Hands on experience/mini review: Sony Cyber-shot T500

A note to regular readers: The reason I'm not writing in Norwegian in this post is that I've just bought a small P&S camera.  When trying to decide whether to buy it I didn't find any reviews of it, neither in Norwegian or English.  So I write this mini review in English for those who are trying to decide on the Sony T500 and -- like me -- are looking for reports of some real life experiences with the camera.

AFTER READING THIS MINI-REVIEW, BE SURE TO READ MY SONY T500 FOLLOW-UP/MINI-REVIEW PART II WHERE I TRY TO ANSWER MOST OF THE QUESTIONS I'VE GOT FROM READERS OF THIS MINI-REVIEW.

The Sony Cyber-shot T500

What this is not. I'm not a camera reviewer.  I'm a consumer. So this isn't really a review.  At best it's a mini review.  I'm not particularily interested in providing detailed description of menus, functionality, number of shots per charge, scientific measurement of noise at different ISO levels, etc. Since I'm not reviewing loads of these cameras, my judgement vould be void of perspective. 

But what I thought I'd do is to give you a little insight in my impressions of this camera so far. 

About the camera. The Sony Cyber-shot is a point and shoot camera featuring very little manual control.  This is not and is not intended to be the feinsmecker's P&S (for that group you have cameras such as the Panasonic LX3).  This camera seems to be made for the design concious crowd who either wants simplicity or a camera that promises to do HD video just as good as it does still photos.

Main features:

• 10 Megapixels, 1/2.3 inch sensor
• 5x zoom lens (33-165 equivalent)
• SuperSteadyShot (image stabilization)
• HD Video recording capability.  1280x720 (720p) 30 fps AVC/H.264 (AVCHD) codec, AAC/MP4 stereo sound
• A slew of automatic modes, with some manual override (exposure compensation, ISO control)
• A choice of red, grey or black camera bodies
• Stylish design with 3,5 inch touch screen. Apart from the bare essentials such as shutter release and zoom, everything is controlled with the touch screen
• Price (approx.): NOK 2800 / USD 400 / GBP 260 / EUR 345

Looking at the features the camera seems basic, at least when it's judged as a still camera.  The three features separating the T500 from the crowd seems to be HD video, touch screen functionality and design. 

The box
 

What's in the box
 

Lots of manuals - lots of languages

In the box. For being such a small camera (just a little wider than a deck of cards and approximately as thick), the box is quite big.  Not unnescessarily so, because it's filled with content.  Apart from the camera itself, the box contains the following hardware: A battery, a battery charger, a power chord (not needed in the US), a USB cable, a video cable and a docking station.  

There are also manuals in more languages than you will ever need.  My box contained manuals in English, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Polish, Czheck. Hungarian and Slovakian. There's also a CD-ROM with some bundled software (picture motion browser and a music transfer program) and an expanded version of the printed manual.

What's not in the box. The camera uses Sony's proprietary Memory Stick memory cards instead of the more common SD or CF cards.  Some webshops bundles it with a card, so be sure to check whether yours are before buying.

The supplied docking station will let you connect your camera to your computer with the supplied USB cable, if you prefer to transfer your pictures that way.  The camera do not have a mini USB jack, so using the docking station is the only way to transfer pictures via USB.  (You can of course use a card reader for tranfering pictures too)

The docking station is also what you use when you want to watch pictures and videos on your TV.  You can either use the supplied video cable or buy an optional HDMI cable to do this.  An HDMI cable will give much better video on a modern television, and given that one metre of HDMI cable costs virtually nothing now I'm puzzled as to why Sony hasn't included one.

You can't charge your camera while it's docked, even if you've bought the optional AC adapter.  So you'll be forced to lug around both the docking station and the battery charger while travelling, unless you bring a card reader or you have a notebook with an integrated Memory Stick reader (by chance I happen to have one of these myself).

Worth noting is that although the software bundle on the CD includes video editing functionality, it's Windows only. I haven't tested it, so I don't know if it's any good.  Third-party Windows software supporting AVCHD files also exists; Adobe Premiere Elements 7 is one such software package (costs around $100). If you're using a Mac, most Macs are bundled with the iMovie software.  Recent versions of that can read and edit the AVCHD files created by the T500. 

