I was looking for a camera with a higher resolution in the movie mode than the IXUS
980 IS which I sadly lost. The DSC-W290 did not fail my expectations in this
matter. The moviecapture is excellent in the highest grade of resoluition.
It´s easy to select shutter to darken the picture there is a tendency to outwashing
colours if not setting down the shutter , there seems to be more saturation without
bleeding out, to do so.
A good thing is also to cut off the AF when using movie mode. There is a very irritating knak- knak- knak from the AF motor - these sounds also is recorded when
played back. SONY has solved this problem elegantly with select infinity focus
which eliminate the AF but in normal light conditions is good enough to get a satisfying result.

Why this Memory Stick business when almost every other cameramaker use SD mem.card ??
In the package there was this transferring cable with an akward connecting device to the camera´s bottom plate. The cable is indeed very thick and stiff - you´ll be
anxious not to have the camera swept down on the floor when using this cable.
I found an adapter however with USB on one end and a slot for the Mem.Stick Duo
on the other.
In the movie mode there is no zoom working while shooting. Perhaps nothing to give hang about -
the recordingbusiness after turn off the movierecorder on the start/stop button to wait to shoot next video
is rather slow and then you can zoom in/out the next object.
Playback movies on my PC gets jumpy and freezing streaming. Perhaps my PC
(VISTA HOME PREMIUM) needs another of these thousands of codecs that you can download for free. VLC player solved this problem however with a slighter
lower grade of playbackresolution but with a flowing streaming without disturbances.

I think the design of the DSC-W290 reminds me of Harley Davidson in the detail work. A bit clumsy
design but stll working OK. Compared with Canon IXUS 980 IS ,SONY has perhaps
put their capacities in the working-horse concept. Everything on the camera seems
a bit that the cameradesigner had a day off.

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Canon IXUS 980 IS with more options than the DSC-W 290. Compared design between these two cameras is almost amazing. Perhaps DSC-W290 a more
consumercamera than the more subtle IXUS. And do you really use all options that
is available on the IXUS ? I don´t know.