As we continue to gear up our site and do more reviews, I’ve sat back and analyzed how other sites do reviews, when they are able to gain access to them and what they offer in them. It first becomes clear to me that the major tech blogs all get their products for free to review before they are released, while we are purchasing our products for review (yikes). More so, the reviews I’ve found are in depth, but many times are not useful. Here is what I mean; many reviews get extremely technical and in depth, and that might be great for the tech crowd, but chances are that crowd already knows about the products and their likes and dislikes. This leaves those who really need the reviews to decide if this is the right product for them. This crowd has nowhere to turn to. They don’t need to know about the processor versus last year, versus 8 other products. They want to know about this product, what it does, and how it does it. With that information they can make up their mind about the product.

For this reason, I’m introducing a new series if reviews called “The Everyday Review”. The goal of this review is to take a product and start looking at it from an everyday consumer’s eyes. I’ll ask questions like: How easy is it to set up when you take it out of the box? How is the layout of the device? Can I easily integrate it into my other products, and how might it handle during day-to-day use? For example, although there will be some talks about features, the idea of my Sony W330 review was simple. The person who is buying this is looking for a good budget-friendly camera. They are not looking for 100 different settings and options. They want to know: When I take this camera out of the box, what can I do with it? How does it handle when I take it outside for a trip and shoot some normal pictures (not sit there and compare ISO settings in one light vs another vs 5 other cameras). And that’s exactly what I did. After the basic setup, I took the camera out for two days and just took pictures like most people would. Here is my experience with the camera after a 2 day shooting spree and another week of intermediate use.

Hit the jump for the full review and sample pictures.

Setup and Cosmetics

The unboxing of the Sony DSC-W330 is fairly simple. In the box itself, you have the camera, a battery, a wall charger, a USB cable for computer syncing, and a video cable so you can view your video or photos on your TV. Oh yes, and the hand strap that I’ve come to love and now use a lot. The setup of the camera itself is very user friendly as well. It asks for your basic time and date setup and walla, within a minute or so, you are ready to shoot your video or photo. As a whole, the camera feels very solid and polished. One thing I dislike about other brand cameras is the plastic they use. It feels too cheap. The Sony feels solid, both in terms of the material and the color for its finish. The button layout is exactly as you would expect if you’ve used a Sony Cybershot in the last 10 years. If you haven’t, the camera fits right into your hand and even better, even though these units have an actual lens that extends out, they slide into your pocket ever so effortlessly. This makes it great for a party or Disneyland. Slide out the W330, shoot some pictures and slide it right back into your pocket with no bulk.

The Everyday Use

As I mentioned above, even though the true slim line from Sony is the T line, this unit still felt fantastic in my pocket and not bulgy. Also, boot up time was great. Between turning on the W330, waiting for its screen to turn on and the lens to extend out, you’re looking at 2-3 silent seconds. This of course means that you’re not worried about the camera lagging and therefore missing the shot that you were aiming for. The camera itself does a great job when it comes to processing the image most of the time. There are times where you need to take your hand off of the shutter and let the camera refocus but thats also sometimes due to the light conditions changing in the background or if you’re in a moving vehicle and you want to shoot some scenery as you pass by.

Coming from a more advanced background in cameras and even using some of the more advanced Cybershots (T300 and soon to be replaced by the TX7), I first found the camera to be a bit lacking in features. With the lack of touchscreen, I cannot click on the screen and tell it where to focus or which face to pick out. There is no in camera editing of photos or Night, Day, Scenery, Fireworks, etc. mode. But this then made me think of what this camera is. It’s not aimed at those who want a ton of features. It is indeed an introductory camera. And this brings us to those who this is aimed for. My mom or sister both love using their cameras and take a ton of photos. I don’t know a single time either has ever left auto mode and quite frankly, if you have a point and shoot camera, chances are that you have never left that mode either. And that’s perfect. There are less menus to get lost in and if you’re not going to use the features, why pay for them? You should also note that from all the sample photos you will see, that I left the camera on auto mode to simulate and use this camera like most people will.

This brings us to the camera itself and the quality of the photos. The first thing I want people to note is the close up quality of the camera. I took some shots of my cars and other random items around the house and you can see every detail with the correct balance of light and color. Even my father, who has a Nikon D40 with lots of expensive lenses, was pretty impressed by the camera quality.  This of course brings us to the everyday quality of the camera and I really think the photos speak for themselves.  The colors are sharp, grain is hardly present and there is a ton of detail in the photos. Although I didn’t get many chances to test the camera in low light situations, there is considerably less grain than older Cybershot cameras and the small flash on the unit is very powerful, but not whitening, on the subjects.

The Pictures and Conclusion

From here, I will let the pictures do the rest of the review but here is a short thought on how I want you to judge them. As I said prior, the entire time, i left the camera on it’s auto mode. From there, I set out for the day. I need errands to run, I had an office visit and needed to get some business done in Beverly Hills. You will note that for the pictures, I simply took my camera out and just snapped a picture. No framing, no posing or editing. Some of the pictures were taken while the window was down and I was in the passenger seat and because of this, some photos might be blurry or not 100% PR ready and that was really the point, because let’s face it, who hasn’t gone out and shot photos and they came out blurry?

To wrap things up, the Sony DSC-W330 was a real delight to use. It’s the perfect introductory unit for those who want great pictures, but do not need fancy options and features. The camera boasts a fantastic LCD screen, easy to find options and provides crisp and clear photos, with a fast on and off switch for when your ready to catch the moment. So, if you’re in need of an everyday camera or think you’re going to be shooting lots of pictures this summer, the W330 with its ease of use is the camera for you.