Review: Sony Cyber-shot T10 digital camera

You would expect Sony to deliver the goods when it comes to stylish, well-crafted products, and the 7-megapixel Cyber-shot T10 digital compact is no exception.

It features a brushed steel casing and internally stacked 3x optical zoom lens with class-leading Carl Zeiss optics that at no point stands proud of its 21mm-slim body.

There’s also Super Steadyshot technology to avoid image blur when shooting in low light without flash – coupled with a high maximum light sensitivity setting of ISO1000. Close up macro snaps can also be taken 1cm away from your subject.

The lens is protected by a sliding metal faceplate that is easy to open accidentally – and so activate the camera – when sliding in or out of a pocket. Luckily, the camera powers down during periods of inactivity, prolonging the life of its rechargeable battery, good for up to 250 snaps.

As you’d expect from a lifestyle product, the Sony Cyber-shot T10 is very easy to use; slide open that faceplate, whereupon the 2.5in screen that dominates the camera back blinks into life, and point and shoot.

The shooting menu options, shown as a toolbar that runs along the bottom of the screen, are clear and self explanatory, while a press of the screen display button reveals a live histogram, a graph showing the areas of brightness across an image, so that perfectly exposed shots can be achieved.

There’s no optical viewfinder as an alternative means of framing images, just a slider switch above the screen for alternating between image playback or stills and video clip capture. Incidentally, Sony claims the T10 is the first of its compacts to feature a low light movie mode with a usable optical zoom.

Happily there’s no shutter delay to speak of when capturing the action, although the screen blanks out for just over a second while an image is being written to memory – either to its generous 56MB internal, or optional removable media in the shape of Sony’s Memory Stick Duo.

When it comes to image quality, there is some fringing visible between areas of high contrast, though it’s less noticeable than prior generations of Cyber-shots. Image noise also creeps in at ISO320 and above. Colours are more muted than we’ve been led to expect, though there is a ‘Vivid’ option in Program mode if, like us, you prefer greater saturation.

Other than that, pictures are reasonably sharp if there’s plenty of light available, though under direct sunlight there’s some loss of highlight detail (burnt out patches) and occasional lens flare.

While the T10 doesn’t feature anything we haven’t seen before, it looks good, is easy to operate, takes decent pictures and is reasonably swift at processing them. Those who merely want to point and shoot with the minimum of attendant fuss won’t be disappointed, though the flick-open faceplate is love it or hate it.

Also Consider
Casio Exilim Card EX-S770
Casio's desirably slim 7-megapixel compact camera boasting widescreen functionality

Canon Digital IXUS 65
A very stylish 6-megapixel snapshot camera with a large 3in screen and credit-card dimensions.

Nikon Coolpix L5
Sophisticated 7-megapixel snapshot camera with Vibration Reduction and Face Priority focusing

All digital camera reviews.

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