Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-WX9 Digital Camera

This is a digital camera by Sony. It is 16 MP (megapixels), accepts both SD cards and memory sticks, is very small, very easy to use, and takes beautiful 3D pictures.  I am very happy with this camera.  It is small, easy to use, and takes great pictures.  And with the number of settings, it will meet your needs.

From looking at other point and shoot digital cameras on the market, this in my mind is one of the best in the low cost arena right now, especially for what it gives you. Different brands are going to have slightly different features. But with the 3D setting and easy to use panorama, it is a feature filled digital camera for taking photos and videos on the go. It takes great pictures, is easy to use, has multiple options to fit most situations, and it is small. The Sony WX9 is easy to carry and comfortably fits in a pocket. No it’s not perfect, but for the list price I have no major complaints. It is a better camera than what I was anticipating when I ordered it.

I bought this because I had some Sony points, my daughter broke an old Nikon camera, and I wanted a small 16 MP digital camera anyways. This is so small it fits in my jeans pocket with my wallet. In fact it is smaller than my wallet. I was impressed at how small my old Nikon was at the time. Not any more. I can fit two WX9’s into the body of my old Nikon push and shoot digital camera.

Now I did recently buy a Nikon D5100 digital SLR and Nikon 5100 is superior to this camera in all area but two. Size and 3D features. Places like Knotts and Magic Mountain are not good places for a large camera. In fact on some intense rides at places like Magic Mountain, they won’t let you carry a large camera. They force you to put things like that in a paid locker. So this small camera solves this problem for me.

I have to start this review off with my experience with the 3D features. The 3D feature totally amazed me which is why I wanted to start talking about this feature. That’s why it might seem out of order. Then I will talk about the other features and my opinions on this camera after that.

I was finally able to view the 3D photos I took from this camera since my brother-in-law bought a Sony 3D television. The first few pictures I viewed were not all that impressive. Yes they were in 3D, but they were not eye popping like in a 3D movie. Then one of the last few photos was a 3D panorama (3D sweep) of Chuck-e-Cheese’s game floor. I stood on one corner of the room and did a 120 degree sweep of the room. I was blown away when that photo popped up on the 3D television screen. It was amazing and as good or better then the passive 3D movies I have seen. You almost felt like you were in the room and you could clearly see how close (or far) each object was. So under the right conditions, this is an Awesome 3D camera. And maybe the cheapest 3D camera out there. All of my family was amazed with this particular photo and were as amazed as I was.

I did a panorama of my school quad and it came out really nice in 3D, (it was viewed after the above photo.) It was an awesome 3D image also. But it didn’t handle the different exposures due to the position of the sun. Another one was of my classroom and you truly got a feel for the depth of my room. But in that particular photo, one subject moved so it she was not clear in the final photo. So you cannot use this on fast moving objects like with the Nintendo 3DS or any other 3D camera with 2 Lens.

By the way, I viewed these 3D photos on a 55 inch Sony 3D television using active 3D glasses. The television has a USB input and could automatically tell if the photo was 2D or 3D.

From my experience with this camera over the last couple of months, the way you get the best 3D photos is to use a brightly lit room and make sure there are plenty of subjects (at different distances) to get the effect. Yes I did take a picture of some fruit in a bowl in the kitchen. Yes I could tell it was 3D. But it did not pop out at me like the Chuck-e-Cheese panorama. This picture was just blah as were many of the 3D photos I took.
I have had the best luck with brightly lit settings with bright colors and consistent brightness.

I did try to view these 3D photos on the Nintendo 3DS, but the 3DS did not recognize the 3D photos. The 3DS did show the regular still photos with no problem.

The 3D photos taken by this camera are not like the 3D photos taken on the Nintendo 3DS because the Sony WX9 only has one lens. This camera takes photos at different times so if your subject moves during the scan then you will have a blended/bleeding person/object in the final 3D photo. This is a problem with a 3D camera with only 1 lens.

The Sony WX9 does not shoot video in 3D. The Nintendo 3DS does now (as of December 2011).

