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Model Design / Appearance (9.00)
You have to give Sony credit: they've crafted a beautiful camera with the T700. It's small, sleek and gorgeous. The case is brushed metal, which provides the camera with a decidedly modern appeal. This is definitely an example of a gadget as a status icon, due to its relatively high price and stylish look.
Size / Portability (11.00)
The T700 is pocket-sized, though surprisingly heavy given it's diminutive stature. That said, we're actually very fond of slightly weightier cameras, as they feel more stable in the hand. It's 3 3/4 inches wide by 2 3/8 inches high by 21/32 inch deep (95 x 58.4 x 16.44 mm) and weighs 5.6 oz (160g). To put that in perspective, it's shorter and narrower than an iPhone 3G, but deeper and slightly heavier. It's small enough to slide into all but the tightest of pockets, and takes up next to no space in your purse or bag.
Handling Ability (8.00)
As mentioned above, the T700 feels a bit heavy for its size, but this isn't a bad thing, as it gives it a feeling of solidness, and the solid grip helps prevent camera shake. The use of dual methods for powering the camera up, either via the Power button or by sliding down the lens cover, can be quite handy, since opening the front panel can save you fumbling for a small button in low light. The handling problems we did find center on the rear of the camera. Due to the size of the touch screen, the only area set aside for a grip is an extremely narrow strip of raised material on the far right of the screen. The completely flat front offers no concessions to the need to hold the camera steady either. We would suggest keeping the wrist strap on whenever possible, as it would be easy to drop the T700. At least the case feels like it could take a knock or two.
The other handling issue we had was the sluggish and imprecise response from the touch screen. The constant frustration of dealing with not-quite-responsive-enough controls is aggravating, and a major flaw of current touch screens compared to button-based cameras.
The T700 is small, and a little hard to grip tightly
Control Button / Dial Positioning / Size (5.75)
The Sony DSC-T700 has minimal buttons and physical controls. The only functions ascribed to dedicated (versus touch screen) controls are power, shutter, zoom and playback, all of which are located on the top right of the camera. Luckily, with so few buttons, and all of them shaped differently, it's highly unlikely you'll press the wrong one. It's a good thing the zoom control is a physical switch, as it can be quite annoying to constantly tap a touch screen when you want to zoom in or out. All the buttons feel well constructed, and we expect they'll survive a significant amount of wear.
We did run into a problem with the shutter control. As with most cameras, half-depressing the shutter button causes the camera to focus, and fully pressing it down takes the shot. However, with the T700, the button doesn't go very deep, and there's no clear differentiation between a half-press and a full shutter release . Be prepared to take a number of photos accidentally before getting used to it.
The scant physical controls
The T700 menu system manages to paradoxically feel both overly complex, and too dumbed down. The dumbed-down factor comes from a lack of choice in the settings. For instance, for sound controls, they can either be all on, all off, or shutter sound only. When they're all off, there's no beep telling you the camera is focused. When they're all on, every time you press the screen it chirrups at you. There are no settings for how long a period passes before the camera goes to sleep, or how long the auto review after shooting lasts. It just seems a bit lacking.
The complexity comes from the multiple paths required to access the settings, some of which are buried in layers beneath layers. Most of the shooting controls can be accessed by tapping on their icon on the screen, or by using the menu button on the bottom left. However, to get into a number of settings, you have to tap Home in the top left, settings in the bottom right, choosing one of four options, then scrolling through a couple of screens of choices. On the plus side, unlike a system based around buttons, you don't have to scroll through options individually; instead, there's a page up and page down button on the top right of the screen, so you only have to navigate to your chosen page, and the select the option.
| Shooting |
|
| Timer |
Off,10 second, 2 second |
| Macro | Auto, On, Close Focus Enabled |
| Flash |
On, Off |
| Rec mode |
Landscape, Soft Snap, Twilight Portrait, Twilight, Scene (gourmet, beach, snow, fireworks, underwater, hi-speed shutter), Auto, Program, Easy, High Sensitivity, Movie |
| White Balance | Auto, Sun, Cloud, Fluorescent 1, Fluorescent 2, Fluorescent 3, Tungsten |
| Image Size |
10M, 5M, 3M, VGA, 3:2, 16:9+, 16:9 |
| Face Detection |
When Touched, Auto, Child Priority, Adult Priority |
| EV |
±2 in 1/3 steps |
| SteadyShot |
Shooting, Continuous, Off |
| Focus |
Multi AF, Center AF, Spot AF, 1.0m, 3.0m, 7.0m , infinity |
| Metering Mode |
Multi, Center, Spot |
| ISO |
Auto, 80-3200 |
| Display |
Setup (normal, simple, image only), Histogram (on, off), Brightness (Bright, Normal) |
| Playback |
|
| Date List |
Date List |
| View Mode |
Date View, Even View, Favorites, Folder View |
| Filter By Faces |
Off, All People, Children, Infants, Smiles |
| Slideshow |
Image, FIlter By Faces, Effects, Music, Interval, Repeat |
| Scrapbook |
Background |
| Add/Remove Favorite |
This Image, Multiple Images |
| Add/Remove Sharemark |
This Image, Multiple Images |
| Retouch |
Trimming, Red Eye Correction, Unsharp Mask, Soft Focus, Partial Color, Fisheye Lens, Cross Filter, Radial Blur, Retro, Happy Face |
| Paint |
Brush, Erase, Stamp, Frame |
| Multi-Purpose Resize |
HDTV, Blog/E-mail |
| Delete |
This Image, Multiple Images, All in Date Range |
| Protect |
This Image, Multiple Images |
| DPOF |
This Image, Multiple Images |
| Print |
This Image, Multiple Images |
| Rotate |
Rotate |
| Volume Settings |
Volume Settings |
| Settings |
|
| Beep |
Shutter, On, Off |
| Function Guide |
On, Off |
| Initialize |
Off, Cancel |
| Calibration |
Calibration |
| Housing |
On, Off |
| Demo Mode |
On, Off |
| USB Connect |
Auto, PictBridge, PTP/MTP, Mass Storage |
| LUN Settings |
Multi, Single |
| Component |
HD (1080i), SD |
| Video |
NTSC, PAL |
| TV Type |
16:9, 4:3 |
| Password Lock |
On, Off |
| AF Illuminator |
Auto, Off |
| Grid Line |
On, Off |
| AF Mode |
Single, Monitor |
| Digital Zoom |
Smart, Precision, Off |
| Auto Orientation |
On, Off |
| Auto Review |
On, Off |
| Clock Settings |
Date, Time |
| Language Setting |
English, French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese (traditional), Chinese (simplified) |
Even though when shooting in Program Mode, the T700 has an overly layered menu system, when you scale it back onto a more automated method of shooting, it can be pretty simple to use. In addition to Auto Mode, there's an Easy Mode which removes all but the bare minimum of controls. While in this mode of utter simplification, the only control you are given is the self-timer (off, on), image size (large, small) and flash (auto, off). While shooting in non-Easy modes, there's also a function guide, so that whenever you click on a menu, a little guide will pop up and tell you what the function does.
| Page 7 of 15 | Modes | ||