Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #97460 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Sony
• Model: DSC-T1
• Released on: 2004-02-05
• Dimensions: .44 pounds

Manufacturer's Description
The Cyber-shot DSC-T1 features a new Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens with 3 x optical zoom, a large 2.5-inch Hybrid LCD display and a streamlined stainless metal body. Although the DSC-T1 is Sony's most slender Cyber-shot, the camera is packed with the latest technology. Almost every component has been re-engineered to be smaller and optimised for the slim-line stainless metal casing. Coupled with the ultra compact storage provided by Memory Stick Duo and Memory Stick PRO Duo and new slim line InfoLITHIUM battery (NP-FT1), we have managed to build a device that is capable of incorporating a large and bright 2.5 LCD screen, yet remains portable enough to be carried comfortably in your pocket.The Cyber-shot DSC-T1 packs a powerful 5.1 effective Megapixel CCD and a new Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens with 3x optical zoom. This innovative zoom lens has been specially designed for compact and slim cameras to operate within the camera body rather than extending out. Engineered for the DSC-T1, a folded path optical system with 11 elements in 8 groups of the lens including 3 aspheric lenses and optimised mechanical design all contribute to the compact nature of this quality camera.

The Cyber-shot DSC-T1 takes advantage of Sony's latest Real Imaging Processor, which offers more precise, better picture quality results at a higher operation speed and with 30% improved power consumption. The response time of the camera is also affected. Simply slide the lens cover down and the camera is ready to take photos in just over one second. It shoots full resolution images in one-second intervals and both the reduced release time lag of 0.009 seconds and shutter lag of 0.29 seconds contribute to a stress-free operation. On top of that it can capture four high-speed burst shots. The Real Imaging Processor also enables the Cyber-shot DSC-T1 to record high-resolution video using MPEG Movie VX Fine (640x 480, 30 frames per second), which is of good enough quality to be played back full-screen on TV. The recording time is only limited by the capacity of your Memory Stick media.

Shots in difficult conditions are now worry-free with 8 different Scene Selection modes. With the new Magnifying Glass Mode you can take a macro picture with a distance of 1cm. Additionally the subject that appears on the LCD screen is magnified up to 3.3 times, which allow users to see details that would otherwise be difficult to confirm with the naked eye. The camera offers three settings for greater control over the saturation, contrast and sharpness of the picture. Saturation adjusts the vividness of the colour of the picture; contrast modulates dark and light; and sharpness increases the definition of the object outlines, without reducing the quality of the image by any gain in noise. This means users can adjust the final picture result much more to their satisfaction.

Another feature is Continuous Auto Focus, which allows users to maintain accurate focus using the shutter button even when the subject is moving. There is also extensive noise reduction on the camera to create clearer images with finer detail. Clear Colour NR analyses the colour and light frequency of the image and smoothes out distortion, leading to a more natural colour reproduction. This is particularly useful when shooting landscapes, when large areas with the same colour benefit from a richer colour definition. In addition, clear skies, dark blue seas and green forests are all reproduced more realistically. Clear Luminance NR meanwhile deals effectively with high luminance in the image. It is particularly good at reproducing details in large, even areas. Unlike conventional noise reduction systems, it suppresses image luminance noise without affecting image detail.

The exceptional feature of the Cyber-shot DSC-T1 is its large 2.5-inch Hybrid LCD screen, which covers two thirds of the camera's back surface area. The hybrid display uses special imaging technology to let you see your subject as clearly in bright, outdoor conditions, such as at the beach or ski resort, as in indoor or lower light environments. As well as allowing easier framing of shots, this well-sized screen becomes a great photo viewer with which to show off your images, wherever you are. It can also display 16 index pictures from memory simultaneously. Additionally the camera operation is even more user friendly because of the larger font on the LCD.

Sony products are designed to connect quickly to each other and to the world beyond so that users can easily enjoy the benefits of digital networking. Digital images in the Cyber-shot DSC-T1 are saved to removable storage in the form of the highly compact Memory Stick Duo and the Memory Stick PRO Duo (parallel interface), both capable of transferring your images between a wide range of Memory Stick compatible products. The DSC-T1 comes supplied with a Memory Stick adaptor, which makes it possible to play back content captured on the camera and stored on the Memory Stick Duo on to devices with standard size Memory Stick slots. Also supplied with the DSC-T1 is a convenient cradle to offer connectivity to a PC or AV device and to recharge the battery. Simply slot in the camera and attach the cradle to a computer or TV to easily view your images. Additionally the Cyber-shot T1 is equipped with a USB 2.0 high-speed interface, which connects the camera by cable to a PC for fast image transfers.

