 Sexiest, Sleekest, Coolest Camera on the Market |
| Review Date: October 9, 2008 |
| Reviewer: TL, Huntington Beach, CA USA |
I preordered my camera in red and was a little disappointed in the saturation of the red because it's slightly pink. The color images online are pretty close so if you're not sure, go to a store and check it out first. I was only hoping that it would turn out to be a deeper red.
On a positive note, I love the ease of this camera. I especially love the scene+ option that automatically takes an extra picture with automatic adjustments during certain lighting conditions. This makes your picture a little more foolproof. The automatic programming is extremely smart and it can recognize the lighting conditions and make the appropriate adjustments. I've been pleased with my pictures so far just on automatic and I haven't had to make any adjustments yet, but there are a lot of extra features and programs to help you take great pictures in the snow, at the beach, etc. The second picture also manages to remove red eyes. I also have a Canon SD1100 IS which never manages to remove my dog's red eyes. I have to manually remove the red eye through its software, but it comes out distorted, scary, and not completely removed. This Sony T700 sucessfully takes a picture of my dog without red eyes.
On the downside, if you take a picture you like but have red eyes in the picture, the red eye removal function in the camera won't work because it is only set-up to remove red eyes in the faces of people and not animals. (The Canon lets you choose the red eye area for removal).
I love the slideshow that the Sony T700 can produce and you can even upload your own music onto your camera. You can also create scrapbook pages on the camera for a fun way to show-off your pictures.
The Sony T700's screen is sexy, but the downside of its large LCD touch screen is that it's draining on the battery and fingerprints will drive you up the wall. I haven't tested how long the battery can last continuously (the manual says something around 2+ hours), but I have had to recharge the battery with minimal use after about four days (versus my Canon in which the first time I charged it after minimal use was about 2 weeks). I'm considering buying an extra battery but haven't done it yet.
As for the fingerprints on the touch screen, I invested in an invisible shield to protect the screen. You can use the paintpen that comes with the camera to minimize fingerprints, but you can't avoid getting fingerprints on the Sony screen because you still have to handle the camera (unless you're very very careful which can be annoying). With the invisible screen you can rub the screen clean without worrying about scratching the screen and fingerprints aren't a problem with the invisible screen on. Just be careful about installing the shield and watch the videos online for tips on how to install it without having to retry it over and over. Make sure the screen is clean before installing otherwise little specs of dust might drive you crazy and you won't be able to clean it. The other thing with the invisible screen is that the company's website hasn't marketed a screen for the Sony T700, but if you buy the screen for the T300, it fits fine. With the invisible screen on, I don't have to worry about fingerprints or damaging my beautiful LCD touch screen. There are a lot of invisible screens out there, but I purchased the screen from the company that makes military grade invisible protection because they have a lifetime warranty and the product isn't sticky. Just make sure you purchase the screen directly from the manufacturer or from an authorized dealer otherwise the lifetime warranty will be invalid.
The 4GB built-in memory is great, but I bought a 4GB memory stick to use to make printing at a store easier. On the highest quality setting, it holds over 900 pictures and the number of pictures it holds for e-mail quaility is ridiculous (I think it's about 9999).
One other slight downside is that the digital zoom only reaches 8x whereas my Canon SD1100 IS reached 12x. A little disappointing, but not that big of a deal. The macro setting on the Sony T700 for close-ups on an object is amazing though. It captured the weaving in my 1000TC pillowcase exceptionally well when I was taking some test shots.
Overall, I love this camera. It's a bit pricey considering my $200+ camera from Canon is pretty good. I spent close to $600 buying this camera, accessories (camera case, memory stick, and invisible shield), and a 2 year accidental warranty for it. For the extra money, I got a lot of extra flashy things that gives it a wow factor. Other cameras can give you pictures just as good, but this camera is extremely easy to use and there are a lot of foolproof functions to help you take great pictures. I'm not a photographer so I don't understand how to adjust the EV and other things so with my Canon SD 1100 IS, I take decent pictures. But with all of the extra features in the Sony T700, its foolproof ease of use allows me to take exceptional pictures for the most part.
Update:
Another slight annoyance with this camera as opposed to my Canon SD1100 is that it is not easy to switch to video mode. My Canon has a button on the camera that I can slide back and forth easily. With this camera, I have to go through several on-screen menus.
This camera can also only take 10 minutes of continuous video recording. I believe my Canon SD1100 gave me 12 minutes. I understand that these manufacturers don't want your camera to take the place of a camcorder, but I find it extremely annoying! I only want about 20-35 minutes of continuous recording. I like recording the shows at Disneyland and I hate having to lug around both a camera and a camcorder. It's really frustrating to have your video cut-off in the middle of a show. I still own a pricey Sony Handycam to record recitals, games, events, etc and I wouldn't think of using a camera to capture important memories like these on video. My friend has an Olympus camera that doesn't have a time limit in video recording mode, however, I don't think it's a bad thing for the manufacturers put in a time limit in their cameras especially if they have a camcorder line. I just wish these manufacturers would increase their continuous video recording limit just a little bit on their cameras.
