Digital Camera Review

Digital Camera Review

Oct 14, 2005 - By Emily Raymond
At the beginning of the year, Sony announced that it would release its new models with bigger LCD screens, more resolution, and at least some internal memory. The company’s promises are materialized in the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T5, which offers all of those features in a sleek and skinny camera body. The T5 follows other Sony T-series digital cameras with its 0.8-inch thick body size and non-extending Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar 3x optical zoom lens. The Sony T5 has 5.1 megapixels on a 1/2.5-inch Super HAD CCD and offers six image sizes, including a 16:9-formatted aspect ratio to fit the wide screens of high-definition televisions. This Cyber-shot has a nicely sized 2.5-inch LCD screen with 230,000 pixels, which is roughly twice the resolution of its competition. 32 MB of internal memory is included, completing Sony’s triple-point promise. The T5 was announced in July and released in September 2005 at an initial retail price of $349.99.
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Picture Quality / Size Options (7.0)
With 5 megapixels, the Sony T5 offers plenty with six still image size options. Pictures can be compressed to either Fine or Standard as well. The highest resolution offered is 2592 x 1944; there is also a high-resolution size optimized for 4 x 6-inch prints. The 3:2 formatted size is 2592 x 1728. A slight jump in resolution takes us to the next sizes: 2048 x 1536 and 1280 x 960. A 640 x 480 pixel option is there for e-mailing photos. Perhaps the most unique feature about the image sizes is the 16:9 formatted HDTV selection. This 1920 x 1080 pixel size fills large widescreen televisions. If you’re looking for an excuse to get that plasma screen, try this one: “I just really want to utilize the Sony T5 to its absolute fullest. The HDTV mode is going to waste…”

Picture Effects Mode (6.5)
Perhaps for snapshooters looking to avoid the time commitments of Photoshop, the Sony T5 offers some in-camera effects. Black & White and Sepia are included; these are quite common. There are also saturation, contrast, and sharpness options that can be adjusted to +, -, or Normal. These same image parameters can be adjusted in the included software. However, some users of the T5 may never want to deal with the software either. For direct printing of black and white photos, this mode is a nice feature. There are live views to help users select options.

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