Will this sleek compact camera strut its stuff with awesome image quality, or does it just come in hot colors? Find out in our Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700 review.
Review summary of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700:
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 The prognosis is just as we expected. Sony's top of the line fashion cam is just another cute accessory packed with many consumer-driven features. And there's nothing wrong with that. The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700's fans would not have it any other way. Who wants to fiddle with Shutter Speed or Aperture while you're half in the bag at an Armani show? The Cyber-shot DSC-T700's offers a slew of playback features, is fully touch-screen operated and can fit in a wallet—a very big wallet that is. Perhaps the most tantalizing spec is the built-in 4GB of internal memory. How many other cameras do you see with that much space? Between the giant LCD, sexy colors and hot design, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700 has its place within the digital camera world. Release: September 2008. Price: $350.
Pros: Huge LCD screen. Super Compact. Sleek design.
Cons: Inconsistent image quality. Stubborn interface. Minimal manual controls.
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Full Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700 Review:
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Design - Good
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700 is the company's Next Top Model. Weighing in at a feathery 5.6 ounces and measuring a slim 3/4-inch in thickness, the Cyber-shot DSC-T700 is like shooting with a stack of credit cards. At this size, is it worth dropping the 350 bucks when a good camera phone might suit the needs of most fashion-conscious shooters? Certain phones can capture up to 5MP images and manual controls are improving with each new release, so the Cyber-shot DSC-T700 should be shaking in its Gucci boots. Fortunately, Sony pumped a sufficient amount of controls and playback features into their top of the line fashion camera, separating the poseurs from the closet camera geeks.
A camera this sleek is bound to catch eyes and cause minor car accidents. The suave sliding faceplate is a trick feature, for the front of the camera looks like a uniform slab of brushed aluminum. The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700 also comes in an enticing array of colors including Champagne and Hot Pink. Add a whopping 3.5" touch screen LCD and you have the Cyber-shot DSC-T700's main selling points. This is a camera you can expect to see in the club, not a nature safari. It can be effortlessly dropped into a wristlet or clutch and will easily slide into the pocket on a pair of vacuum tight hipster jeans.
Of course, one must make certain sacrifices for the price of style. The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700's zoom toggle is exceedingly feeble. This tiny tab is set too far into the body of the camera and is just plain awkward to operate. The minute 4x optical zoom lens is also positioned within the top right corner, directly in the path of most index fingers. Aside from that, there's really not much else to talk about because the Cyber-shot DSC-T700's body is essentially barren. The lack of controls will frighten off even beginner photographers, so this is a camera with a very specific target audience.
Interface - Mediocre
The Cyber-shot DSC-T700's only form of navigation is based entirely on the touch screen LCD. You get 3.5 vast inches of finger-punching real estate to tap away at until your heart's content. With a screen this big, the resolution better be up to par. Unfortunately, the Cyber-shot DSC-T700's LCD resolution is pixilated and displays the occasional moiré pattern along high-contrast patterns. The real frustration surfaces when you attempt to manually focus by pressing a certain portion of the screen. Not only does the focus operate poorly, but you can't even tell if the area of the screen is sharp because the resolution is so bad. Edges are aliased and the entire screen is just plain noisy. Keep the Cyber-shot DSC-T700 in Auto when it comes to Focus and your life will be a lot happier.
The buttons are also stubborn to respond at times. You really have to apply some serious finger pressure in order for selections to take. Sony includes a "Paint Pen" stylus designed for the Paint feature in Playback. The stylus is even more difficult to use than an average finger, so manual dexterity is required with the Cyber-shot DSC-T700.
The menu system is highly intuitive, with all options located along the left and right columns of the preview screen. The ability to touch your way through a shot is a consumer dream, and the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700 was designed for that reason. All administrative options are located in the Home menu while shooting settings are found in the Main menu. Thanks to the columns of options along the side, there are minimal icons polluting the screen, allowing a clearer view. Still, the touch screen has a tendency to cloud up with fingerprints, which will only affect your shooting experience under a glaring sun. Overall, the Cyber-shot DSC-T700' interface is as basic as you can get.
Features - Good
Auto mode is definitely the way to strut with the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700. This camera simply does not have enough manual controls to make it a viable option for advanced shooters. Sony funneled a basic Mode dial into one Shooting menu that contains individual Scene modes like Landscape and Night, in addition to Auto and Program. There's no full throttle manual mode on this camera, as you won't find Shutter Speed or Aperture control in the Program shooting mode. ISO, White Balance, Exposure and Focus are decent offerings, but their degree of functionality is severely lacking. As stated in the Interface section, the touch Focus control is wretched, due mostly to poor LCD screen resolution. Even in Auto the Focus will lock up in a constant blur and refuse to adjust itself until you power the camera off and back on.
The White Balance selection is not too shabby, but its performance is pretty grim. Basically, you get two options: Hot or Cold. Since Sony tends to run cold naturally, just keep toggling the White Balance until the image is not cold anymore. That's the best advice we can give you. There's even an Easy mode on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700, which places the camera in a suspended state of operation. Manual controls are forbidden, icons and buttons double in size, and menu options are significantly whittled down. A badger with a hangover will have no issues shooting in Easy mode.
Sony tosses in classics like Face Detection and Smile Shutter mode. These features only work intermittently, as you'll find yourself hopping around trying to attain the right angle for the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700 to recognize turned up corners of the mouth. When it finally does, the camera captures the image immediately, but by that time your subject is most likely feigning a smile. Sony offers Vivid, Sepia and Black and White colors modes, and that's all you get. Ultra slim shooting features on an ultra slim camera.
