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Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-T99 review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £200
inc VAT

The smart design and touchscreen aren’t enough to make up for poor image quality.

Specifications

1/2.3in 14.1-megapixel sensor, 4.0x zoom (25-100mm equivalent), 105g

http://www.play.com

Sony knows how to make a good looking camera. As with all of its T-series models, the T99’s lens sits behind a sliding panel that doubles as a power switch. For reasons we can’t quite explain, this design is immensely satisfying. The back of the camera is filled by a 3in touchscreen, and the overall effect is one of sleek, understated sophistication. The downside is that there’s not much to hold onto. We found that fingers sometimes crept in front of the lens as we did our best to grip its curved shell.

The touchscreen controls are responsive and sensibly laid out. The widescreen shape leaves black margins to the left and right of the preview image but this space is used to good effect with customisable buttons for the most-often used controls. Touch-for-spot focus is included, although it doesn’t track moving subjects.

Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-T99

Sony’s excellent Sweep Panorama mode lets the user capture a panoramic image simply by slowly rotating the camera. There’s also a Soft Skin mode, which applied a horrific airbrushed effect to faces. Other recent Sony innovations are conspicuously absent. The WX5 and TX9, launched at the same time, offer a 3D version of Sweep Panorama, but that’s not included here. Nor is Anti Motion Blur, which on other recent Sony compact cameras superimposes multiple exposures to reduce noise. Video capture is limited to 720p, whereas 1080i is increasingly common in the Sony line-up. Video quality was generally impressive but noise was a problem in most conditions and wide-angle clips exhibited heavy barrel distortion – something that’s corrected digitally for photos but not videos.

The camera was quick to switch on and to focus but pictures took almost two seconds to appear on the screen after capture. This contributed to a shot-to-shot time of 3.5 seconds – almost twice what we’d expect. Continuous mode started enthusiastically at 1.4fps but slowed almost immediately to 0.5fps. Image previews ran behind by three shots in continuous mode, which made attempting to adjust the composition extremely confusing.

Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-T99 rear

Lacklustre performance was matched by mediocre image quality. Photos were plagued by image noise, which manifested itself as multicoloured blotches in darker parts of photos and smeared details due to aggressive noise reduction in brighter areas. These problems were visible when shooting outdoors and fairly catastrophic in indoor photos. Take a look at our sample shots in our gallery

The Panasonic FS10 costs around £100 and produced far sharper, smoother photos. We also found that the autofocus assist lamp was so bright that it annoyed our subjects in indoor portraits. Automatic exposures were well judged, though, and skin tones looked natural under artificial light. Colours were rich in brightly lit conditions but become under-saturated as the ISO speed rose.

The T99 is typical of the current crop of mid-price ultra-compact cameras. £200 is far from mid-price, though. The touchscreen has clearly bumped up the price, but image quality and performance have been left far behind.

Basic Specifications

Rating **
CCD effective megapixels 14.1 megapixels
CCD size 1/2.3in
Viewfinder none
Viewfinder magnification, coverage N/A
LCD screen size 3.0in
LCD screen resolution 230,400 pixels
Articulated screen No
Live view Yes
Optical zoom 4.0x
Zoom 35mm equivalent 25-100mm
Image stabilisation optical, sensor shift
Maximum image resolution 4,320×3,240
Maximum movie resolution 1280×720
Movie frame rate at max quality 30fps
File formats JPEG; MPEG-4

Physical

Memory slot SDXC, Memory Stick Pro Duo
Mermory supplied 32MB internal
Battery type Li-ion
Battery Life (tested) 230 shots
Connectivity USB, AV, component
HDMI output resolution N/A
Body material aluminium
Lens mount N/A
Focal length multiplier N/A
Kit lens model name N/A
Accessories USB/AV cable
Weight 105g
Size 93x17x56mm

Buying Information

Warranty one-year RTB
Price £200
Supplier http://www.play.com
Details www.sony.co.uk

Camera Controls

Exposure modes auto
Shutter speed auto
Aperture range f/3.5 to f/4.6
ISO range (at full resolution) 80 to 3200
Exposure compensation +/- 2EV
White balance auto, 7 presets, manual
Additional image controls dynamic range
Manual focus No
Closest macro focus 1cm
Auto-focus modes multi, centre, spot, face detect
Metering modes multi, centre, spot, face detect
Flash auto, forced, suppressed, slow synchro, red-eye reduction
Drive modes single, continuous, self-timer, smile detect