Three types of picture/recording settings.
There are three major types of photographic settings. The camera has a small slide on the back (top right) with three settings that allows you to change through the three modes. The first is your standard 3:4 photo. The second is a wide screen which you take by panning the area in front of you. You do this by panning the camera. You pan the scene like a video camera but you end up with a nice quality static photograph in only a few seconds. The third photographic setting is your high definition video recorder.

The slider is conveniently placed and easy to use.

Still photograph camera mode.
This takes your typical still photos in 3:4 size or 16:9. You can go up to 16 MP.
3:4 has 16MP, 10MP, 5MP, or VGA mode.
16:9 has 12MP or 2MP.

Panoramic still photo mode
A really neat mode and one feature I wish my Nikon D5100 had. To take these photos you set it on the middle slider setting and press the shutter release button. You then slowly move the camera across the landscape/room and it takes a series of pictures. You have a couple of different settings in the menu that you can manually change. The Sony WX9 puts the photos together for you automatically. It will take between 90 to 180 degrees of the landscape depending on the setting. You cannot control the degrees. The degrees taken depends on the quality of photos taken. The quality of the photo seems to dictate the degrees taken.

You have three settings in panorama mode. Normal 2D photos (iSweep Panorama), 3D Sweep Panorama, and 3D Sweep Multi Angle (this is displayable on the camera’s screen but not the other 3D setting).

The Panoramic mode on the Nikon L22 required you to take each photo individually and between photos you had to line up each one perfectly. A bit of a pain but you have higher MP photos in the end product. But when I took photos on the L22, I took them 20-60 seconds apart so a lot of people moved around between those times. Also the light and camera exposure settings did change slightly. So be careful what panoramic feature you are looking at when you shop for a new digital camera. I recommend this panoramic feature because it is easy to use and takes the photo relatively quickly. But if you do want a high quality panorama, just get a tripod and do the sweep manually. Then you can put the photos together on your computer (I’m sure there is software out there that can make it easier to put these photos together.).

The “3D Sweep Multi Angle” preview is SWEET. This is the panoramic 3D mode that you can (sort of) view on the LCD screen. Once you are in post view mode and you hit an additional button, the camera processes the 3D photo to be viewable on the 2D led screen on the camera. This allows you to look at the two photos in a weird blending set up and you are able to get an idea of what it will look like on a true 3D television. It is not 3D when viewed on this camera; it just lets you view the two photos in a blended fashion. The camera has a gyroscope on it so you move the camera side to side to view the different angles to get an idea of the final 3D image. The “3D Sweep Panorama” is not viewable on this camera’s LCD screen, only the “multi angle”.

Movie Mode
This is the third and final photographic setting. This camera is able to record in high definition at 1080i. Sadly it is not 1080p, which is the highest HD home video we have at the moment. My Nikon D5100 does shoot in 1080p so I do have that as an option. But neither my Nikon D5100 or my Sony WX9 will replace my Panasonic digital camcorder. The camcorder is just so much easier to use, ready to go at a moments notice, and has a better zoom than the Sony. The Panasonic is smaller than the D5100.

The video camera shoot in AVCHD or MP4. AVCHD is not easily viewed on my new iMac (2011) computer. For my daughters birthday I have to convert the file in order to view it smoothly. The conversion came out perfectly and I am pleased with the video results.
Right before posting this I plugged it into my Sony Blu-Ray player via USB, and the video played perfectly on my Sony 40 inch flat screen.

AVCHD is an awesome format and the only format I will use

Would I use this instead of my Panasonic HD camcorder? No way. Like every push and shoot camera I have used, it just does not have the right lens or control to make good video. Like your phone, it would be there to catch an event, not preserve a work of art to frame (if your frame is a digital movie player).

Auto and manual modes in the still camera setting
You have several record modes when taking still photos. They are…
-Intelligent auto- Probably the most commonly used setting. Just does everything for you.
-Superior Auto- I love this mode because it post process the photo right after it is taken. Nothing to mess with. You end up with a better picture, but the lag between photos is much much longer. Expect to wait for 2-3 seconds before taking the next photo. Not for fast photo taking.
-Program- Still does everything for you but you have a few more setting you can play with.
-3D images- Takes 3D pictures. Awesome, see above.
-SCN selection- Allows you to set the camera for a particular environment. It has the typical settings you would expect. (soft skin, soft snap,anti motion blur, landscape, Backlight correction, Twilight portrait, twilight, handheld twilight, high sensitivity, gourmet, pet, beach, snow, and fireworks.)
-Background defocus-Blurs the background while keeping the close and forward subject in focus.

