Sony Cybershot DSC-T500 Digital Camera Review

As HD (720p) video recording in compact cameras has become more widespread, the Sony Cybershot DSC-T500 Digital Camera still offers one of the best video quality in an ultra-compact camera to date. The camera comes in a mostly metal body. The front cover slides down to reveal the optically stabilized lens (5x f3.5-4.4 33-165mm-equivalent) and stereo microphone. The whole body measures 3.9 inches wide by 2.4 inches high by 0.8 inch deep, but the little camera feels substantial with a weight of 6.2 ounces. The 3.5-inch touch-screen LCD is much larger than average ultra-compact screens with the physical controls placed on the top.

The Sony Cybershot DSC-T500’s touch screen controls are fairly responsive and provide access to the onscreen menus. The three onscreen menus along with the handful of controls that are accessible directly from the screen include flash, macro, timer, and resolution. Navigating the camera settings is easy enough. The Home menu gives access to all commonly used features. The Menu screen gives access context-sensitive options. For still photos you get a choice of Auto, Scene Selection and Program Auto (that gives control over color, white balance, burst, flash level, and bracketing modes. For recording videos, there are two shooting options: High Sensitivity and Auto mode. Both these modes offer controls for white balance, focus, and exposure compensation, but in Auto you also get sepia and black-and-white color options as well as the ability to change between multi-point and center metering.

Photos are sharp and detailed, presenting good color with white balance at ISO 80 and ISO 100. Video quality is quite impressive on the Sony Cybershot DSC-T500 at least in comparison to most compact cameras. Video taken outdoors in good lighting had little to no noticeable noise with good color and exposure. Videos taken indoors and in low-light situations on the other hand result in visible noise but this is not too distracting unless it’s very dim. In addition, you get full use of the 5x optical zoom during recording. A multi-output dock is included, with HDMI connections.

Shutter lag is good at 0.5 second in bright conditions and 0.7 in dim lighting conditions. The camera has a burst speed of 1.5fps. The time taken between turning on the camera and taking the first shot is 2.3 seconds. The shot-to-shot time in good lighting conditions is 2.7 seconds and the use of flash increases it to about 3.5 seconds.