Digital imaging has never looked so hot in a pretty pink dress. A very girly Cyber-shot compact has hit the runway! Read the full Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T90 review here.
Review summary of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T90:
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 The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T90's pretty colors and sleek, sliding faceplate alone will sell this camera. Oh, there's also the 3-inch all touch-screen LCD and babbling brook of Auto features like Smile Shutter and Blink Warning. However, we discovered that the Cyber-shot DSC-T90's image quality did not have enough stamina to endure a majority of our tests. We found some echelon of failure in every image, which was a major letdown. If Facebook is your primary photo album, you'll do fine with the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T90. However, those who don't plan on snapping covert images of drunk people late at night and tagging the most embarrassing ones will feel at a loss. Advanced features are on the slim and there's no onboard connectivity. The Cyber-shot DSC-T90 is yet another vain fashion compact, but if you can live without a larger high-res touchscreen, it'll at least cost you $110 less than the DSC-T900. Release: April 2009. Price: $270.
Pros: Sexy looks. Great Auto controls. Super compact.
Cons: Sad image quality. Testy interface. Limited advanced features.
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Full Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T90 Review:
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Design – Good
Before the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T90 had arrived, we knew what to expect based on our hands-on on PMA test drive. Alas, yet another barely-altered front face slider from Sony. In the realm of design, the new Cyber-shot DSC-T90 is simply a Cyber-shot DSC-T77 with a little more attitude. But what we didn't expect to see when we unboxed the tiny fashion cam was a plethora of pink, a hue that would make Barbie and Princess Toadstool proud. There's nothing quite like watching a motorcyclist dismount a 1200cc beast only to unsheathe a dainty little princess pink fashion compact and start snapping away at a lovely sunset. So, like nearly all of Sony's fashion cams of the past, the Cyber-shot DSC-T90 is not intended for the masculine side of life. However, the camera does ship in Black and Silver, in addition to Bronze and Baby Blue.
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T90 is the cheaper alternative to the Cyber-shot DSC-T900, sporting a smaller touch-screen LCD and minute zoom tab toggle, which we found to be less than adequate in the real estate department. Sony's classic sliding faceplate will forever remain cool in our eyes, but the lack of buttons and controls left us high and dry when we wanted to take a break from mashing the screen. The Cyber-shot DSC-T90 also lacks connectivity and relies on a docking station, which is a major drawback if you're on the road and forget to tote along that bulky hub. Furthermore, the docking station is not even included and must be purchased separately. Lack of external functionality aside, the Cyber-shot DSC-T90 is a sexy little number.
Interface – Mediocre
A 3-inch touch-screen LCD is the prime focal point of the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T90's interface as it is the compact's only instrument panel. Aside from recessed On/Off and Playback buttons, there are no other external controls other than the shutter button. That means all action transpires within the 3-inch LCD, which can smudge up with fingerprints on the quick. The screen's resolution was not that impressive. The Cyber-shot DSC-T900 packs in over three times the amount of pixels as the Cyber-shot DSC-T90. Still, Samsung and Panasonic's touch-screen interfaces offered a much better picture and touch sensitivity than any Sony fashion cam we've tested.
Menus were unchanged from the previous generation fashion Cyber-shots, and that's not a terrible thing, although we would like to see a little advancement in this corner. Nobody can touch Canon's menu system and Panasonic is a close second. Sony's menus are easy to navigate after a few sessions of finger mashing, but the smaller screen meant smaller buttons and we had to bust out the stylus at times. Playback was a little clunky and image information was lacking, but the touch-screen functionality allowed us to zoom in and move the image without the use of the tiny zoom toggle. We'd like to be about to touch and drag, so hopefully that technology is on the horizon for Sony.
Features - Good
Like the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T900, the Cyber-shot DSC-T90 is an Auto machine. In fact, both cameras are identical when it comes to features, so the Cyber-shot DSC-T90 will save you $110 if a large high-resolution LCD and advanced zoom toggle are not important. We've got Intelligent Auto mode, Easy mode, a gaggle of Scene modes and finally a Program AE mode that offers the most independent control. However, even in Program AE mode we were left wanting more, and it was obvious that the Cyber-shot DSC-T90 was designed for beginners and technophobes rather than discerning photographers. That said, the Cyber-shot DSC-T90 has great Auto instincts and performs above and beyond most models in its class. Thanks to numerous focus modes, Face Detection, Blink Warning, Smile Shot and other Auto modes, we rarely had to retake pictures. We also loved the Dynamic Range Optimizer, which actually tamed highlights and aroused shadows.
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T90 did offer 720p HD video recording, which performed fairly well. Canon had the best HD video mode within the digital camera market, but the Cyber-shot DSC-T90's was an impressive runner up. We had our best luck in more subdued lighting, as outdoor shooting gave us a lot of blown highlights and flat colors. Color options were minimal on the Cyber-shot DSC-T90 anyway, and a Vivid filter was our only hope. Canon and Panasonic offer a slew of color options, rather than a simple filter and White Balance dependency.
