could mean capturing a successful, sharp shot or missing the opportunity altogether.

Shutter Speed / Focal Length	Anti Shake Off (100% Crop)	Anti Shake On (100% Crop)
1/10th / 35mm
1/6th / 140mm

Dynamic Range Optimizer

DRO is Sony's solution for improving shadow detail in photos taken in contrasty light. The selectable settings are Off, Standard [D-R] and Advanced [D-R+]. The examples show the effect of the different settings.

Off	Standard	Advanced

Hand-held Twilight Mode

Another standout feature is the Hand-held Twilight mode, in which the camera takes six high-ISO photos in rapid succession, and combines them into a single image. To test this, we took the same shot twice, once with the feature enabled, and once in Program mode. The Hand-held Twilight photo turned out to have somewhat less noise, but was noticeably softer too (the other new mode, Anti Motion Blur, works in a similar fashion).

Manual Mode	Hand-held Twilight Mode
(100% Crop)	(100% Crop)

Sweep Panorama Mode

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX1 allows you to take panoramic images very easily, by 'sweeping' with the camera while keeping the shutter release depressed. The camera does all the processing and stitching. The catch is that the resulting image is of fairly low resolution, and moving subjects tend to be replicated. Check out some examples below.

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX1 camera, which were all taken using the 10 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample Movie & Video

As of February 2025, we are no longer providing full size sample images or videos for download.

Please contact us if you have any feedback on our new policy.

Product Images

Front of the Camera

Front of the Camera / Lens Extended

Isometric View

Isometric View

Rear of the Camera

Rear of the Camera / Image Displayed

Rear of the Camera / Main Menu

Top of the Camera

Bottom of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Front of the Camera

Front of the Camera

Memory Card Slot

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX1 offers the same focus on image quality rather than simply increasing the megapixel count as its sister model, the TX1, with more conventional controls and a cheaper price-tag.

Sony's new Exmor-R sensor certainly delivers the goods in terms of image quality, with the promise of better low-light performance borne out in practice. Despite having such a small image sensor, the WX1 produces impressive results up to ISO 800, with noise not really becoming apparent until the relatively slow speed of 1600. Colours are accurate, chromatic aberrations virtually non-existent, the Sweep Panorama mode makes capturing panoramic images as effortless as it gets, and the super-fast 10fps burst mode at full resolution is the real icing on the cake. Only a rather limiting fastest shutter speed of 2 seconds detracts from the otherwise excellent pictures that this camera takes.

The 24mm wide-angle lens is also a great performer, with not too much barrel distortion despite the extreme angle of view, and a very versatile 5x focal range that also allows you to get close up and personal. The lens is one of the key reasons why we'd choose the WX1 over the TX1, as is the lack of touchscreen interface. While this is initially an attraction on the TX1, ultimately it's quicker and easier to navigate your way around a camera using the more conventional button-driven controls of the WX1.

Although cheaper than the TX1, $350 / £300 is still a lot to ask for the WX1 - after all, this is only a 10 megapixel point-and-shoot camera with no manual modes to speak of. Having said that, if you don't need or want the ability to fully control your camera, then the Sony Cyber-shot WX1 makes an excellent choice. Its wealth of innovative hand-holding modes makes it easy to successfully shoot regular photos, panoramas, and particularly low-light images, an area where most compacts really struggle. It may only look like yet another compact camera, but the Sony WX1 delivers impressive results in a fun and easy way.

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4.5
Features	4
Ease-of-use	4.5
Image quality	4.5
Value for money	4

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX1 from around the web.

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