Cons: Proprietary memory format, price, touchscreen
The Bottom Line: The Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-T200 is a good choice if you want a ultra-compact, cool yet capable camera with 8-Megapixel resolution, 5x optical zoom with...
dkozin's Full Review: Sony Cyber-shot® DSC-T200 Digital Camera
The new Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-T200 is very similar to the previous model (Sony T100), but features some important improvements. Always expensive, Sony T-line cameras have historically been stylish and produced good picture quality. But they frequently had shortcomings related to their compact size, e.g. weak flash.
What Is Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-T200?
The Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-T200 is a super-compact 8-Megapixel stylish digital camera with metal case, a 5x Carl Zeiss optical stabilized zoom (35-175mm equivalent with maximum aperture of f/3.5 (wide), f/4.4-10 (telephoto)), a huge 3.5-inch LCD touchscreen with 230,000 pixels of resolution, powered by a compact rechargeable battery (model NP-BD1).
The T200 features 31 MB of built-in memory and can store pictures on a Sony-proprietary Sony Memory Stick Duo or Memory Stick Pro Duo. The camera also features fast USB 2.0 Hi-Speed connection to PC and Mac computers.
The face recognition (with a special “smile” mode, which detects and captures smiles) a Bionz processor and touchscreen interface are finishing touches on this, not-so-cheap (at about $330 street price currently) model. The camera is available in multiple colors, including silver, black and red.
Usage
The T200 is compact, looks pretty nice (although I prefer the look of Canon SD cameras) and feels rather durable. Its silver buttons and overall design make it look more hi-tech and expensive (which it is). The absence of controls on the back, panel (which is taken by the huge 3.5-inch touchscreen) appears to have been inspired by iPhone envy.
Just as the previous generations of the Sony T-line, this model has a fixed lens that does not extend from the body, but does zooming and focusing internally. The lens cover opens when the camera is powered on. When the camera is powered off, the lens cover closes. Because there is no need for the camera to extend the lens, the startup time is minimal - less than 1 second.
The T200 can be powered on by sliding the little lid on the front panel down, exposing the lens. It is powered off when you slide the lid up, covering the lens with it. It is the same arrangement that the original Sony T1 (and the subsequent models) had.
The top deck has a shutter release button as well as a power button, playback button and the zoom control. The battery and Memory Stick Duo card share the same compartment. The secondary controls are replaced by the touchscreen on the rear panel. The LCD touch-sensitive monitor is as cool as it is difficult to use.
The camera comes with InfoLithium-type compact battery, which is compact and therefore cannot compete with the larger batteries (for larger cameras) in terms of capacity.
Like the previous Sony T cameras, this model is easy to use (with one caveat). Although I have not read the manual (I have not even opened it), I was able to use the camera and all its features in no time. The camera can be used by any member of the family and by photographers of all levels of expertise from novices to advanced ones (albeit with not much manual control). The only problem is its touchscreen.
Although the touchscreen is intuitive and ditto the menu system, the lack of hard buttons provides for slower adjustments. When I feel buttons under my fingers, I can adjust settings with more confidence, than when there are no real buttons (but virtual buttons are used). And it takes too many steps to adjust some things.
The T200 comes pre-set to Auto mode. You do not have to do anything other than point and shoot - the camera takes care of the rest. The smart autofocus works well. You press the shutter release button halfway to make camera focus (the camera shows you that it focused and beeps to confirm focus) and then you take the picture by pressing the shutter release button all the way.
The camera has face detection technology that helps it understand where it should focus (as well as what kind of white balance and other parameters to use) in scenes with people. It also has a special “smile” mode, where it waits until the person smiles and takes a picture exactly when needed. The Bionz processor (used in Sony Alpha digital SLR cameras) is used to improve performance.
The optical image stabilization is present, which is an important feature for a miniature camera with 5x optical zoom. The lighter the camera and the less convenient it is to hold, the more chance of shake creating blurry pictures. Image stabilization takes care of that aspect well.
You zoom in and out by using the zoom control on the top deck. The camera has no viewfinder but its huge 3.5-inch LCD screen is accurate and fluid (slightly less fluid in the dark). The screen has good visibility in sunlight.
If you want more control, you can select one of the scene modes (Portrait, Landscape, etc.). And for even more control, you can select Program mode, in which you can select ISO, white balance, exposure compensation, metering mode, etc.
