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More…The 8.1-megapixel Cyber-shot DSC-T70 from Sony is a compact point-and-shoot that feels solidly built. Unfortunately, you must navigate the camera's menu and controls via a 3-inch touch screen LCD (in wide-screen format). The panel is large, but the touch-screen controls are hard to press and annoying to use. My frustrations with it prompted no small amount of colorful language at times.
Sony DSC-T70
Pricing
Latest Price: $219.09
- Spec Navigator
- Digital Format
- Display
- Exposure
- Image Processor
- Lens
- Shutter
- Storage
- LCD Screen
- Exposure Controls
- Dimensions
- Power
- Flash
- Lens Features
- Connectivity
- Other Features
Image Processor
| Number of image sensor pixels | 8.1 megapixels |
| Image sensor | CCD |
| Maximum horizontal image resolution | 3264 |
| Maximum vertical image resolution | 2448 |
| Image sensor quantity | 1 |
| Image format | JPEG |
| White balance | 0 |
Lens
| Accessory Lens | No |
| Lens Model | Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar |
| Telephoto Aperture Maximum | 3.5 mm |
| Wide-Angle Aperture Maximum | 3.5 mm |
Exposure Controls
| Maximum shutter speed | 1000 |
| Minimum shutter speed | 0.25 |
| Bulb setting | 0 |
| ISO equivalencies |
|
| Exposure settings | 0 |
| Exposure compensation range | 0 |
| Number of scene modes | 10 |
- Lab Tested
- How We Test Cameras »
Pros
High ISO capability
Can shoot in 16-by-9 format
Cons
Touchscreen controls hard to press
Bottom Line
The DSC-T70 looks flashy, but its image quality leaves room for improvement, and we found its touchscreen frustrating to use.
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T70 Compact Digital Camera
DSC-T70 Review, by Greg Adler November 26, 2007
The camera's slim, minimalist design is attractive, and it has a thumb grip on its right side perfectly placed to make holding it steady easier. The only real buttons on the camera are on the top side. There you'll find a small power button and a small review button, which I found hard to press, though the larger shutter-release button worked very well. To the right of the shutter button, a small sliding button operates the camera's zoom. I found my finger often slipping off this latter button, and there was a lag between my pressing the button and the camera actually zooming in or out.
But I didn't dislike everything about this camera. The DSC-T70's ISO range of 80 to 3200 is above average compared with most of its competitors (a few reach ISO 6400). The camera also offers the ability to shoot still images in 16:9 mode, which is great for displaying on an HDTV or a wide-screen monitor. It also has a movie mode that captures 640-by-480 video in MPEG 4 format, but I was disappointed that I was limited to the 4:3 width in shooting videos.
The DSC-T70 has plenty of scene modes, including ones for fireworks, high brightness, water (to bring out blues), high speed, landscape, low light, portraits, soft background, and a new mode that Sony calls Smiles. Similar to a feature found on Olympus models, the camera in this mode takes a picture when it recognizes a smile. You can set the "smile level" to high, medium, or low depending on whether it's a smirk or laugh that you're trying to capture. I did not find this feature particularly useful, though.
One limitation of the camera is that it has no manual white balance setting--only presets.
In the PC World Test Center, the DSC-T70 scored about average for image quality and for battery life. It consistently ranked in the middle on our image-quality subcategories, except for a high score in our image quality distortion test. The camera was able to last 290 shots before the battery died from its full charge--almost exactly the average for the compact cameras we tested in the same batch.
For $300 (as of 11/07/2007), there are other point-and-shoot cameras--such as the Fujifilm FinePix F50fd or the Casio Exilim EX-Z1080--that will produce better images. The Sony DSC-T70 will surely turn heads with its slick design. However, the wow factor that the unique touch screen provides may quickly wear off, leaving you with an irritating camera that takes only average pictures.
For other, similar digital cameras, see our chart of Top 10 Compact Cameras.
--Greg Adler
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PCWorld Lab Results
- Rating Breakdown
-
76
-
68
-
76
- See Complete Lab Results »
Performance Comparison with Similar Cameras
76
77
75
81
Performance
| Battery Life (minutes) | 158 |
| Battery Life Score | Good |
| Image Quality Score | Good |
| Image Quality, Color | 54.8 |
| Image Quality, Distortion | 64.1 |
| Image Quality, Exposure | 56.5 |
| Image Quality, Exposure--Flash | 48.5 |
| Image Quality, Exposure--Normal | 60 |
| Image Quality, Overall | 50.4 |
| Image Quality, Sharpness | 46.3 |
| Number of Batteries | 1 |
| Number of Shots | 290 |
User Reviews
Review Now! Already own it? Tell us What You Think
User Reviews From Around the Web
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Reviewed by: phieubac
Strengths: large screen, nice design, small and slim
Weaknesses: no date on picture.
Overall: We bought this camera dsc t70 after we have lost our very slim DSC-T7 silver. Overall, We very happy with it because it is slim and easy to use. However, my girlfriend often complain about its touchscreen. It's hard for her to change the function when she has the fake nails. Also I hope Sony will put the function date on picture on the next general camera, so we would know when we take the picture.
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Reviewed by: gbqa1
Strengths: seems good, great in pixel
Weaknesses: wealk inzoom
Overall: checking whether how this both works canon A720 and this, have to verify the features in deeply, seems still it not meet the minimum length comment is 150 chars, so adding something to check my review how it looks??
-
Reviewed by: ssubs
Strengths: Touchscreen, lightweight and feature-rich.
Weaknesses: Options menu is not intuitive, poor performance in low light.
Overall: This camera is light and has a large 3" screen. This was my first experience with the Sony touchscreen and had some initial difficulty with the options menu. This camera performs well in well-lit areas, but in low light, the image quality is quite poor. Overall, I like the design of this camera.
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Reviewed by: anjalinaik
Strengths: very good
Weaknesses: night time picture comes with red eye
Overall: this is is very good product. its very thin and slim camera. we can put it in our pocket. pictures comes bright at night time. its touch panel camera. so we can do paintand everything.
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Reviewed by:
Strengths: cute look
Weaknesses: weak picture quality
Overall: Totally agree that this camera does not worth a penny. It is not what I expected at all. The picture was not clear and sharp and you have to adjust everytime. I am not happy with it at all
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