Manual Control Options
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T5 is not known for its manual control, but does offer a limited selection. The most control can be had in the Program mode, which allows users to adjust the exposure compensation, focus mode, white balance, and ISO. The white balance function does not have a manual adjustment, which is disappointing. The camera does have a 5-step manual focus, which is about as manual as selecting the ISO or white balance from a menu.

Focus
Auto (7.0)
The Sony T5 has several auto focus modes that can focus as close as 1 cm in the Magnifying Glass mode, 3.1 inches in the macro mode, and 19.7 inches in the normal mode. This Cyber-shot has a 5-area multi-point auto focus that works fairly quickly when shooting still images. An auto focus illuminator helps the camera focus in low light; this illuminator can be turned off or put on automatic in the setup menu. Spot, Center, and Multi AF modes are available – this is nice because most compact cameras don’t offer much in the way of auto focus modes. Spot AF focuses on a tiny point in the center, while Center AF focuses on a larger area in the center. Multi AF is for those rare moments when the subject is wandering from the center of the frame. This would be good for photographing a crowd of people surrounding a birthday cake. Another nice feature about this auto focus system is that the T5’s viewfinder shows brackets where it is focusing, so users will know for sure whether their subject is in focus. My only complaint with the system is that it is slow in the movie mode, blurring subjects as they move toward and away from the camera.

Manual (2.5)
The Sony T5 has a 5-step manual focus, which is just like choosing a preset white balance option from the menu – so this isn’t true manual focus. However, it must be mentioned that this model offers 0.5 m, 1 m, 3 m, 5 m, and Infinity options. This is great as long as your subject is right at these distances. However, if your subject is 2 m away, the “manual” focus won’t meet your needs.

Metering (6.5)
The metering mode has options that sound similar to the auto focus modes: Spot, Center-Weighted, and Multi-Pattern metering. The Spot option analyzes a tiny point in the center of the frame to determine the exposure. The Center-weighted option does this from a larger area in the center. The Sony T5 looks at all areas of the frame and averages it with the Multi-pattern metering option. These metering modes are fairly standard, even on compact digital cameras but should help attain reasonable exposures in most common shooting situations.

Exposure (7.5)
Exposure controls such as shutter speed and aperture cannot be manually altered on the T5, but exposure compensation can be adjusted up or down by 2 Exposure Values in 1/3-stop increments. Photographers can check the exposure with the real time histogram that can be displayed on the LCD screen – which is a real assistance. The Sony T5 also has an exposure bracketing function available in the same menu with its burst modes. Once the option is chosen in that menu, a separate bracketing menu option lets users select the amount of shift in the three-image series. Users can choose 0.3, 0.7, or 1.0 EV.

White Balance (5.5)
There are live views in the white balance menu, which is helpful. Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent, Incandescent, and Flash options are available. Unfortunately, there is no manual white balance mode. This would have been nice as there are thousands of different types of light bulbs and potential lighting situations that cannot possibly fit on a menu of presets. The Fluorescent option is for cool white bulbs. Many cameras are now offering two or three fluorescent options for warm white and other types of bulbs as well. Sony’s truncated list of presets and the omission of a manual mode makes this white balance function substandard.

This will be particularly troublesome under strong orange tungsten casts. We first recognized the issue under our studio tungsten lamps which are far stronger than traditional “home” bulbs, but the problem persisted. The T5 was tested using both the Auto and Incandescent options under studio and home tungsten bulbs, but neither could be perfectly calibrated. While colors can generally be corrected with little effort post-capture, in a pocket-sized point-and-shoot imager, most users don’t want to have to take that extra step.

ISO (6.5)
An automatic ISO function is available, but when users have the chance they should try setting the ISO manually as this reduces noise levels when done right. 64, 100, 200, and 400 ratings are offered in a menu, but no live view is available for this option. This is a fairly standard feature set, but the low ISO 64 setting does help to minimize noise when ample lighting is available.

Shutter Speed (0.0)
The shutter speed is not manually controllable but can move from 1/8-1/1000th of a second as automatically determined by the camera. The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T5 does have a High-Speed Shutter mode that is useful when shooting sporting events or fast-moving objects. The slowest shutter speed in this range is not adequate for dim lighting; most digital cameras offer at least a few seconds for the shutter to remain open for night shots. Keep the T5 in bright light or use the flash.

Aperture (0.0)
The Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens has an aperture range of f/3.5-f/5.6 at its widest and f/4.4-f/10 at its most telephoto setting. This range is not manually controllable, but the Soft Snap scene mode is supposed to satisfy the user’s need to blur the background for that so-called “gentle atmosphere” effect.

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