Sony Cybershot DSC-T500 10.1MP Digital Camera with 5x Optical Zoom with Super Steady Shot Image Stabilization

by Sony

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.9 x 2.8 inches ; 14.4 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B001DTA7IW
• Item model number: DSC-T500
• Batteries: 1 Lithium ion batteries required.
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,578 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 29, 2008

Product Description

Manufacturer's Description

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T500 digital camera features 10.1-megapixel resolution, 5x zoom, Optical SteadyShot image stabilization, and Face Detection technology, as well as the ability to record 720p high-definition video and even take a picture while recording. After shooting, you can play your videos back on the large 3.5-inch LCD touch-screen display, on your PC, or your compatible HDTV. HD videos are recorded in the MPEG4 format, which offers superb image quality in a smaller file size than comparable video formats.

Cyber-shot DSC-T500 Highlights

10.1-megapixel Super HAD CCD image sensor
A powerful 10.1-megapixel 1/2.3-inch Super HAD CCD image sensor helps you capture gorgeous images with superb contrast and clarity down to the finest detail. With 10.1 megapixels, you can create stunning, photo-quality prints up to A3 size, or crop your images and still come away with high resolution shots.

Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar 5x optical zoom lens
The newly developed Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens enables close-up shooting up to just 4/10 inches (1cm) from the subject (in Magnifying Glass Mode), while the optical 5x telescopic zoom offers superior visual acuity for a compact digital camera.

3.5-inch Clear Photo LCD Plus touch-screen display
Compose and review your images on a large, bright 3.5-inch widescreen LCD (230K) display, and use the touch-screen interface to navigate menus, specify focus points, or zoom in on the pictures you've taken for a closer look at details.

Capture

HD Movie
With the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T500, you can quickly and easily record video in 720p high definition1, and even take up to three pictures per movie sequence while shooting. HD videos are recorded in the MPEG4 AVC/H.264 format, which offers superb image quality in a smaller file size than other comparable video formats. This smaller file size lets you record more to your Memory Stick Duo Media, as well as upload them to Internet sharing sites to share with friends and family.

Face Detection technology
Face Detection technology detects up to eight individual faces and adjusts focus and exposure to deliver crisp, properly lit images of family and friends.

Double Anti-blur Solution
The combination of Optical SteadyShot image stabilization and High ISO sensitivity helps compensate for shaky hands, minimizes blur, and allows flash-free shooting to preserve the mood.

Optical SteadyShot image stabilization
Optical SteadyShot image stabilization uses a built-in gyro sensor to detect camera shake and automatically shifts the lens to help prevent blur without sacrificing image quality.

High Sensitivity ISO 3200
High Sensitivity ISO allows for faster shutter speed, so you can take pictures indoors or in low light without the need for a flash. In addition to High Sensitivity Mode (ISO), you can select up to eight ISO settings (Auto, 80, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200) when shooting in Program Auto Mode to adjust sensitivity to your shooting conditions.

High Sensitivity Mode for Movies
When shooting movies in low-light situations, you can use High Sensitivity mode to help ensure clear results.

Convenient photo modes
Choose from eleven convenient photo modes to quickly adjust for specific shooting conditions. Photo modes include Auto, Program Auto, and Scene selections, such as High Sensitivity, Soft Snap, Twilight Portrait, Twilight, Landscape, High Speed Shutter, Beach, Snow, and Fireworks.

Function Guide
This beginner-friendly optional function helps navigate through the various functions and settings displaying the description of chosen functions or settings on the LCD screen.

16:9 High Resolution Mode
Using the 16:9 High Resolution Mode, you can record high resolution images in the 16:9 aspect ratio favored by HDTVs. This setting is ideal if you plan to view your images on a compatible HDTV and invite friends and family members over for a slideshow.

4MB internal memory
With 4MB of internal memory, you can still capture a limited number of shots, even without using Memory Stick Duo Media, then transfer them to your PC or removable Memory Stick Duo Media at a later time.

Memory Stick Duo Media Convenience
A built-in slot accepts Memory Stick Duo Media or Memory Stick PRO Duo Media. Both sold separately.

Stamina Battery Power
Provides extended battery life and shooting capacity when using a fully-charged lithium-ion battery.

View and Share

HDTV compatibility
View your photos and movies in high definition on your Sony BRAVIA or similar compatible HDTV using the supplied multi-output stand with HDMI connectivity. Just connect the multi-output stand to an HDTV with an HDMI cable (sold separately), then place your Cyber-shot DSC-T500 on the stand. It’s the perfect way to share your memories with friends and family members.

