Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX350 is a pocket-sized point-and-shoot camera with 20x optical zoom. It comes with built-in WiFi and NFC for easy sharing, 18.2MP Exmor R™ CMOS sensor and Bionz X™ engine for faster image processing and detailed reproduction. According to Sony website, it uses NP-BX1 battery capable to deliver 470 shots per full charge.
Let’s start with the overall look and design. DSC-WX350 is reasonably compact and lightweight (about 164 gr including battery and memory card inside). On the top side we can find the on/off button, trigger button with zoom in/out control, and a mode-selection wheel. On the back we have 3″ screen with 5 brightness settings, no touch screen feature. There’s a dedicated movie button that can be set only to work when movie mode is selected. There are the usual buttons of menu, trash, up/down/left/right/ok and playback button. There’s a micro-USB port at the right side. This allows us to transfer data to computer as well as charging the battery in-camera. Micro HDMI port is located at the bottom, along with battery and memory card slot.
WX-350 can produce 18.2 megapixels photos. Optionally we can set it to take 10 or 5 megapixels, or even VGA size (who would even do that?) We can choose 4:3, 3:2, 16:9 or 1:1 aspect ratio pictures. Just like most Sony cameras, it can shoot panorama photos. There are tons of settings in the menu, including the smile/face detect and soft skin effect.
The photo quality is generally good. So far I have tried it few times outdoor and indoor, happy with the photo quality. A little test with low-light environment produces decent quality photo with a bit of noise. Not perfect, but better than most other pocket cameras I’ve used before. For shooting video, WX350 can take full HD 1080p video at 50i or 50p.
Interestingly, there are two auto modes here: Intelligent Auto and Superior Auto. Intelligent Auto is the normal auto mode we usually know. It will automatically adjust the settings a moment before we take a photo. Superior Auto takes it a but further by shooting burst images based on the recognized scene (when the camera thinks it’s necessary to do so), then creates a composite of the burst images (Overlay shooting). In Superior Auto, the camera automatically corrects the backlight and reduces the noise by overlaying images, so a higher-quality image results than in Intelligent Auto mode. However, this mode will not produce better results if the object is moving or if super zoom is used without a tripod (because using high zoom requires super steady hand, or tripod).
I love the WiFi feature of this camera. It allow me to quickly transfer photos to my desktop computer and to my iPhone / iPad. A separate download is required (free download from AppStore). Android app is also available, but I haven’t tried it yet. To make it even better, I can remotely control the camera from my iPhone. This is super useful when traveling alone. Instead of relying on timer, we can see the camera view at real time in our phone’s screen, adjust the zoom level, set a timer and trigger the shutter. If you’re into taking lots of selfies, this remote feature would come in handy.
It is rather confusing to connect this camera to a desktop computer. I downloaded PlayMemories Home for my Mac and thought I can use it to transfer my photos wirelessly. Apparently it can only deal with cabled connection. To transfer the photos wirelessly, I need to install another app called Wireless Auto Import from Sony. It works in the end, I just wish Sony could make this easier to understand. I would certainly appreciate NOT having to spend more than 30 minutes trying to figure out how to use PlayMemories Home with WiFi.
Wireless Auto Import app from Sony automatically copies photos that we haven’t transferred to our computer. There is no selection. The transfer time is reasonable. However I found one super annoying bug with this app: it automatically changes the date/time of my photos to the date/time when I transfer them into my computer, not the date/time when I took the photos. This is really really stupid from Sony. For me, date/time stamp in my photos are very important.
In the end, I decided not to use Wireless Auto Import at all. I removed my memory card and put it into a card reader. Copying my photos from card reader using Mac’s Finder successfully preserves the original date/time. So I have a WiFi camera but still use conventional method to get my photos inside. Not very excited about that.
Well, this major disappointment is a software issue. And I can always hope that Sony will fix it some time in the future. The camera itself is a very good camera and I’m very happy about it.
Have I mentioned that it’s light? Sony claims that this is the world’s smallest camera with 20x optical zoom. For a pocket camera to be practical, it must be light and pocket-able without feeling uncomfortable, and so far I’m happy with this camera.
I have recently bought a sony DSC WX350 and am new to photography. Canit be used with a selfie stick
yes it can, I use the app from Sony in my phone to remote the trigger
Does anyone know if the image is displaying with the date, can the date stamp be removed by the camera without using a photoshop type of product?
I downloaded photos and videos on my computer (mac) with a card reader. The videos are not marked as such and I cannot replay them. What to do? With my Canon and my Nikon videos are always indicated and can be replayed. Do I need extra software? Please be so kind and answer to my email address if possible.
I installed a video player called MPlayerX since long time ago in my Mac. When I copied video files from WX350, it plays just fine using that app.
Could I trouble you for the name of the app required to download the photos? I can’t make the camera speak to the iPad at all. Thank you!
PlayMemories app
Hi,
I have had my WX350 for less then a month but have found an annoying problem with it. The problem being that if I take a photo and then immediately zoom in on the same scene to take a close up, the camera freezes! What happens is that the original photo scene stays on screen and the zoom works okay going in and out, but no matter where I point the camera that original photo scene stays on screen and I can’t take another picture (its almost the same as if I had pressed the preview button to view the picture I had just taken!). I have found the only way to get out of it, is to turn the camera off and then back on again! So far this has happened 5 or 6 times, but when I deliberately try to replicate this fault (I am considering taking the camera back to the shop I bought it from) I can’t seem to get the camera to do it! Very frustrating as I don’t know whether this is a faulty camera or that I am doing something wrong! Only other thing I don’t like is that some of the pictures come out looking over processed even when fine picture format is selected, i.e. ghostly images around things (especially on zoomed in images), jagged edges etc, which is a major problem with jpeg digital images IMO.
Hi,
I bought this camera and I like it a lot but it has one major software flaw. I can’t set the time or date. I know how to do it but it wont save the settings.
Thus every time I switch it on it asks for the settings and I have to select cancel on the first screen and OK on the second screen before I can take a photo. This takes a few seconds and spoils what is otherwise a great camera.
My WX350 can save the date and time just fine. You might have a faulty product. If it’s still under warranty, I suggest you return it and exchange with a good one.