Photo gallery: Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700Design
The T700 is certainly a pretty thing; available in an assortment of colours like red, silver, grey and gold, and enclosed in a brushed metal finish, the T700 will appeal to the style conscious. We received a red model to test, though the actual finish appears more like a hot pink.
Like its predecessor the T300, the T700's lens and in-built flash is covertly hidden behind a brushed metal cover that slides down manually. Fortunately, the display cleverly reminds you to open the cover if you turn the camera on before you reveal the lens. However, there's one problem with the lens position on the top left of the camera — it's very easy for stray fingers to enter your pictures. A bit of shuffling is required to make sure fingers stay away from the lens.
The unit itself is sturdy and well made, with a satisfying click emerging from the cover as it slides up and down over the lens to protect it. The rear cover, housing the battery and Memory Stick Duo slot, is slightly fiddly to close though. Rather than snapping back into place, the cover needs to be manually locked by sliding the toggle.
At just over 15mm thick and weighing in at 135g without the battery, the T700 feels light and wouldn't feel out of place sitting in a pocket. All the buttons sit flush with the body, with the zoom control sitting on the top right-hand corner of the unit.
Features
Like the T300, all of the functions and features of the T700 are accessed by the LCD touchscreen at the back of the camera. It's fairly intuitive even if the response time is a little slow when using fingers to press the screen; a problem that can easily be resolved by using the paint pen supplied with the unit. Menu options are easy to navigate, with a text description provided on-screen describing most of the selectable options.
With 4GB of internal storage, the memory is definitely not meant to be a substitute for a Memory Card — the T700 is designed to be a fully-fledged photo album, but a portable, digital one at that. Combined with the bundled Picture Motion Browser (PMB) software and with the in-built display options, it's ideal for people who love showing off their latest shots to friends and family. Photos can also be viewed in an indexed thumbnail form, by event or by date, plus there is also the option to set shots to music in a slideshow (all in-camera). If you need a bigger screen for your images, the T700 plugs directly into an HD television, though again this cable is an additional extra.
However, as useful as 4GB of internal memory may be, there is one problem: with such a large internal storage capacity, it may be tempting to err on the side of laziness when it comes to transferring photos from the camera to computer. So, lose the camera and all your photos are gone. Plus, if you do tend to store photos on external cards, you'll also have to shell out for a Memory Stick Duo (normal Sony Memory Sticks won't work either) if you want more storage.
As with most other cameras in Sony's line-up, the T700 includes Smile Shutter technology. In this model though, the technology has been upgraded to continue to shoot photos when people smile until the feature is shut off. However, in our tests, this feature was a little temperamental. On some subjects it took several attempts for the camera to register the smile — more than a couple of poker faces to wide smiles were needed, even on the highest smile sensitivity level.
In Scene Recognition mode, the T700 is able to automatically determine the scene based on shooting conditions. This works well in most conditions, accurately choosing macro mode for close-up shots and portrait mode when necessary. Anti Blink mode, where the camera will continue to shoot until a shot is taken with the subject's eyes open, is another feature only available when the scene mode is set to portrait. Image stabilisation is also standard.
Performance and Image Quality
The T700 fares well in the performance stakes, taking just 1.7 seconds from initial start up through to first picture as tested by CNET Labs. Shutter lag is also not much of a problem, with the camera averaging a respectable 0.4 second between focusing and the final picture. The 3.5-inch LCD screen is bright and clear, having been upgraded to 921,000 pixels from the T300's 230,000 pixels.
The T700's battery took over 2.5 hours to charge on first use. Whilst this is consistent with the times Sony quotes in the manual, it does make it more difficult to open up and play with straight from the box. The battery is also drained considerably quickly when using album features like the music slideshows.
Rendering images on the LCD screen in playback mode does take a while (especially if you are shooting on maximum resolution), but once they are displayed they appear crisp. The zoom functions in playback mode are also easy to use.
The included PMB software is surprisingly good, even if it is only compatible with Windows. Fortunately, the camera itself comes installed with PMB Portable, meaning that you can plug the T700 into any computer without installing the original software.
For everyday situations, picture quality is relatively good, with strong but not overly saturated colours captured in a variety of situations. There is, however, a loss of sharpness at some exposures, and when viewing at increased magnifications. ISO sensitivity is available all the way up to ISO 3200 — but even at lower levels like ISO 400, noise started to intrude on the clarity of the pictures.
Conclusion
At AU$599, the T700 is an expensive accessory, but there are a number of elements that will appeal across the board. If you're after a stylish compact available in a range of colours with some clever photo sharing features, the T700 should be on your shortlist — providing you can sacrifice some image quality.
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