Picture quality 

Really nice photos. The pictures are better than what I expected. Especially considering the low price. Just keep in mind that sometimes camera exaggerates bright colors, making the picture much richer. I believe this is one reason the Chuck-e-Cheese photo looked so good because the colorful games and structures really stood out.

For darker environment the pictures had a little more orange throughout the photo than normal. The flash eliminated this and the flash photos were very close to the real life colors. I also found that the automatic focus did not work well in dark situations. This really disappointed me.

To my eyes, there seems to be a lot of noise in the pictures taken at the program setting. Obviously more than with my Nikon 5100. It isn’t bad unless you start to zoom in and see the imperfections. The superior auto helped to eliminate some of that. But like all digital cameras, you do have noise (grains.)

In short, the daylight and flash photos came out beautifully. I love the richness of these photos. These photos are richer than my much older point and shoot digital cameras. But if you like to shoot in dark situations, do not get this camera. Get one with a bigger lens. There are some point and shoot cameras that have larger lens, but they are not as portable (which was my #1 requirement.)

Physical buttons 

The shutter release is on the top right. There is a ring around it which you use to zoom. The zoom is a little hard to use because the rocking button is so small. On the back you have several buttons. They are all on the right side. From top to bottom they are the “movie” record release button, the slider that changes the photographic setting, the cross key with an enter button in the middle, a menu button, trash button, and preview button. There is also a wheel that allows you to move to the different settings such as program mode, 3D mode, etc.
The cross key lets you set burst mode on/off, flash on/off, display details, and timer settings. One timer setting recognizes when 2 people are in the shot. Kind of a cute feature.


Battery and Memory card compartment (SD and Sony Memory Stick)
I think Sony has given up the Memory stick fight. Finally. Whoo hoo!!!! It is so awesome that this camera accepts both SD cards and Sony Memory sticks. I have tried both media on this camera and they both work well. So finally it does not matter what memory you have on when buying these new Sony digital cameras (at least I hope it is on all new cameras). Both this camera and my Dad’s Sony W510 accept both memory card types. 



Steady shot or Vibration reduction(VR) It works well, just not perfectly. I still recommend you brace yourself against a pole when zoomed or if you take certain medication (trust me, several prescription drugs will make your body/hands shake.) VR also doesn’t work as well in dark situations.

I haven’t found a way to turn VR on or off.
It works perfectly when you are zoomed all the way back. So non-zoomed photos will come out with no blurring (unless you are on a moving object, you yourself are moving, or it is a low light situation). Zoomed and dark situations may be blurrier. 



Ergonomics 

For a camera this small, people with larger hands will not find this camera to be a perfect fit. Small hands should be just fine. It is designed for right handed individuals and you control most settings with your thumb. To use the wheel I have to look at the camera. The screen size is 4 3/16 inches.
So should large hands avoid this camera? Not in my opinion. It is small so it can be portable and the buttons are well placed so you shouldn’t experience any problems. I haven’t had any problems taking pictures with this camera. I haven’t found it to be uncomfortable. I just have to curl up my finger more with this camera than my digital SLR.



Screen 

Good quality screen. It is not a touch screen (which I like to avoid). The quality displayed is nearly identical to the picture displayed on my iMac.

Zoom capabilities
This camera has a 5X zoom. Not much at all and not good enough to replace most camcorders on the market today. But any more than 5x could result in more blur. So I’m fine with 5X.


Macro 
There are no true macro settings, it is all automatic. I also feel it does not work as well as other cameras that have a dedicated macro mode. (Such as the one on the Nikon L22, or a removable macro lens on a SLR.) With this camera you have to be at least 2 inches away from the object and have a good light source for this camera to focus on the object properly. It does have a red light for the autofocus but it doesn’t work when really really close to the subject. If you do a lot of macro then you need to get a different camera.