However, after over a year with this camera, I still adore it! I also love the PMB software it comes with. The program analyzes the images you import into your computer and you can filter through the images by face or scenery. It isn't perfect with its face detection (ie. sometimes it will tag my face as my sister's face, etc.), but it's still impressive. The only thing I would change is to increase the continuous video recording limit. All of the other slight annoyances aren't that big of a deal. I've been looking at the last two newer generations of this line and I am disappointed that they took away the awesome large hard drive. I thought about buying a newer model because the newer line has an Exmor R sensor and a pet mode, but without the hard drive, I'm just not interested. Hopefully if Sony ups the continuous recording time limit and includes a built in hard drive on future models, I would consider an upgrade. I also see that the newer models went back to the design look of the T300 (100 or 200??? I can't remember) For now, I'll stick to my T700 that all of my friends lust over! |
Great for teens and amateur enthusiasts
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| Review Date: October 31, 2008 |
| Reviewer: switterbug, Austin, Texas United States |
If you are looking for the ideal point-and-shoot camera for your teenager, this is a superb choice. (Great for adults, too!) It fits right in with an active, portable lifestyle-- it is light-weight, user-friendly, tech-smart and smart-looking. Sleek. It looks a lot like kin to the itouch phone or itouch ipod, with its square shape and sleek surface on which you prime your menu and edit with the touch of a finger (or included pen). My teenage daughter loves it and assesses it as "superior." It fits right in with her tech-loving lifestyle. Even the low-light pictures at the skating rink are respectable.
There are a lot of cool features for preparing and editing your photos. They include smile-detection, smile improvement (where the camera can actually sort of stretch the sides of the mouth, weird as that sounds), red-eye removal. There are also arty features such as choosing a center point and surrounding the periphery in monochrome, a starburst feature that adds flair to pics, a blurry edge feature, and ability to write captions.
It comes with a rechargeable battery, a recharger, and built-in memory stick that takes thousands of pictures. I recommend purchasing an external memory stick if you want to take photos to be printed by your local store.
The only non-user-friendly feature my daughter came across was the flash. She said that it was counterintuitive and that the manual did not help her to program it in. She did finally get a friend (who has had this camera for a while) to help her program the flash, and she has had no problems ensue. My daughter is typically tech savvy, so this is notably a salient concern.
Thanks to a reviewer on this site, I have ordered a military-grade invisible shield to protect her screen. I highly recommend it--teens are hard on electronics.
Lastly,she asked for it in grey, which surprised me. I thought she would want one of the flashy colors, but she pointed out that the flashy colors also attract sticky fingers in public places. The muted colors draw less attention.
The price keeps going down. I bought it for $399 a few weeks ago and the price has gone down twice. Cheers to Amazon for reimbursing me the discount when I wrote to them. |
Awesome
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| Review Date: October 6, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Jeffrey Blosser, Reynoldsburg, oh United States |
| OK, so I have a Sony A100 DSLR that I really enjoy.. I took that to the MotoGp race last month and found that sometimes it's just better to have something small. After 3 day's of lugging that and 2 lenses around it got old quick, so I started shopping for a point and click.. I settled on this camera and I am glad I did, it has the same processor as the A100, it's 10.2 Mp just like my DSLR, but it's less than 6oz, it has 4G of internal memory, the LCD is larger and it's all metal, so it's perfect to just carry around all day.. |
Excellent buy!
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| Review Date: February 21, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Brandon Storkamp, St. Cloud, MN USA |
I purchased this camera after researching different digital cameras with the capability of taking hi-def video's. I am very pleased with the images and video that this camera produces.
The Camera itself:
This camera has a small thin and sleek body that is comfortable and easy to use. The body is very light-weight and made of durable metal, with a magnetic slider lens cover.
The touchscreen is very easy to use and comes with a stylus in the event that you prefer to use that. (not necessary)
I absolutely enjoy the 4GB of internal memory, this provides plenty of storage to take rather long video's in high-def, and hold thousands of pictures in multiple resolutions.
The cameral has a lot of customizable feature but my favorite is the password protection that can be turned on or off. The password is necessary to access the stored images on the camera.
There are many other features on this camera so I recommend going to the local electronics store and playing with it to see for yourself how easy it is to use.
Picture quality:
Excellent picture quality during many different lighting conditions due to the different iso settings that are automatically selected.
Low-light conditions like all cameras can be a little tricky to get a good quality picture but it has a setting to automatically take a second picture in those conditions improving the chance of producing a good picture.
Overall I am very happy with the quality of the pictures it produces and use it every day. It produces very sharp pictures that look wonderful on HD TVs.
There are several settings for quality and aspect ratios. I prefer the widescreen ratios for display on HD TVs. These can be changed for preferance.
This camera has a wonderful focusing feature for taking pictures of very small objects such as...ants or anything else you may want to take a super close up picture of.
Video quality:
Very sharp 30fps Hi-def video with stereo sound is wonderful. This camera has an amazing microphone built in. I just used it at a club where the music was so loud I couldnt hear what my friends were saying next to me. But when I played the video on my computer I could clearly hear exactly what they were saying, the music in the background was still audible but didn't overpower their conversation.
Overall I would definitely recommend this camera to any ameture that want's a great quality camera that is capable of takeing good quality pictures. |
Little pricey, but happy overall
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| Review Date: November 17, 2008 |
| Reviewer: ART, KC, KS |
After spending a good 400$ on the camera, I thought it better be worth it, well it wasn't so bad, I actually have a Sony Cybershot camera which I bought last year, most of the technology is the same, except for a few changes, such as
Touch screen - Which of course consumes more battery
Smile shutter - Very amusing, If this is on, the cam just clicks away by itself whenever someone smiles to a particular smile level!
Battery Charger - compact as compared to the one I carry
various other features such as photo editing on the fly, internal memory, etc...
The camera is heavier than I expected, but it can easily be carried around. This can be a good investment for the look and shoot traveler, but if you are planning on shooting a little more professional photos I would always nod to the DSLR cams from Cannon |
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