Customer Reviews

Sony Cybershot DSC-T700 10.1MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom with Super Steady Shot Image Stabilization (Red)

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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!

I owned a SONY DSC-T100, Sony's first generation of this style of ultra-compact digital camera. After a few iterations, I was hoping Sony has improved its picture quality. In some areas, the usability has improved dramatically.

Likes:
- Touch screen is very usable. You can even touch you subject on the screen to tell the camera to spot-focus on your subject.
- Smile detection is good under daylight.
- Optical Zoom and autofocus work in movie mode, which is a good deal-sealer for people who need a really useful movie mode.
- In-camera editing tools are quite user-friendly. Amazing usability
- 4GB internal memory is a big plus. I never find myself needing extra Memory Stick. I take all my pictures with 3:2 ratio (3MB+ per photo), the internal memory can contain approximately 996 pictures. That's enough for me. I usually download pictures to my PC every day.

Dislikes:
- Smile detection does not work well with indoor pictures because it disables Red-eye Reduction feature. This makes sense because red-eye reduction slows down the shot and may miss the smile.
- Battery life is very short. If you need to go for even a day trip, you certainly need an extra battery. So, this is the cost you need to consider before purchasing this camera.
- Indoor focus accuracy with flash is not great. I found this too be true with most ultra compact cameras, including Canon 1100. Even with successful face detection, the pictures often show out-of-focus subjects with clear background. This is true with my old Sony DSC-T100. It appears Sony has not resolved this issue after so many generations with Tx00 Series. So, be sure to take multiple shots with flash.
- White spots on some night shots. It's very unfortunate. The camera flash is too close to the lens. When the flash fires at a reflective dust in the air, you get white spots on people's hair or some empty space in your pictures. It really ruins a nice picture.
- High noise level in night shots (with flash or not)

Finally after 3 weeks of use, I returned the camera. No more ultra-compact cameras for us.

I hope this review helps potential buyers. Try shooting in all kind of lighting condition and see for yourself if noise levels are acceptable to you. High-pixel cameras produce relatively more noise.

Overall, in terms of picture quality, Sony has not improved it since DSC-T100.

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.

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..

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

I bought this camera last October 2008 when it just came out of the market (paid $399 for it) and although it seemed expensive at that time, I was impressed with the promised features of this camera so I still decided to buy it. Almost 5 months since I bought, I haven't had any regrets with the purchase. This camera looks perfect, and its features are equally outstanding. I love how wide the touchscreen is, and how I can upload the latest MP3s as background music for the slideshow. Although there is still room for improvement with the battery life, the 4GB internal memory space more than makes up for this. I've recommended this to my friends, and at least one of them has also bought the same model (but in different color).

I purchased this camera in a pinch back in November 2008. I was heading to the SEMA show in Vegas, and my ancient Sony P-10 was starting to show its age. I didn't want to lug my Canon DSLR around, so I went shopping for a nice and compact P&S.

The size of the camera is similar to a cell phone. I use my T-Mobile G1's soft case for the Camera instead of the phone. The picture quality is superb (as expected from upper tier cybershot cameras) in most situations. Like usual, shooting in dim light and in the dark don't work out for Sony Cameras... it's definitely leaps and bound better than the previous ones I've owned though (this is Cybershot number 5 in my household).

The on-board 4gb of storage is great. It's meant to serve as a photo album. A memory stick duo should be used for normal shoots, while the on-board storage should be used for small resolution photo galleries. 4gb of duo in addition to 4gb of on-board memory should be enough for most.

The touch-screen interface is decent. The only gripe I have is that is smudges quite easily. Aside from that, it functions well.

Overall, it's a great ultra compact P&S model. It gets the job done for general use and has a very nice form and feel. The metallic casing shows its position in the cybershot line. Definitely recommended, especially at the current Amazon price ($270) at the time of this review. I purchased it for $385. and would do the same again if needbe.

PROS
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+ nice large sharp screen. perfect for showing off your photos

+ built in software to edit photos on the go

+ built in 4GB memory. can shoot photos without the memory stick

+ can zoom in and out while recording video!

+ 4x optical zoom

CONS
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- expensive. it is not worth $400!! i think the Sony T77 is a much better value

- thicker than i expected. i still like the older Sony T7

- built in stabilizer and high 3200 ISO dont mean anything in low light. a digital SLR is still much better than this camera

- 10Megapixel doesnt mean anything. photos look the same as my old Sony T7 5 megapixel.

- touchscreen is not finger friendly and NOT multitouch. a mini stylus is included. i mostly use my nails.

- video recording is not HD unlike the sony T500.

Summary: not worth the $400! im returning mine now.

I had a old cybershot that I just loved and so when I learned we were going to Disney I thought it was time to upgrade. It is a nice looking camera. But it has some huge issues.
One being red eye. Despite all of its red eye prevention features. (blinking pre flashes etc) They just don't work. It gets real old fast having to fix all the eyes and if your daughter has pretty green eyes then they are black in the pictures because of the red eye fix.

Also as someone else said. White spots all over night pictures. We had pretty pictures in front of the castle at night and they were ruined by white spots all over.

I'm very sad I spent so much money. Sometimes a lot of money doesn't mean better quality.

I just got this camera, and it's fantastic!! The touch screens on some of the older or less expensive Cybershot models go all funky-colored when you press on them, but this model's touch screen is much sturdier- no wavy color effects when you press on it. It also comes with a 4G memory, which equals about 1000 photos at the 10MP setting and over 1500 at the 5MP setting!!

My favorite feature is the way the battery charges. It's a little rectangular battery that you slide out of the camera and insert into a dock with a flip-out outlet plug. You don't have to plug the camera itself into anything, which is fantastic for a camera as slim as this! What makes this such a spectacular feature for me is that my last camera (a Casio Exilim) came with a dock that you set the entire camera in. After about a year and a half, the dock was damaged, making it impossible to either charge my camera or transfer photos to my computer. When I went to get a new dock, however, Casio no longer made any docks that were compatible with my camera, and the only place I could find a compatible dock was on eBay in Hong Kong for a price that was far above what the dock was worth. With this camera, I don't have to worry about the camera itself becoming unusable simply because one of its accessories is damaged.

Another feature I like is the focus. You can touch the screen wherever you want the camera to focus, rather than the camera automatically focusing on the middle of the shot.

And the image stabilization really does work! On the drive home from the store I took a picture out the window, and while the outside images were a bit fuzzy, the reflection on the window was perfectly in focus- while the vehicle was in motion! Most cameras would just get confused and make it all blurry. That really impressed me.

One of the other complaints about some of the previous touch-screen models is that one's right thumb would rest on the upper right side of the screen and accidentally keep hitting the buttons there. This camera has a bit of a buffer in the form of a ribbed strip of plastic about 1/4" wide, providing a place to rest your thumb off of the screen.

And gosh, this camera is just so stylish and sharp!! I love it!!