Playback contained a handful of cheesy consumer-grade features like a musical slideshow and the ability to apply graphics and text to images. We could also crop, retouch and add filters in Playback, which saved us the Photoshop hassle. Perhaps the most frightening filter was the Happy Faces filter, which generated a digitally-enhanced smile atop faces that were devoid of a smile in the first place. If you want your subjects to look more demented than the freaks in Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" music video, then give Happy Faces a try. Don't blame us for the nightmares, though.
Hardware - Good
Sony stuffed a 12-megapixel 1/2.3-inch Super HAD CCD equipped with BIONZ processing inside the little Cyber-shot DSC-T90's chassis. Snap out of the trance! All this jargon is about as deceptive as a HEMI engine campaign. The Cyber-shot DSC-T90 didn't produce one image we were fully impressed with, but we'll get to that in a moment. Compared to Canon's entry-level AA-toting compacts, the Cyber-shot DSC-T90 got lapped over and over.
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T90 has a 4x optical zoom lens, which is not too shabby for such a puny compact. We struggled with the Optical Image stabilization at times due to the camera's size, and a flash was absolutely necessary in low light. The Cyber-shot DSC-T90 was also a little slow, capturing an image after three seconds from initial power up.
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T90 records JPEGS and MPEG4 videos to Memory Stick PRO Duo cards and is powered by a rechargeable Lithium Ion battery. You'll need a high capacity Memory Stick if you plan on capturing a lot of HD footage, though. It's about 100MB per minute of 720p video, so forget about that feature film.
Image Quality - Mediocre
The act of cranking out professional-grade, quality still images was not Princess Toadstool's forte, and sadly we experienced a lackluster performance all throughout the castle from the pink compact. Colors were flat, noise levels were high even in bright light, fringing was two-stepping along borders every chance it was given and low light's only savior was the finicky flash. The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T900 gave us the same amount of guff in all of the same places, which is understandable considering both compacts are identical on the inside. So, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T90 is another case study in the Fashion Cam epidemic, and unfortunately, we were unable to squeeze any top quality images from its sleek and slender waistline. Facebook and MySpace junkies will not give a hoot, but anyone beyond point-and-shoot internet fame status will want to look for a camera with a lot more horsepower under the hood rather than a dainty pink dress on the outside.
Outdoor Lighting Test – View From Bear Mountain
Fringe Test – A Kawasaki Jockey
A landscape image is hard to screw up, especially under optimal lighting. The first image contains some prime ingredients for a stellar all-around image. There are no blown-out whites, we have a subdued color palette and there is no subject in the foreground to concentrate on. For the most part, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T90 handles the image well, until we fly all the way in to full resolution. That's when the compression artifacts begin gobbling at the trees like little Dr. Mario viruses. The second image is plagued by a different strain of virus, resulting in unsightly fringe borders along Craig's profile and all three ZRX 1200's. Like the first image, detail is lost within a majority of the frame. Fortunately, colors look natural and do not bleed, but we could use a little more vibrancy. Sub par as we see it, folks.
Contrast Test – Times Square
Macro Test – Pinwheel
Like the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T900, we had great luck with the DRO Plus option, as highlighted in the first image of Times Square. Without DRO Plus, the sky had engulfed the buildings and peaked uniform 255 levels. Color is actually behaving in this image, and we probably could have squeezed a better dynamic range out of the Cyber-shot DSC-T90 by locking in the exposure at the sky and then bringing the lens down for the shot. Detail is a blurry mess, of course but what can you do? We couldn't get too close in Macro mode either, and the detail of the pinwheel is still noisy at its sharpest focal point. We can also see the lack of sharpness along the black lines of the pinwheel's center, a direct indication that noise will follow this camera everywhere. Which it did.
Flash Test – Livin' It Up
Auto Flash Test – The Curious Banquet
Auto Test Sans Flash – The Same Curious Banquet
And especially at night. We had to use the flash wherever we went, and the first two images are examples of what the flash will do. As we can see in the first image, the flash will not make one any less inebriated, but it will create devil eyes, despite the engagement of Auto Red Eye. We found that out the hard way, so if you want to shoot at night with the flash, then Red Eye Reduction must be set to On, rather than Auto. The first image exhibits the best detail and lowest noise levels we could snag with the flash, even though it was captured at 400 ISO. The second image was taken at the same ISO level, but the image is far noisier due to the larger depth of field and more complex levels.
We attempted to shoot in Auto mode without the flash for the last image, and boy oh boy what a result. Scaled down to Facebook dimensions, the last image looks great, but zoom in anymore than that and the image looks like it was hit with a Photoshop Art filter. This is probably the most spectacular noise show we've seen to date, and that's all thanks to the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T90's 1600 ISO capability. The image looks a heck of a lot more natural than the previous image taken with the flash, but any larger than a 5 x 7 and you'll think you're drunk.
Price and availability
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T90 is available online for $270.
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