BRAVIA Sync
When connected to a BRAVIA Sync enabled BRAVIA HDTV via HDMI output on the supplied multi-output stand (HDMI cable required, sold separately), the Cyber-shot playback screen will automatically display, and you can control camera playback using your BRAVIA HDTV remote control. Just press the Sync button on the remote to display a dedicated menu. Such easy operation makes viewing your photos and videos on a large-screen TV even more enjoyable.

PhotoTV HD
Bring your photos to life and enjoy highly detailed, HD 1920x1080 images with PhotoTV HD-capable Sony BRAVIA HDTVs. PhotoTV HD fine tunes settings on your HDTV, such as sharpness, gradation, and color to display images that look more like actual printed photographs.

Wide Zoom display
To use the entire image area of the compatible HDTV screen, Wide Zoom display automatically expands standard 4:3 and 3:2 images to 16:9.

PHOTOMUSIC feature
PHOTOMUSIC combines images with music to produce fun and entertaining slide shows. Select from five visual effects (Simple, Basic, Nostalgic, Active, and Stylish) and four pre-loaded tracks on camera or transfer your own music from a PC.

In-Camera Retouching Tools Retouch and enhance your pictures on the go with three in-camera editing functions: Trimming, Red-Eye Correction, and Partial Color.

Multi-Purpose Resize function
The Multi-Purpose Resize function lets you change the aspect ratio of an image right in the camera, so you can adjust images as necessary, whether you want to display them on a compatible HDTV, email them or upload them to a blog. Picture Motion Browser ver. 3.1: Sony Picture Motion Browser (PMB) software provides a simple, easy-to-use way to transfer video and still images to your PC, as well as sort, edit, and output to data disc and the Internet.

Product Description

The Sony DSC-T500 offers excellent performance and a stylish, elegant design. It includes Smile Shutter technology to help capture smiles automatically as they happen, as well as Face Detection technology to optimize focus, exposure and color for up to eight faces. The compact body features 10.1 megapixel resolution and a wide 3.5-inch touch-screen LCD for easy operation. The DSC-T500 completes the package with a Carl Zeiss 5x optical zoom lens and Sony’s Double Anti-Blur solution, for crisp, clear images.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 85 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DSC-T500 Is The Camera I've Been Waiting For!, October 14, 2008

By	Michael J. Foley (Sherman Oaks, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Sony Cybershot DSC-T500 10.1MP Digital Camera with 5x Optical Zoom with Super Steady Shot Image Stabilization (Electronics)

I've seen this coming. The technology has been advancing so quickly that it was only the waiting that's been tough. I bought this camera right away and am VERY pleased with it. I just don't know where to start.

This is both an excellent stand alone still camera with 10.1 MP, which provides enough details for 19 by 13" prints. To my experienced eyes, the images are in a word superb. It is also a tiny HD camcorder with 720P and stereo sound! It's not quite as good as a stand alone HD camcorder but with the ease of flicking a switch into the movie mode as well as the size of the camera, it is nothing short of astonishing. I easily loaded both images as well as video clips into Windows Movie Maker and edited between the two and burned a DVD with excellent results.

It certainly doesn't require it, but if you have a flat panel with an HDMI input, this camera really shines.

All the settings (except for power, switch between image and movie and telephoto) are made by touching icons on the seemingly huge screen and is fairly easy to master. Great care has been taken so that the camera's feature are easy to use. This is my first camera with a touch screen and it is wonderful! One of the camera's nicest features turns out to be the ability to take still photos while shooting video. While editing, it's nice to be able to add a still image before or after the video clip. Especially when you fade into it.

You'll need a bit of time on how to hold the camera. At least with me, I kept getting fingers in front of the lens. Your left hand need to hold the camera toward the bottom. The camera is both light yet heavy enough that it feels good in your hands.

My camera did not ship with a Memory Stick. I just ordered a 16GB card for a little over a hundred dollars and according to the manual will hold 4001 10MP images or an amazing 3 hours and 17 minutes of video in the 720P Fine mode. Video clips are limited to 10 minutes each and this may concern some but is more than enough for me. I also ordered 2 extra batteries since the video especially seems to eat up power. No case is included so you'll need that if you're interested. Cables are included except for the HDMI cable. The camera comes with a camera stand that you hook the cables to and then to your computer/television/receiver. Viewing the photos and videos on the camera itself is a joy.