Half of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700's appeal is its playback features. This camera is marketed as a portable photo album, allowing you to organize pictures by Date, Favorites or particular events. There's even a calendar mode, enabling the shooter to press a particular day of the month and all images captured that day will appear. There's a built-in slideshow feature with the option to embed background music. You can load your own music on the camera or choose from Sony's painfully hilarious preloaded tunes. The musical slideshow is unmistakably lame, but there is a select crowd out there who will relish in its lamitude. Other playback features allow you to touch up pictures via Sharpening, apply a Fisheye effect and place a radial blur on images, amongst other options. You can also use the Paint Pen to draw all over pictures, much like Microsoft Paint.
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700 can shoot 30fps standard-definition video up to 640x480 in resolution. The video quality is not great, but at least it gives shooters the option to document their experience at the latest runway show. The Cyber-shot DSC-T700 is pretty bare bones when it comes to features.
Hardware – Good
As to be expected, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700 has a small 10MP imager found within many entry-level cameras. This compromises image quality because the Cyber-shot DSC-T700 cannot soak up as much light as cameras with larger sensors. The 4x optical zoom is not bad for the tiny nature of this camera, though the zoom toggle does not offer the best control.
Surprisingly, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700 has 4GB of internal flash memory, providing shooters with hybrid functionality. A Memory Stick PRO Duo card can be used in addition to the built-in memory. The internal storage is a huge plus for this camera and will be a major selling point for storage-hungry consumers who crave the latest Burberry line.
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700 uses a rechargeable lithium ion battery that does not have the longest staying power. What do you expect? The battery is smaller than certain cell phone batteries. A couple back up packs will do the trick. We're not even sure you could fit AAAA batteries in this thing. Yes, they make AAAA batteries.
Image Quality - Good
With all the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700's ultra-slim swanky style, not a lot of internal space was reserved for a big imager. So, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700 performs as expected within its class. It's rare to find a powerhouse fashion cam, but we were able to capture some pleasing images by keeping the ISO down and steadying the camera. Still, images are prone to blooming, blowing out whites, high levels of noise and other forms of artifacts. Needless to say, this is not the most earth-shattering performance, but it's good enough to appease nearly any style freak.
Scene Test – Contrast on 2nd Ave.
Scene Test – Bay Ridge
The right side of the café in the first image is behaving quite nicely while the rest of the image is rebelling. First let's focus on the good. The details and colors in the American flag and Dempsey sign are spot on. Even the brick pattern and fire escapes are sharp and noise-free. Then look at the sky attempting to leap onto the fire escapes. There's a significant amount of blooming along the crest of where the sky engulfs the metal structures. You can even see some neon purple fringing in the rails of the seats. Other parts of the image are just plain out of focus. This is an average performance for an imager this small.
The second image is in the same boat. Along the left side, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700 treats the buildings and sky very well. But the buildings on the other side of the street are exceedingly blown out and there's some pretty nasty blooming within the jumbled trees and along the fire escape steps.
Color Test – Graffiti
Color Test – Graffiti With White Balance
In the right light, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700 will show its true colors, and they are inherently cool. Most Sony cameras tend to run on the chilly side, so we gave the Cyber-shot DSC-T700 a white balance to warm up the atmosphere. The difference is pretty substantial, so you'll want to make sure you dial the white balance in when shots look like they were taken in Antarctica. These colors lack pizzazz an could stand to be a bit more vibrant.
Detail Test – Mural
Detail Test - Dragon
We're looking for the texture of the bricks beneath the thick slabs of paint here. In the focused portion, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700 does an adequate job highlighting minute crevices and bumps. However, it was very difficult to stabilize the camera and the image is slightly blurry. This is not the detail we were looking for, but at least the noise levels are low and the color is popping.
The dragon is a much better example of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700's ability to catch intricate detail. Within the focused portion of the image, every bump and nook is accounted for and sharpness is great. The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700 even handles the glare quite well here. Of course the background is blown out, but the subject of this image excels with excellent detail.
Sharpness Test – Neon Mural
Even neon colors look subdued with a Sony camera. In the focused portion of the image, the black lines constituting the nuclear box are pretty sharp, but you can detect a slight aliasing along the edges in certain areas. The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700 couldn't handles the rest of the image, as the focus trails off the farther up you go. If you can actually stabilize this little sheet of metal, your pictures will be a lot sharper.
Macro Test – Viva Las Vegas
It's clear that the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700 will not allow you to travel very close to a subject, even with the Macro focus. The focused parts of the sign are the inside edges of the black structure, rather than the sign itself. We were about an inch or two away from this sign, which is plenty of space for most Macros.
Dusk Test – Book ‘Em Dano
Dusk Test – Street
Night Test – Hinsch Soda
The decent of the sun means the guillotine for most small images and the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700's small sensor cannot handle the lack of light. The first image is riddled with consistent noise. The exposure is bright and colors are decent, but up close it's just not a sharp shot. For Facebook purposes, this image is almost overqualified, which is perfect for the average Cyber-shot DSC-T700 owner. The same deal applies to the second image, although we're also seeing blooming and blue fringing where the buildings meet the skyline. This is still an impressive exposre though.
The noise really explodes at night, as you can see in the third image. Again, great exposure, but at the cost of great noise levels.
Price and availability
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700 will start selling for $350 () in September 2008.
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