Review of Sony Cybershot DSC-T300

Apr 18th, 2008 – Piyush Patil

Definitely, the Cybershot DSC-T300 has to be the next generation camera belonging to the family of ultra compact, touch-screen cameras, a creation of electronics mega company Sony. It has been possible for Sony stuff a 5 X of zoom into the slim line body just because it is built in the region of a minuscule 1/2.3" sensor. Thus avoiding it to have protruded outside its limits. It is a great package to have accommodated the latest functions and special modes. The highlighted feature being that of the16:9 facet screen touch that is wide-spread over the reverse side of its body. Definitely, it will give users freedom from supremacy of four way control panels, and all excess buttons that otherwise distracted the beauty of the cover or the body of cameras. 

Well to begin with, the headlined features of this model are as provided below:

  • High Steady Shot stabilization of image
  • 10.1 Mega pixels
  • 5x zoom
  • Optimization of Dynamic range
  • 3.5" touch-screen & control system

Design features of Cybershot DSC-T300

 Initial and casual glance gives the idea that T300 looks almost similar to its antecedent. It’s slightly thinner than the T200, with its zoom rocker resting conveniently on the upper right edge of the camera. This makes it much more accessible than in T200’s case where it was mounted at the top. Of course, along with its stylish and slick body also accommodates certain modifications or rather improvements as compared to faults in T200.

Additionally, its trendy sliding lens cover, which is a signature feature of all the Cyber-shot T-series cameras, the display of T300's stands out as its most distinguished feature. The user can now control each and every feature of the camera through a simple 89mm that is 3.5-inch touch screen LCD. And the only thing that is left on its body is just a power button, a shutter release, a playback button, and a zoom rocker as its only physical controls. The screen becomes a prominent feature not only for the back panel but the camera as a whole. Thus it enhances the image display as well as the menus and other functions.

The only draw back is that it leaves absolutely no room for your thumb to rest while capturing photos. Another major lag behind are the long menu navigation that is required to access various functions. Also one has to confirm each and every setting that becomes irritating.

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Some important variations from T200

  • The prominent variation between T300 & its antecedent is that the latest version which is built in region of a greater pixel-density sensor.
  • The lens range also deviates, as it gets a bit wider (though we're not about to hold a street party for a 33mm wide angle camera).
  • A basic side-effect is that of adding together a bigger, 1/2.3" sensor in the identical position as that of the old 1/2.5" one.

Salient Features of Cybershot DSC-T300

It strongly features numerous face-detection shooting modes. Specially to mention, the Adult and Child Priority, which enable the camera identify kids' or adults' faces in case of group photos and adjust its focus and exposure consequently. The boldly spoken feature Smile Shutter, which delays shooting keeping it pending the subject smiles!

A collection of onboard photo-editing and certain retouching options justify the advantages of the immense touch panel. An elementary paint program also enables the users to draw on their pictures. This supports cropping and resizing, thus one can trim the images to fit 16:9 wide-screen displays, or even scale the pictures down to VGA for emailing and other such applications.

Cybershot DSC-T300 Technical Details

Sensor

  • (1/2.3)"  Type CCD
  • 10.7 million as the Total pixels, while 10.1 millions as the  Effective pixels  

Image sizes 

  • 3648 * 2736
  • 3648 *2432 which is (3:2)
  • 3648 * 2056 which is (16:9)
  • 2592 * 1944 
  • 2048 * 1536
  • 1920 * 1080 which is (16:9)
  • 1280 * 960
  • 640 * 480 

Movie clips 

  • 640 * 480
  • 320 * 240 

File formats 

  • JPEG
  • MPEG1 

Lens

  • 5.8 mm – 29.0 mm
  • 33 mm – 165mm equivalent to 35 mm
  • & F3.5 - 4.4

Image stabilization is present. 

Focus

Contrast Detection AF of TTL
 

ISO sensitivity

  • Auto 
  • 3200 
  • 1600
  • 80
  • 400 
  • 200
  • 100
  • 80

Scene modes offered

A variety of Screen modes is offered. Considered by the users as important are Underwater, High Sensitivity, Smile Shutter, Hi-speed Shutter, Twilight Fireworks, Snow Beach Landscape, Soft Snap Twilight, Portrait Twilight 

White balance features 

It provides various settings for adjusting the white balance namely, Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent 1,2 and 3. 

Continuous shooting

  • T300 renders approximately 1.6 frames/sec & 10 shots 

LCD monitor 

The most prominent feature the LCD touch screen has following attributes to it:

3.5 inches Touch- receptive TFT Hybrid LCD along with 16:9 aspect ratio, which means about Approximately 230,000 pixels with 100% coverage  

Dimensions

The dimensions measure just up to 94 * 59.3 * 21.4 mm which goes to around 3.7 * 2.3 * 0.8 inches. All in all it still has a journey to cover to reach the pinnacle or be the best in the lot.

Tags: 
Sony