There are too many bells and whistles that this camera offers to list here. Check out the details listed on this site. I will mention that the photos of the camera confused me and I found that there's a panel on the front of the camera that slides down and that turns the camera on.

I've always owned Canon Powershot Digital Elps in the past and have really liked them. But this new one from Sony is a sort of masterpiece.

If I run into any problems with this camera, I will update this review. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to try and answer them.

UPDATE 10/17/08
I ordered two off brand batteries from Accessory Genie, which are offered on the Amazon site, charged them up and installed them to find a screen saying something like USE COMPATIBLE BATTERY. So, they are going back. I ordered the genuine Sony batteries, which I really should have from the start. The camera is just getting better and better as I use it.

UPDATE 2 10/22/08
I got the Sony battery, charged it up and installed it and it works perfectly. So it was the off brand battery that was the problem. With two batteries, unless you plan on taking a lot of video, should be fine for a day's shooting. I want to take a bunch of video and photos in Vegas in mid Nov. I might just add another Sony battery just in case. I went for a walk today and took some video as well as photos, came home and loaded it into Windows Movie Maker and came up with a successful video that I then burned to disc and watched on my 52" Sony XBR flatscreen. Really very nice. Not quite as good as my stand alone Canon HD camera, but the difference in camera size is considerable. To think that this camera is storing video on a 16GB Memory Stick is truly amazing. Over three hours of it! I mentioned that you can take 3 still photos while shooting video with an icon on the lower left bottom of the screen, they are of a lower resolution. Still makes acceptable 5 by 7" prints but not nearly as good as the stand alone stills. When edited into the video mix they are 16 by 19 and look extremely close to the video images.

I still am in love with this camera!

UPDATE 3: (12/24/08)

Enjoying the camera. Getting more accustomed to using the features. Been using the higher ISO setting for dark/night shots, which can be accessed by touching the REC Mode and then touching the SCN icon and then touching the ISO icon with the upward pointing arrow. Learned that wherever you touch the screen, it will focus on that spot. A very nice bonus. This feature works in the Auto and Program mode. Just got back from Cape Cod, where I carried the camera with me everywhere. Reviews are finally being posted on a few sites and they are good, except for the battery life. Considering all that this camera does, that's not a really big deal.

37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally a camera worth upgrading for!, October 14, 2008

By	Alex T. Ching "SCtud" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Sony Cybershot DSC-T500 10.1MP Digital Camera with 5x Optical Zoom with Super Steady Shot Image Stabilization (Electronics)

I have been content with my Sony T7 until it died on me just recently. Every camera after the T7 just got bigger and bigger without adding any worthy features.

I had a very difficult time deciding whether or not to go T77, or T700, or T500. In the end, I picked this one since I would always want the HD video feature and could live with the larger size.

What prevents this from getting 5 stars are the following:
- The camera is big and not exactly pocketable
- No Bionz processor (both the T77 and T700 have this, and it seems odd the flagship camera does NOT). I'm curious as to how much this helps.
- No smile shutter tech (annoying since this is also present in the T77 and T700)
- Low res LCD - only 230k pixels versus 921k on the T700. why??
- No built in 4GB memory - there's def enough room for one. why include on the T700 and not this one?
- Interface is not that great, but I presume it's the same on the other two Sony cameras.
- Hatch to open battery and memory compartment is a pain to open (was much easier on my T7)

Why others may not like it, but that doesn't bother me:
- Memory stick only - good for me since I have a Sony laptop I can plug these in right away.
- Battery life gets sucked quickly from big LCD and video recording - to be expected for these types of cameras. Be frugal with leaving it on.

Why it's a great camera:
- HD recording is awesome (along with stereo and zooming while recording)
- Big 3.5" LCD
- 5x optical zoom versus only 4x on the T77 and T700
- Excellent build quality

If you don't care about the HD video, the T77 and T700 are definitely the way to go.

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sony T500 - I think this one is a keeper!, October 28, 2008

By	E. Goldblatt "Clearsky" (LA, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Sony Cybershot DSC-T500 10.1MP Digital Camera with 5x Optical Zoom with Super Steady Shot Image Stabilization (Electronics)

I've tried just about EVERY point and shoot that takes HD Video, plus countless other digital cameras over the years. The HD P&S's I've tried are: Canon TX1, Panasonic TX5, several flash drive camcorders that also take still pic's, Sanyo HD1000 & HD700, Samsung HV24HD, and ALL the Kodak's that take HD Video. By the way - it's a good thing that the places I buy these cameras from have a good return policy or I would have been in big trouble. My wife thinks I'm obsessed; she's right! Unfortunately, all of the above cameras had some serious issues - suffice it to say, not acceptable!

