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Details at a glance
Megapixels: 5.1
Optical Zoom: 3x
Digital Zoom: 6x
LCD screen: 2.5inch
Storage: MSPro, MSProDuo
Size: 93.5(w) x 60(h) x 20(d)
Weight:139g
We clicked with
Style, small size without being too fiddly
Shots in the dark
Flash distance and coverage
Have to remove the battery to charge it
Links
More Sony information
www.sony.co.uk
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The good-looking T5 was released in the UK shortly after its slim little brother, the DSC-T7, and suffers to an extent in that it looks bloated compared to that marvel of miniaturisation. But a short time getting acquainted with the T5 is all that's need to discover that sometimes bigger is better.
What you get are exceedingly svelte good looks, excellent point-and-shoot snaps and the ability to manually fine-tune settings for more advanced users. All this and a raft of video features make this a compelling package.
Feel the form
This is bigger than the T7 but hardly a monster. It will easily fit in a pocket or handbag and a quick straw poll this morning showed that the sleek style and form is generally considered better looking that the T7. With a slightly thicker and longer shell there is more space around the excellent LCD screen to place buttons, and that makes it a good degree easier to operate. The profile of the buttons is sufficiently rounded and raised to be sought out by eager fingertips.
The Carl Zeiss Vario Tessar lens is contained within the body in all modes, further enhancing the sylph-like form. Another advantage of the slightly larger size is that you get a standard tripod mount, making macro pictures in particular a lot easier to take. Also, the camera can be powered from the mains, using the supplied multi-function cable and adapter, although the battery has to be removed from the camera in order to charge it.
Fully featured
Picture quality is appropriate for the size and price of the camera, and at 5.1 megapixels it'll satisfy semi-pro needs, but it's not going to compete with larger cameras. When using the wide angle to the max, the picture will pincushion to an extent, and at the furthest tele setting, barrel distortion is visible, more so with pictures with a lot of vertical lines at the borders. Large blocks of colour may show some noise at the lower end of the sensitivity range.
For those that want to challenge the camera's assumptions, there are nine scene modes (it's actually ten but one is the 'super-macro' magnifying glass option), manually adjustable sensitivity from ISO64 to 400 and three focus methods including a pre-set function.
Sony have put a lot of effort into speeding up processing for exposure and focus, and this helps the battery last relatively well, they expect you to get around 200 shots per charge, or 150 mins in playback mode.
Video functionality is extensive, you can film in sepia and b&w, and even crop your clips on the camera. The camera comes with 32Mb of internal memory and accepts Sony Memory Stick Duo™ cards.
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Ease of use 
Functions 
Value for Money
Overall 
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A quick browse on the Internet shows a wide variety of prices for this model so it's worth digging around for the best price. It's not going to take the finest quality pictures, but for that you need to be looking at a much larger, more expensive camera. Picture quality should be sufficient for the vast majority of amateur digital camera users out there and it's a very attractive design. |
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