The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W290 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 5x optical zoom and super HAD CCD image sensor which steadies shots for greater stabilization also features an intelligent auto mode, a 28mm wide-angle Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens, an automatic detection of eight scenes and the selection of the most fitting camera settings, as well as face detection and smile shutter options to prevent blurring the facial expressions of your loved ones and to make them look as natural as is possible.

Once you’ve captured the scenes of your choice with your new Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W290 12.1 MP Digital Camera, you can then sit back and view its high definition videos in 720p HD (high definition) movie capture on your home HDTV.

This smart yet very compact digital camera which measures just 6.7” x 2.2” x 7.4” and weighs only 1.1 pounds also features a BIONZ image processor, a 3.0 inch and 230K pixels Clear Photo LCD, 11 MB of built-in memory but you can also capture photos to a memory stick duo/PRO Duo Media.

57 customers were kind enough to take time to review this Sony digital camera and their overall average rating was 3.8 stars out of the maximum possible of 5. Most of those who loved the product enough to give it a 5 star rating appreciated its high resolution, its wide angle lens and its small body. Most of those who did not like the camera and gave it a 1 star rating complained about the fact that the camera seems to overexpose stored photos and a film-like appearance on the captured images.

We have no intention of promoting or endorsing this Sony camera, nor do we intend to review it. But we do hope to provide our visitors with enough details about its attributes, whether good or bad, and then leave it up to them to make the wisest buying decision they can.

The advantages of digital cameras over film cameras are many but the most obvious are the fact that digital cameras can also record sound as well as videos; they can instantly display the captured images on a screen; providing that there is enough memory, they can store thousands of images indefinitely; they allow some editing such as cropping; they permit deletion of unwanted photos; and they are compatible with computers, television and other digital devices for additional functions.

The first known attempt to develop a digital camera took place in 1975 and it was manned by Steven Sasson, a staff engineer at the Eastman Kodak Co. This revolutionary new digital camera utilized the then newly developed CCD image sensor chips that were produced by Fairchild Semiconductor in 1973. That early camera, if you can believe it, weighed a hefty 8 pounds, it only recorded black and white images to a cassette tape, its resolution was 0.01 megapixels and it took a laborious 23 seconds to capture its first image.