My criterion is pretty simple, but not easy to find. All I really just want is a small point and shoot that takes decent wide screen (16:9) pictures and HD 720 or 1080 videos. Nothing pro - I'm reasonable - the pic'/vid's need to look decent, clear, not make me sea sick to watch on my HDTV, stay in focus, sound quality OK, able to zoom during video (and the sound not cut out - i.e. Samsung), and able to stick in my pocket. I don't care about millions of screen shot selections, smile detection, and all the other gimmicky things. My computers are all able to play the new video formats so playback is not a problem. Why is this so darn hard????? This is 2008 (almost 2009) - we should have flying cars by now - right!!! Sorry for the rant - it's just frustrating!

Anyway, I think I found what I've been looking for - at least for now. This new Sony T500 basically does it all.

I'll start with Video - all I can say is NICE. Even in dim rooms, they look pretty good - outside even better! I have a media center computer hooked up to my HDTV - they really look nice and clear. Smooth playback. Zooming is nice and the video actually seems to stay in focus. Color is nice. Stereo sound quality is clear, stable to look at even while moving (no sea sickness with this one). What can I say - it just looks good - no major complaints. The video is, I think, the real strong point for the little camera.

Now for the Pictures - I've taken some really stunning pictures. Clear, color balanced, sharp, zoom is nice. Outside/good lighting is great; inside in low light, a bit grainy - but not bad - definitely acceptable. You have to play with the settings to get good indoor pictures, again really not bad at all. Flash seems strong. Focus fast. Lag Time - no problem. Good Zoom. Simple and intuitive operation and options.

Bottom line, my other favorite camera, the Canon G7, may take better stills, but this T500 takes solid still pictures and has FAR superior video, is much smaller, and easier to schlep around.

My few grips (and it should be no deal breaker for anyone in my humble opinion) is:
1) Battery life not so hot - I had to pick up two extra batteries - no big deal really, I just throw them in my pocket and when one dies out I just replace!
2) Indoor pics are somewhat grainy and unpredictable. But all in all, I happy with the pictures. Just take several of the same indoor shots and one will be good for you.
3) Memory Cards: as with many other camera geeks out there, I really wish Sony would just give the option of using SDHCs. I have so many SD cards (ranging from the old 16 mb SD to 16 GB SDHCs. Now I can't use them! Well - I just bought a new duo 8 GB - kinda costly, but "Resistance is (was) Futile" - I had no choice!

That's about it - I really like this camera and will keep it - at least until the next Point and Shoot that looks "to good to be true" comes out!

***** UPDATE *****
OK - some of you are going to think I'm crazy, but I just had to try out the new Canon SX-10 (really wanted the SX-1 - but not in USA yet). Well, to my great surprise, I still like the Sony T500 better. I will admit that the pictures on the SX10 are better, but only slightly better for my needs. So the con's outweigh the pro's - I'm keeping the Sony!
1) The Sony take MUCH better video (wide-screen 720P) while the Canon only the 480. The Sony is much clearer, sharper, and looks great on the big screen. This is important for me anyway!
2) Outdoor pictures are almost the same for both cameras (at least on my screen), and indoor are slightly better on the Canon, but not bad at all on the Sony. Canon is just a bit "sharper", but again, the Sony ain't bad! I do like the 20X zoom, but I guess that's just not as important for my needs.
3) The physical size difference is a big factor for me - the Sony slips into my shirt pocket and and Canon is huge. I could live with the larger size if the pics/vids where FAR superior - but they are not and I think I would bring the Sony everywhere, as I might think twice about the Canon.
4) Battery: The Sony takes rechargeable batteries (I now have three since they do not last long) and the Canon take 4 AA's. I kinda like the little Sony batteries better (although they just run out too fast), I can just throw my two extra's in my pocket and switch them out when needed. Otherwise, with the Canon, you would have to schlep around 4 large batteries if you run dry.

All in all - I'm still happy with the Sony, so I'll keep it - FOR NOW!!! Stay tuned - I'm sure I'll be trying out other cameras soon! Got my eye on the Panasonic Z28!