Performace
Whether or not the Bionz plays a role here, the camera is very fast in operation. It takes about a second to power itself on in either review or shooting mode. It feels almost instantaneous. It can capture images at about two per second in burst mode. In single-frame mode, the camera could snap pictures as fast as I could push the shutter release button - about one a second. The focusing takes much less than a second and the shutter lag, when pre-focused, is almost unnoticeable. The zooming is somewhat slow, but smooth and lets you fine-tune your composition.
The burst mode takes photos at slightly more than one per second.
More on Features and Controls
The camera uses a very small rechargeable battery that looks like a cell phone battery. The battery can be charged outside the camera and has a claimed capacity of 680 mAh. I was able to take 140 photos with no sign of complete battery depletion.
The T200 has a bright low-light focus assist illuminator that helps it focus in low light. It appears that the camera uses a two-step type aperture with no fine control over aperture. The camera doesn't let you control the aperture or the shutter speed directly, but even if you select landscape mode or try shooting in different lighting conditions, you will soon discover that your resultant photos have only one of two aperture values at any given focal length, which is typical for a compact camera and does not create any issues.
You can use the exposure compensation in the Program mode and it comes in handy in some situations. There are a bunch of scene modes as well, which help the camera tweak the focusing and exposure settings according to the type of scene.
Flash
Just as expected from its compact size, the battery used and the past experience with Sony T cameras, the flash is rather weak. It has uneven coverage (illuminates the center of the frame more than the corners) and has an effective range of less than 9 feet. It has a recycle time of only about 4-6 seconds. Rather fast for the camera size but the flash is pretty weak. Still, the camera can compensate for it using higher ISO settings and/or longer exposure (image stabilization helps to keep images sharp at longer exposures).
Image Quality
The camera produces contrasty photos that have a pleasing color with slight oversaturation (by default) and a slight warm cast. The dynamic range (despite the use of Bionz image processor and so-called D-Range Optimizer) is limited, but it is comparable to other cameras in this size and price range.
The camera has good optics for its size. The 5x optical zoom lens has some vices such as the slight corner softness, minimal chromatic aberrations, slight barrel distortion at wide angle and pincushion at telephoto. But these issues are rather small and controllable.
For example, corners of the frame normally do not make it to the actual print (because of the different aspect ratio of the print and other factors). Geometric distortions are not very noticeable and are non-existent in the middle of the zoom range.
Aside from these minor issues, the camera produces sharp images that are also colorful and pleasing. The noise at lower ISO (80-100) is absent, appears at ISO 200 and grows rather rapidly at higher ISO levels, starting with ISO 400. Still, the camera produces usable photos at up to ISO 3200. Usable, but I would limit myself to ISO 80-200 for larger prints and ISO 400-800 for smaller ones.
Build Quality and Ergonomics
The camera has a solid feel and good build quality. The major controls are within easy reach and the tactile response is good overall.
LCD
The 3.5-inch non-articulated (fixed) touch-sensitive LCD screen has 100% coverage - you can see exactly what will be recorded. The LCD is bright, fluid (unless it is dark), has good visibility in sunlight or darkness and good resolution (230K pixels).
Movie Mode
The camera offers you three movie modes: 320x240, 640x480 and 640x480 high quality. The supplied memory card didn't let me use the High Quality 640x480, but the standard 640x480 was OK. It is rather fluid.
Computer Connectivity
The camera uses USB 2.0 Hi-Speed connection to transfer pictures to a computer. You can also remove the Memory Stick Duo memory card and use a memory card reader (if you have one). The camera comes with an adapter for Memory Stick Duo to be used with regular Memory Stick devices.
I used the camera with the supplied USB cable and was very impressed. The file transfer is extremely fast at about 9,000-11,000 KB/s, which is not something I recall seeing in cameras of other manufacturers. I did not use the software that was provided with the camera since I have Adobe Photoshop CS2 and use it when I want to edit my photos.
Bottom Line
The Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-T200 is a good choice if you want a ultra-compact, cool yet capable camera with 8-Megapixel resolution, 5x optical zoom with image stabilization and huge LCD touchscreen screen that produces good photos with print sizes of up 13x19 inches. Its touchscreen might be a good conversation piece, although do not expect it to be as cutting-edge as iPhone’s and it is not as efficient as regular buttons. The T200 is fast, capable and easy to use, as long as you are OK with its touchscreen-only menus.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 325 This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Easy Enough for Anyone to Use
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