Sony Cyber-shot W300 DSC Hits 13.6-megapixel

The megapixel race will never end, especially for consumer snapshot cameras. Sony has just bumped its point and shoot DSC to its highest resolution ever with the launch of the 13.6MP CyberShot W300 - essentially an upgrade to last year's 12MP W200. The $350 W300 as the top-of-the-line model in the W-series now includes a larger LCD screen at 2.7" and a new Smile Shutter that Sony claims can automatically take pictures when the subjects smile. Though it could be difficult if a child keeps making faces, inadvertently fooling the system.

The W300 also sports a Carl Zeiss 3x optical zoom as well as "extra high sensitivity" mode (up to ISO 6400) to help shooting in challenging lighting conditions, even without a flash. To reduce noise at such high ISO, the W300 lets you choose between "low", "standard" and "high" noise reduction. Last but not least is the 16:9 res support at 2MP so you can feed your pics at 1920x1080 to a HDTV via a custom HDMI cable without having the display rescaling the image.