Review on Sony Cybershot DSC-T700 Grey Digital Camera - 10MP with 4x Optical Zoom and Super Steady Shot Image Stabilization by Fernando Marshall

I had a SONY DSC-T100, the first generation of Sony's ultra-compact digital camera of this type. After several iterations, I was hoping that Sony would improve the picture quality. In some areas, usability has improved significantly. Likes: - The touch screen is very easy to use. You can even touch an object on the screen to tell the camera to focus on the object. - Smile detection is good in daylight. - Optical zoom and autofocus work in movie mode, which is very handy for those who need a really useful movie mode. - The in-camera editing tools are pretty handy. Amazing Ease of Use - 4GB of internal storage is a huge plus. I will never need an extra memory card. I take all my photos in 3:2 aspect ratio (3MB+ per photo), the internal memory can hold about 996 shots. That's enough for me. I usually upload photos to my computer every day. Dislikes: - Smile detection doesn't work on indoor shots as it disables red-eye reduction. This makes sense because red-eye reduction slows down the shot and may miss a smile. - The battery life is very short. If you even have to go on a day trip, you'll definitely need an extra battery. So these are the costs that you should consider before buying this camera. - Focusing accuracy indoors with flash is poor. I've found this to be true for most ultra-compact cameras, including the Canon 1100. Even with successful face detection, images often show blurred objects with a clear background. This applies to my old Sony DSC-T100. Seems Sony hasn't addressed this issue after so many generations of the Tx00 series. So be sure to snap some flash shots. - White spots on some night shots. Too bad. The camera flash is too close to the lens. When the flash fires at reflective dust in the air, white spots appear on people's hair, or a kind of blank space appears in your shots. It ruins a beautiful picture. - High noise level when shooting at night (with or without flash) Finally, after 3 weeks of use, I sent the camera back. We no longer have ultra-compact cameras. I hope this review helps potential buyers. Try shooting in any light and see for yourself if the noise level is acceptable to you. Cameras with high pixels generate relatively more noise. Overall, Sony hasn't improved anything in terms of image quality since the DSC-T100.