Mother's Day Gift Idea: Sony Cybershot camera

My mother loves photos. Her home is plastered with photos of her children and grandchildren and sisters and cousins and aunts and parents, a testament to the love she bears for her extended family. At every family get-together, she's the one with the camera on hand, pleading with people to smile and pose for her camera. Despite all the groans, people do it because they know she's capturing some wonderful memories to share with everyone. My mom is the Go-To-Mom for family photos!

For my mom, making the transition from simple point-and-shoot film camera to a digital one with all the bells and whistles was not easy. She couldn't figure out any of the controls or the modes! If you have a mother like mine, a Sony Cybershot camera is the ideal mother's day present because it takes wonderful photos and is so easy to use!

Here's a description of Sony's Cyber-shot point-and-shoot camera line:
You have one goal when taking pictures: Get the best shot. That's why Cyber-shot® digital cameras combine Sony's legendary optics with the most innovative technologies to let you capture timeless moments with breathtaking results.

And here are some of the Cyber-shot's best features:
Effortless Panoramic Photos: Nothing recreates the mood of a beautiful scene like a panoramic photo.

Intelligent Sweep Panorama mode: goes beyond the norm, capturing up to 281 degrees of landscape. Just press and sweep - the camera does the rest.

Serious HD Video Recording Video quality: this good has never been available on a compact camera. Capture unrivaled AVCHD format video with amazing resolution up to 1920 x 1080 at 60i. To put it simply, it will look gorgeous on your HDTV.

Beautiful low-light shots: For low-light moments, the back-illuminated "Exmor R" CMOS sensor captures the mood and reduces the noise without a flash. 10 photos in one second

Capture tough shots—like the moment the ball hits the bat—with the ability to shoot 10 images in one second at full resolution.



I received a Sony Cybershot DSC-W310 camera to review last December, and I've been using it constantly over the last five months. My phone's camera doesn't take the best photos (no flash and less-than-ideal resolution), and I'm too lazy to drag around our digital SLR camera everywhere I go, so the Cybershot is ideal for tucking into my purse and whipping out whenever I want to take a photo of something. It also takes video, so I don't need to take a separate camera to the kids' soccer matches or dance recitals.

The Cybershot DSC-W310 is super easy to use -- you get great photos just by pointing and shooting -- and with a little bit of research you can fiddle with the setting to take even better photos. There are special settings for food shots, action shots, low light shots, portrait shots, beach shots, even snow shots! I love the face recognition technology that figures out where people are in the frame and focuses on them.

To give you an idea of the quality of photos taken with the Cybershot, here are some photos of a tray of chocolate-covered popcorn that I took with the Cybershot and with my digital SLR:

This is a photo taken with my Canon Digital Digital Rebel XTi (a basic model digital SLR) and a macro lens (aperture setting, F/4).



This photo was taken with my Sony Cybershot on a food setting, no flash. It's darker and the colors are muted, but I could take care of that with any basic photo editor. The important thing to me is that despite the low light, the photo isn't blurred.


Like all point-and-shoot cameras, the built-in flash pointing straight at the subject results in some pretty harsh flash photos, but I've found that in many cases, you can set the camera to shoot without a flash, and the photo still comes out fine, without a hint of blur (thanks to Sony's Steady-Shot technology) -- check out the photo above.

Here's a comparison of flash photos:


This is a photo taken with my digital SLR camera, on auto setting (the flash went off).


This photo was taken with my Sony Cybershot on auto setting (the flash went off).


To my (admittedly untrained) eye, there's hardly a difference. I firmly believe any negative aspects in any of the photos above can be traced back to the lack of talent in the photographer! Anyway, when you have a point-and-shoot camera that can take a photo this gorgeous:



... without any effort or talent whatsoever, why would you look for anything else? The Sony Cybershot is the perfect easy-to-use camera for anyone who loves taking photos but doesn't have the time or the inclination to spend the effort on buying, learning to use and toting around a digital SLR camera. In short, it's perfect for my mom!




Get a discount on your purchase of a Sony T99 Cybershot
Go to The Go-To Mom Blog and watch the video on this post to get a discount code for a Sony T-99 Cybershot! The code is good throughout the month of April so you can get mom a nice camera for Mother's Day :)

Disclosure: I received a product sample to facilitate my review, but have not been paid to review the product or give my opinions. Product information is provided by the featured company/product and is indicated in italics. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.