Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T300 Product Tour

by Allan Weitz

TouchScreen Menus Make Snap-Shooting That Much Easier

The Nuts & Specs

Housed in a slim, solid-feeling aluminum body, Sony's Cyber-shot DSC-T300 is built around a 10.1MP (1/2.3") Super HAD CCD sensor that is more than capable of knocking out well-detailed, poster-sized prints. The DSC-T300 sports a 5x Carl Zeiss-designed 5.8 to 29 mm (f/3.5 to f/4.4) Vario-Tessar lens that takes in the field-of-view of a 33 to 165 mm lens on a standard 35mm camera. To ensure high levels of image quality throughout the zoom range, the lens contains 12 glass elements (including 3 aspheric elements) in 10 groups. And thanks to advanced optical engineering, the lens remains flush to the body regardless of the focal length. For smoothing out the bumps when shooting under low light conditions, the Cyber-shot DSC-T300 employs Sony's SteadyShot Optical Image Stabilization. In macro mode you can focus down to 3.2" from the front element of the lens, and down to 0.4" in 'Magnifying Glass' mode. The DSC-T300 lacks a viewfinder, but more than makes up for it in the form of a 3.5" Clear Photo Plus LCD display that pretty much covers the entire rear surface of the camera. The 230,000 pixel screen features anti-reflective coatings that enable easy viewing in all but the brightest of lighting conditions. Rather than buttons and toggles, the Sony DSC-T300 utilizes touchscreen menus for choosing exposure and other camera settings. Aside from the novelty of this feature, touchscreen menus are actually far easier to use compared to the itty-bitty menu and function icons commonly stenciled or embossed on point-and-shoot digicams. If you rely on reading glasses, you'll truly appreciate this easy-on-the-eyes feature. As it's downright impossible to not touch the screen while using the camera, a micro-fiber cloth should always be within easy access, especially at picnics, barbeques, and other gatherings that include kids and/or potato chips.

Using the Cyber-shot DSC-T300 in the Real World

In use, the DCSC-T300 dispels many of the default gripes commonly heard by users of point-and-shoot digicams. Shutter lag was nil most all of the time, with very few 'misses' when grabbing snapshots of family and friends. Exposures, with or without flash, were also quite accurate in most all lighting situations.

While high ISO ratings should be universally avoided when using point-and-shoot digicams, the camera's Clear RAW Noise Reduction System proved to be quite acceptable up to ISO 400. As for the higher ISOs (800, 1600, and 3200), images proved to be better than most for cameras in this class, but all things considered, the higher ISO ratings should be dialed up solely as a last resort. If you have the choice of shooting on a tripod, tablepod, or monopod using a slower ISO rating, by all means do so. But if pumping up the ISO can make the difference between an acceptable photo and no photo, go for it.

Photos can be captured in two levels of color (natural and vivid), monochrome, or sepia in seven levels of JPEG compression - 3648 x 2736, 3648 x 2432 (3:2), 3648 x 2056 (16:9), 2592 x 1944, 2048 x 1536, 1920 x 1080 (16:9) and 640 x 480 (VGA). Video clips can be captured in five levels of compression - MPEG Movie Mode with Audio, MPEG VX Fine (640 x 480 @ 30 fps), MPEG VX Standard (640 x 480 @ 16.6 fps), Normal Mode (320 x 240 @ 30 fps), and Presentation Mode (320 x 240 @ 8.3fps). Clip lengths are limited to the capacity of your memory card.

Image processing is performed courtesy of Sony's high-speed Bionz Imaging Processor, which incorporates D-Range Optimization for maintaining detail in both highlights and shadow areas. To further ensure successful image capture, the DSC-T300 incorporates Intelligent Scene Recognition (iSCN), which can be set for five separate shooting modes including Backlight, Backlight Portrait, Twilight, Twilight Portrait, and Twilight with Tripod.

Aside from the above, a selection of Photo Modes include Fireworks, Smile Shutter, Underwater, Landscape, Soft Snap, Snow, High Sensitivity, High Speed Shutter, and Beach Scene. White Balance choices include Automatic, Cloudy, Daylight, Incandescent, Flash, and 3 levels of Fluorescent.

The DSC-T300's 9-point autofocus system was dead-on in most every shot, and you can knock off up to 100 full-resolution images at 0.64-second intervals for capturing the action on or off the soccer field.

The Cool Stuff

After spending time with the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T300, you start appreciating the extent of digital technologies contained in today's point-and-shoot cameras. And the fact this much technology is available in consumer cameras selling for less than four hundred dollars is pretty darn amazing.

Case in point - Sony's advanced version of Face Detection-2 Technology can detect up to 8 faces within any given scene. It also analyzes and establishes the optimum focus, exposure, and white balance of the exposure, along with red-eye reduction. You can also program the camera to prioritize the focus on adults over children within a scene, or visa versa, depending on your needs.

Along with Face Detection-2, Smile Shutter Technology can detect smiles and capture up to 6 images-per-smile. Here too, the DCS-T300 can differentiate between children and adults as needed.

In-camera retouching is another trick offered by the DSC-T300 in the form of Red-eye Reduction, Soft-focus, a Partial Color filter, a Fish-eye filter, Radial blur, and a Happy Face filter that can put 5 levels of ‘Smile' on the sourest of pusses.

Images stored on Memory Stick Pro or Memory Stick Pro Duo memory cards (or the DSC-T300's 15Mb of internal memory) can be filtered for viewing and editing by images tagged as ‘Favorites', images containing faces, by the date taken, as well as in the form of an illustrated calendar. They can also be played back in any of these aforementioned modes in the form of a slideshow complete with variable transitions and musical soundtracks. For those into scrapbooks and/or birthday card illustrations, you can fahputz your pictures with a pen tool, stamps, paint brushes, and frames.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T300 has a built-in TTL flash and powers off an NP-BD1 rechargeable battery, which is good for up to 250 exposures per charge.

If you're thinking about purchasing the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T300, perhaps the best advice I can give you is READ THE MANUAL. While most of the camera's operating features are straight-forward and easy to figure out, a few features drove me – and a few others I shared the camera with – a bit batty. Included among the head bangers was the lens cover, which unlike most lens covers does not automatically slide away when you power up. Nor are there any engraved or stenciled arrows or other indicators that tell you to slide the cover downward to expose the lens. In less patient hands this can lead to cussing and a bent lens cover.

The power zoom button is also easy to miss even though it's located logically on the upper right-hand corner of the camera body. The trouble is it's rather small and blends into the camera. Once you note its location, it makes sense and is easy to access while shooting, but more than a few colleagues fumbled around looking for it the first time out. These are minor issues, but frustrating non-the-less if you're a card-carrying fathead when it comes to reading camera manuals. Though the user's manual is typical of its genre, read it anyway.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T300 is USB 2.0 compatible via the included Multi-Use Connector, PictBridge compatible, and can output 1080i HD video when used with the aforementioned Multi-Use cable.