Sony debuts 3 new Cyber-shot cameras

Sony Electronics

Sony Cyber-shot TX200V in red

By Athima Chansanchai

In an attempt to stanch the flow of consumers leaving digital cameras for their phones to take photos, Sony released its first wave of ultra slim Cyber-shot point-and-shoots that feature 18 megapixel sensors that lessens the "noise" in low-lit scenes and auto-focuses faster.

In all, we'll see 12 models from Sony this spring, with these three coming out first: the?TX200V ($500), the?WX70 ($230) and the?WX50 ($200). All three will be in stores in March.

Sony Electronics

The TX200V, as you can see in the two above images, is billed as the cream of the crop in this deployment, with a glass-bodied waterproof, dust proof and freeze-proof?design that gives it a distinctly different look than the other Cyber-shots, an?18.2 megapixel "Exmor R" CMOS sensor (supposedly "the highest-resolution currently offered in point and shoot market") and the ability to snap stills while also recording full HD videos. As you can also tell from the image above, the 3.3-inch OLED touch screen takes up the entire back of the camera. It will come in silver, red and violet.

Sony's Kate Dugan admitted that despite the natural disasters in Japan that affected production and shipment of its digital cameras, "true decline" has set in for digital cameras, in which sales are down 20 percent, the first time losses have hit in the double digits. The exodus is most pronounced amongst entry level users, who have turned to their phones as their all-in-one must-have gadget.

Dugan said that meant Sony has to?focus on things phones can't achieve, such as "high optical zoom, low light shooting, full HD video." The way the company sees it, phones are fine to shoot food on the fly, but for "important moments should go to cameras."

You can see there are some problems with this, right? Anyone who has an iPhone or has seen pictures from the iPhone 4S knows that it is as high quality a camera, period, as you can get on entry level. And right now, there are already smartphones that shoot in 1080p full HD, such as the 4S, the Samsung Galaxy S II and the Motorola Razr.?

But seeing the slides on the enhanced low-lighting shooting does give us some pause that there are some advantages to standalone cameras (though again, the iPhone 4S's performance in low light is comparable).

Sony Electronics

Sony Cyber-shot WX70 in pink

Besides sharing the full HD shooting capability of the TX200V, the WX70 comes in at 16.2 megapixels with a?25mm equivalent lens with 5x optical zoom and a 10x virtual zoom, with a slightly smaller 3-inch LCD touch screen; the WX50 differs from it only in a smaller screen (2.7-inches) and its color choices (silver and black, vs. silver, black, pink, and violet).

All three models have the CMOS sensors, three-way image stabilization and picture effects that allow users to exercise some creativity as they shoot.?

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On Twitter, follow?Athima Chansanchai, who is also trying to keep her head above water in the?Google+?stream.

Source: http://gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/30/10267566-sony-debuts-3-new-cyber-shot-cameras

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