Wide Angle
This camera does have a descent wide angle setting. Not great, but descent like most cameras in this category. It is not as good as a wide angle lens on a digital SLR camera, so do not buy it for this feature.


Durability 

I have carried it in a back pack, hip pack, my pants pocket with no ill effects. It has been dropped twice on the ground with no damage or malfunction.



Battery 
This comes with a very small and light weight Lithium Ion battery. NP-BN1. It is rated at 630 mAh and 3.6 volts.
The battery will last you for a regular day. If you use it a lot, and keep looking at the screen for review or settings, then it will only last you 3-6 hours. This is a good life span for a compact digital camera. Expect to take 150-200 photos.
If you take constant photos all day long then I might recommend finding a camera that uses 2 AA batteries. It makes the power source a little cheaper and much easier to replace. But AA batteries have a short life span (between charging) and they are heavier than a battery such as the one that comes with the Sony WX9. The AA cameras are also much larger which forces the camera to be larger. I prefer the Lithium Ion batteries because of their small size, and I will never buy another AA capable digital camera. I also have my portable battery chargers and a portable solar panel that can recharge this camera if necessary, so I’m set no matter where I am.



Shooting speed 
Slow for the most part. If you do want to take a series of photos it has a special setting to take up to 10 shots in 1 second. It works well but once you take those 10 shots, the camera’s computer has to take several seconds to process them and store them. So if you need a bunch of photos taken quickly over a longer period of time, get a SLR camera.

The photos taken at night in a car was very blurry. That is to be expected. In bright light the photos were

The quality of these 10 photos in a partially lit room and outside were fine. They were 3MB each and seem to have a bit more noise than my "superior auto" photos.


Lag 

Lag is always a problem for low end digital cameras. While this is better than my old Nikon point and shoot, it still has lag. I am guessing it is one third of a second. Not good for fast moving objects.

Focus speed

Pretty fast. About half a second to go from near to far.


Flash 

It has a built in flash that will delay your camera a little. It is a fine flash and it is what I expected. I see no problems with it but don’t expect great photos from it. Try to shoot in bright setting when possible. On the cross key you can easily turn the flash on and off without having to go through a bunch of settings.



Photo size 

Ranged from 3.8 megs to 12.2 megs. The panorama’s were larger. My largest normal photo was 6 megs.


Mac connection
I hooked it up to my Mac via the provided USB cable. It worked automatically and the computer saw the memory card. What was weird was there was a piece of software on the camera for the Mac.
I installed it and found that the program was an automatic back up program. If you set it right, as soon as you plug in the USB cable, the computer automatically downloads new photos taken that were not on the computer already. Sweet! No software CD to mess with and you don’t have to take the memory card out when you download new pictures on your computer.
It also had PC software in another file for you poor windows users.


Charging seems to take about an 1.5 hour.


Weight and dimensions 

Weight: 7/8 ounce

Length(depth): 3/4 inch

Width: 3 3/4 inch

Height: 2 3/4 inch

Capacity: Sony memory stick or a full size SD card.

25mm Wide-angle lens
Zeiss lens

I can't remember what came with it but I think it was just the camera, battery, USB cable, AC to USB adapter, and wrist strap.





Summary
This is an awesome camera.  Easy to use and takes great pictures.  Anyone can use it.  And with the available setting you have a lot of options available to you.  It is also inexpensive and very powerful for the money.

I bought this as a small camera I could carry any where without it being in the way. My Nikon D5100 SLR can be a little cumbersome at times. So this Sony 3D camera supplements my needs. But when I have my D5100, I still put this in my belt camera pouch and take it with me. Why? Because it can take 3D images. It is in no way able to compete with my SLR in picture quality, shooting speed, or customizable settings; but it is also 1/6th to 1/8th the price of my SLR.

© Alan Lake's Kitchen 2012


Other reviews you might be interested in.
Nikon D5100 SLR digital camera.
Nikon L22 digital camera.
Panasonic HD camcorder HDC-SDX1