Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W230 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom and Super Steady Shot Image Stabilization (Black)

i don’t know why the reviews are bad , the camera is in perfect condition , i love the pictures, didn’t try the zoom capability yet , but the durability and functionality are good for the price.Even tho it doesn’t come with a charger it’s good for it’s price and that’s what matters.

The camera had some scratch on the screen but I didn't mind. It only has 3 shots, it does not have the sd card (memory Card) and the battery it had included died out after couple shots I took. I recharged it for 8 hours. But the battery is all dead . So I had to buy everything that was suppose to be included which cost $30.

I have resisted going digital for years. Back in the 1970s and 80s I shot thousands of photos with an SLR that had a very good lens. Prints eventually gave way to slides to save on money. All of them eventually were relegated to the desk drawers or in rarely opened albums. The camera even went on the shelf. I wanted to spend my money on things other than Kodak and Fuji. When digital came along I went counter to the culture. I could see the cost sense with no film to buy and develop, but everyone was shooting what I always called snapshots of people's heads blocking real subject-matter or poorly constructed photographic images of highly unintelligible subjects with rotten lenses. You know what I mean, generally worthless pictures. Now I am older, more sentimental and soon off to Italy. I want shots of my friends in unusual places, the food, the land, the chefs, the farmers, grapes on-the-vine, cut cheese, wrinkled faces, mountains, rivers, sculptures - detail! After only a few dozen shots with this camera set on automatic, I am astounded at the detail, the contrast, the absolute perfect interpretation of the subject matter without touching a single setting. Buy it and love your subjects - love the fact that you will be able to revisit them with all the passion and stirring of soul that you had when you first saw them. Buy the 8 gig Memory Stick ProDuo as well and you will have room for thousands of shots and hours of video. Enjoy.

After buying a $500++ bigger Olympus camera and was severly dissapointed with the digital quality (even though I had previously had good luck with Olympus) I decided I would rather have a small camera I can slip in my pocket to get all of those can not miss shots.The best thing about this camera, is the burst mode, If you have it on the normal camera mode, the green camera on the dial. go into the menu and set your shutter to burst.You can then take 4-8 consecutive photos with one pressing down of the button.I can then take great shots of my kids and uncooperative husband, seems that first photo is always so rigid and then they let lose just that tiny bit for the perfect shot.Top it off with my Creative Memories Memory Manager Software ( a HUGE bang for your buck in photo storing and editing) I can clone from one picture to the next and get an almost perfect photo.I've done this with a group of men (who we all know don't cooperate) and got a great final product. I also did this with my daughter's baseball team and got a great shot of the kids.Well worth the price, fun features great grab and go keep in your pocket or purse camera.

I've bought several of these little digital cameras over the last 15 years, and this little Sony holds it's own. Of course it has more pixels than the older cameras, however at around 8 mp other things like shutter speed and quality of optics are more important to image quality. For this reason I tend to prefer buying from experienced high-end camera makers over consumer electronics makers like Sony. My digital Nikons and Canons have taken great pictures since I first bought a Nikon Cool-pix in '97 or so. I decided to give this Sony a try due to the large screen and better than average telephoto range. The Sony, I'm happy to say, keeps up with the camera pros. Maybe it's the Carl Zeiss optics - I had assumed that Sony just bought the rights to use the name, but it's actually a decent lens system. The telephoto works well, and pictures are as sharp as the competition throughout the focal range. Color balance and light metering are also first rate. My kids love playing with the smile feature, and they make videos which, while not as good as a dedicated camcorder, are better than missing the action altogether. The LCD is large and clear, and we don't miss the rangefinder at all. Battery life is good. Overall, excellent quality and feature set.We've had nothing but trouble with Sony TVs since 1990 or so, and our one Sony Camcorder was a reliability disaster. But this camera must be made but a totally different branch of the company, since all the controls work, and the unit feels solid. It's been used a lot in the near-year we've had it, and had no issues at all. Software and hardware all work great.My only complaint, and the reason this is not a 5-star review, is the non-standard memory stick. Why can't Sony use an industry standard like Micro SD, and stop trying to push their proprietary versions on people? They've been trying to do this since the Betamax, and it's never worked. They hurt their products and their customers with this attitude, trying to squeeze a few more nickels out of people. A very short-sighted business practice. But this camera's other great features make it worth overlooking the silly Sony stick - just allow a few extra bucks for the "stick tax".Digital cameras being what they are, someday soon Sony will sadly replace this little gem with something that has more mega-pixels, and there should be some great pricing as this is discontinued. If you can, snag one then - the new model won't take pictures that are any better. Meanwhile, If you're looking for a Camera in this class, this should be on your short list.