Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX20 Digital Camera Review

Lens & Sensor

The TX20's small lens is situated at the upper right corner of the front panel, behind an oversized sliding lens cover. This cover was one of our biggest criticisms of the TX10, and it has not been fixed. It's nearly impossible to get any sort of traction on this smooth surface, and although some of the model's colors have texture (such as our green one), the whole thing is just comically slippery. When your camera is a pain simply to turn on, that's a problem.

The position of the lens is another major issue. It's directly behind where the left fingertips want to be, and you'll accidentally obscure the frame many times before acclimating.

Display(s)

All of the rear panel is taken up by a 3-inch, 16:9 touchscreen monitor. We generally hate touchscreens, but more on that later.... This is a gorgeous display, but responsiveness is slow and this makes shooting moving objects almost impossible. Glare is also a problem and default brightness isn't sufficient for outdoor shooting in full daylight. A menu setting can improve this, but no automatic option is available.

Connectivity

Two ports are available on right side of the body, underneath weather-sealed gaskets. There's a miniHDMI port here, for streaming content directly to a TV (great for AVCHD videos), as well as a proprietary USB port for connectivity with a computer.