Customer Reviews

One that rewards patience
I bought this camera whilst in Japan. I got chance to play with a few different cameras, the Canon ixus for example but it was the 2.5" screen on the Sony which sold it to me. It really is very good.

The camera is very easy to get use to, the menus are fairly intuitive and there is a wide range of settings once you know where to look. There really is no shortage of options and this is where the patience is required.

On fully automatic settings the pictures aren't the best in some light conditions. This tends to be more with objects rather than people so for point and shoot snaps at a party for example this shouldn't be an issue.

However, if you have a play around, particularly with the exposure settings and you start to get some stunning photo's from something so small. You soon get a feel for whats required and there is a setting that will automatically take 3 shits at slightly different exposures if you don't want to go in and manually alter things.

As for the 32mb memory card, yes its stingy but if you look at all cameras in this sector they all come with 32 mb and the bigger cards aren't hugely expensive.

Build quality is superb, beautifully weighted and the lense is fantastic and as mentioned before that 2.5" lcd screen is class leading.

I love this camera but be aware that you made need to play with the settings to get the best reults. Because of this it was nearly 4 stars instead of 5 but the screen and build give it that edge.

This may mean YOU!!!
I'm not going to repeat the spec of this camera, the manufacturers description will tell you that-I want to point out some issues I have had with this camera, they will not matter to all users, but I think they are something to consider. So do keep in mind that I am not mentioning the good things here as I fear that it would take up too much room, and all the good points show up in the spec sheet of the camera anyway, with the amount of info you have to take in about cameras the less I repeat-the better!

Sony have produced an exceptional camera, and anyone who has been looking at digital will have seen the price of this camera tumble as the market changes, you can get a lot more quality for your money now than even a few months ago, but this is the first bad point- the quality is higher than most people would need for simple snapshots, that doesn't sound bad until you take into account that you will most likely need to buy extra memory cards to store pictures on while your out and before you can download/print or whatever you decide to do with them. The higher the quality you take your pictures at, the more space they take up on your memory card, therefore discover what you'll need to spend on memory as well as the camera, unfortunatly Sony products are not the cheapest.This will effect your battery too, as although it is a fully rechargable lithium-ion battery, in time that will loose capacity and an expensive replacement will be needed.

My next bad point is matched with a good, that beautiful 2.5" screen is brilliant, but its cost is that there is no viewfinder, you must use the screen to take and review your photographs. This will not matter to all but no matter what Sony say I have had trouble using the screen in direct sunlight, don't get me wrong, this was abroad in strong sunlight, I have not had such a problem in this country, (especially not this Summer), but I do think it is something worth considering.

My final negative point is that the lens is small, not that you notice on the vast majority of your pictures, it preforms well until you get to dark conditions where either your flash is not strong enough, or you simply can't use it, (I experienced the trouble in museums where flash photography is not allowed), the photos look grainy and lack the quality you get in better lighting conditions. If you think this type of photography is you there are other cameras out there that will match this cameras quality, and cope with these type of conditions much better, (think Canon and the Olympus Camedia range).

I would like to finish in apoligising for concentrating on the negatives here, this camera has loads going for it, if you haven't already, read the spec sheet, but these are things that I think may be important to SOME users, not all. Generally this camera is excellent, and would easily be five star to me if it wasn't for those small issues above. Most people will take photos that will exceed their expectations with this camera, and everyone will be amazed at the size of it, stylish isn't a strong enough word to express its size, sleekness and the overall high quality metal body it has.

Looks nice but has it's limitations
This is a great looking camera, the flip down front and internal refraction zoom lens thingamajiggy will have your mates ooh-ing and aah-ing. Great design aside though, this isn't a great camera.

My main gripe is that picture quality is poor in anything other than really bright sunlight. Taking indoor pictures with the flash, everything comes out grainy, often unfocused and with poor colour saturation. Not what you'd expect from a camera of this price.

The camera does have a really big screen which is a useful thing to review your photo's after you've taken them - you get a much better idea of what you've taken. The UI is also very easy to use and well designed and lives up to the Sony standard.

The overall lack of features on this camera quickly had me wishing I'd made the compromise of getting a larger camera, like the Sony DSC-V1 which is about the same price but has infitely more control. But if it's a quality compact digital camera you need then I've seen much better results from an Ixus.