Smile: Sony DSC-T200
My tried, trusted and true Canon Powershot that I got 6 years ago has finally reached the end of the line for me. The battery hardly hold a charge, the sliding cover has become so loose that at times when it is opened the camera doesn't turn on. I love this camera. It has been a good little 4 megapixel camera for me, capturing thousands of pictures of the past 6 years.
Alas, I have been hunting for a new camera and had several important objectives. Obviously, it has to take good pictures, and I wanted a decent optical zoom. I also wanted a camera with a large LCD display for viewing pics. Laslty, I wanted something that would shoot in HD. Well, minutes ago, I pre-ordered a newly released camera from Sony, the DSC-T200. I can't wait for this to arrive. It has some very impressive features. Read on to find out what has me so excited about this sleek camera.
First off, the DSC-T200 has a nice 3.5" LCD screen. To make it even better, it is a touchscreen. More on this in a moment. Secondly, it does high def. Ok, so now to some of the neat features. Getting back to the touchscreen. You might be imagining that the touchscreen will allow you to select on-screen menus and what not with your finger. True. But it does more than that. You are actually able to simply touch the screen area that you want to focus on, and the camera focuses on that area. To see a demo of this, click here for a good interactive flash demo. As recently as this past weekend, a picture I went to shoot with my previous camera was blurry. Why, because as I quickly went to shoot it so not to lose the moment, the camera focused on the handrail of my deck, rather than on the people playing in the driveway. I'm looking forward to the ability to focus via touch.
The camera also has face detection and smile detection. You can read all about it here, but let me say, this is incredibly cool stuff and practical. You can test is as well using the interactive flash demo too. I like the ability to select a face and have the camera not take a picture until that person smiles. This will be fantastic for shooting pictures of my kids. My youngest often needs to be cajoled into smiling for the camera. With the DSC-T200, you know the picture won't be snapped until a smile appears. Totally awesome.
Outside of the above "techy" features, the camera sports a good lens with a 5X optical zoom and a 25X digital zoom. Sony has used a Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens, which is an outstanding lens. This model is an 8.1 megapixel camera similar CCD as the T100, which has been reviewed a producing great looking pictures.
All in all, this looks to be a very exciting camera. I'll be counting down the days till I receive mine. I'll do a follow up post once I receive the unit.
Have you got it and if so, what's your feedback on it?
Thanks!
Posted by: Tony Sutton | August 31, 2007 at 06:24 AM
I ordered mine from the Sony Store in Eatons and am suppose to receive it September 12th!!
Posted by: Lester Ing | September 04, 2007 at 09:40 AM
Have you purchased camera yet? Curious to see what your opion is, does it live up to your expetations? I read another post and the person said the pictures where grainey, even on the LCD. Can you comment on this? I am looking to buy this camera, but would like to know if someone has actually taken pictures with it, and how the pics turned out. Thanks!
Posted by: Sandy | September 16, 2007 at 12:51 PM
The pictures I have taken are not grainy at all. I am working on a review that will post this Friday and I'll include a few sample pictures I've taken.
Posted by: mip | September 19, 2007 at 07:32 AM
Hi everyone. I have posted a brief review, including a video demonstration of the camera and a sample picture. Let me know if you have any other questions or comments.
Posted by: mip | September 25, 2007 at 07:34 AM
Can someone please upload some more snapshots. specially taken in low light and nights.
Thanks
Posted by: Faisal Masood | September 25, 2007 at 11:11 PM
Hello,
Thanks a lot for this review. I am very interested in this product.
I have some more question. I heard about lot of noise on in-door or low-light pictures. Is this right ?. And what about battery lenght. how many picture can we realy make with the same battery.
thanks for your answers.
PS : excuse my bad english ...
Posted by: fumisteman | September 30, 2007 at 03:39 PM
Hi,
I have the Sony T200. When i download the pics from the memory stick to my laptop and view them, i note that they are like 2.5m and not 8m. So the quality is terrible.
The setting on the camera is set to 8m
What am i doing wrong?
Posted by: Hilton | March 13, 2008 at 06:31 AM