Review of the Sony Cyber Shot DSC-T50
Friday, July 25, 2008 @ 22:32
The worst aspect of this camera is the touch screen controls. While some people like them, others find them very difficult to work with. This model relies on a touch screen interface which is often difficult to use because of the smaller size of the LCD screen. Sony includes a stylus with the camera to make interaction with the touch screen easier, but there is no place to store the stylus unless you affix it to the carrying strap, something most people are not about to do. Now, of course, the touch screen isn't going to be an issue for you if you use this camera as simply a point and click model, letting the default settings ride. There will only be a couple of buttons you have to concern yourself with then, and the touch screen will probably not present any sort of a problem for you.
But, for those people who do not like touch screens, Sony offers an alternative. Their Model T30 is identical to this one (even priced identical) and is basically the same camera without the touch screen controls. Both cameras produce the same stunning images, especially if they are taken in fairly good lighting conditions.
This unit comes with optical image stabilization, as well as a hefty 58MB of internal memory.
This digital camera is considered an ultra compact model, with a 7.2 megapixel resolution, and an optical zoom of 3x.
It sells in the neighborhood of anywhere between $250 to $610, depending upon the options package selected. See Amazon for the best overall pricing.
The images that resulted from this camera were quite pleasing. Color was well-saturated, and image details were clear and vibrant. Even on the standardized automatic settings, such as white balance, the unit turned in some warm results even though lighting conditions were sometimes rather harsh.
The performance features on this camera were fast. From the time of pressing the power button to capturing the first image took about 1.5 seconds without the flash, and about 2.1 with flash. This is an excellent camera for the price, and it rises far above the average "point and shoot" variety in that it allows the serious photographer a lot of leeway in setting his own controls; something that is not readily available on many of those other models.
