Budget Camera Grouptest - Sony W310

Sony's Cyber-shot W310 offers optical image stabilisation, as well as the usual electronic ISO-based option, and a 28mm lens with a 4x optical zoom. There's also an Easy Shooting mode, which clears the display of all but the most pertinent information, and even modes with a degree of in-camera editing.

Although it may seem somewhat frivolous to put optical image stabilisation into a camera with such a limited zoom, the comparison between relying entirely on ISO and adding some physical assistance is clear. The Sony W310's focus is helped hugely, as is the exposure, and movement is far easier to track. The LCD is also impressively bright and detailed for such a budget-aimed model, and the Intelligent Auto doesn't create any huge delays when taking images. The nine-zone focus system also makes the camera more accurate when shooting a varied scene, and can be switched back to capturing the central area as required.   

The W310 does offer impressively fast focusing, and generally very sharp results, only being caught out once or twice by excessive movement. The images produced favoured darker tones as opposed to the lighter end of the scale, very occasionally blowing out the highlights, although not to the extent to lose a huge amount of detail. Image noise creeps in above the ISO 400 mark, which was surprising as the light conditions usually didn't require it.  

All in all, the W310 does look and feel far more expensive than its price would indicate.

PRICE            £120
Megapixels    12.2MP
LENS    28-1123.3mm (4x Zoom)
APERTURE    F/3.0-5.8
Stabilisation    Optical
SCREEN SIZE        2.7in
ISO    100-3200
MODES    Auto, P, 9 Scene modes
MEMORY CARDS    SD/SDHC, MS Duo
SOCKETS        USB, AV
DIMENSIONS     95.3 x 55 x 18.7mm
WEIGHT        137g

Summary

Looks great, which doesn't translate fully to the image quality as noise was an issue, but focus and tones were perfectly passable.