Halfway there: Tapping, not sliding.

Is this the iPhone of cameras? The stripped down and buttonless appearance due to the gigantic touch screen makes a comparison with the iPhone inevitable. The question is: Is it the iPhone of cameras?

The answer is: No, it's not.  Yes it's touch based but the GUI is as inelegant as they come these days.  The T500 menu system is far less graphical than the iPhone's.  It's largely text based and hierarchical and rather confusing for at newcomer to the camera.  (I imagine that the menu system will be familiar to owners of previous Cyber-shots)

While the screen's touch sensitive, the touching isn't used for anything useful other than registering clicks.  For instance, zooming a picture is neither gesture based nor a two finger operation like the iPhone has.  You have to tap + and - buttons several times.  When using exposure compensation, the natural reaction is to try to drag the compensation slider around.  But again you have to click + and - buttons. Now, a user interface is traditionally largely about clicking, so this isn't bad in and of itself.  But there are areas where other paradigms than clicking could have been used with success on this device (sliding, navigating, rotating, etc.). There are places where Sony has tried to implement sliding, but fails.  In theory you should be able to navigate around on a zoomed picture in playback mode by sliding your finger, but the navigation is short and erratic. 

The best use of the touch interface for me so far is the ability to guide the autofocus engine and setting the wanted focus point with your thumb while taking photographs.  This is something different from a simple digitalization of analog buttons.  Another good thing is that the screen can be used for providing buttons when you need more than you usually do.  When recording a video the shutter release functions like a camcorders start/stop button.  But while recording video, you can still grab still shots.  This you do by tapping a button on-screen. 

But apart for these few highlights the touch capability is barely touched upon by Sony's engineers (pun intended).  The main attraction of the touch screen is that the screen has got the space it needs to become bigger.  Measuring 3.5 inches the screen is big and beautiful.  And most important: Since this camera tries the best it can to be a video camera, the screen has the size it needs to be a good screen both for recording and playback.  Hopefully Sony will have learned more about what they can and should be used for and how they should be used in the next generation of touch screen cameras.

But the camera looks good, doesn't it?  Oh yes it does.  If you ignore the user interface on the touch screen, the camera is the iPhone of cameras.  When the lid is closed the front of the camera is completely minimal.  A smooth surface and a Sony logo.  That's it.  The back is just as bare bones, since the back practically isn't anything but a screen.  And the top plate has centered all it's functions around the release button; zooming is there as is the function that switches the camera from photo to video mode.  The on/off button is almost invisible. 

In short this has to be one of the most minimalistic and beautiful cameras ever made (I bought the red version; I usually mislike red, but I think it looks good on Ferraris and this camera).  When the lid is opened some of the minimalistic apperance disappears: Opening the lid exposes a lens, a flash and (in this case) stereo microphones.  But you really can't fault a camera design for being a camera :-) 

But most important is the fact that it fits in a pocket (although it will bulge a little if you wear real tight jeans) and it'll fit even the most minimalistic purse.  It's portable and it looks good. 

The Sony Cyber-shot T500 is perfectly capable of beautiful pictures -- even using ISO 400.
 

100 % crop of the above picture. Not noisy in a way that's disturbing at all. Noise reduction is very visible, though, and viewed at this magnification the picture seems a little soft.  But that's only apparent when you're pixel peeping.

Image quality. As I said I won't be trying to measure the quality aspects in an objective or technical way.  What I can say, however, is that the image quality is satisfying.  It hasn't got DSLR quality but no P&S has (with the possible exception of the discontinued Sony R1 and the Sigma DP1).

I've tried using the camera in a variety of lighting conditions, and I feel that it delivers good pictures all around.  The camera performs best in good light and pictures become noisy in low light (full auto brings the camera to high ISO levels when needed). 

If you look at your pictures at 100 % magnification, you'll notice that the pictures are victims of relatively heavy handed noise reduction. This may annoy the most zealous pixel peepers; the rest of us probably won't notice the noise reduction or even care about it if we notice.

In my experience visible noise at high ISO and even visible noise reduction at high ISO is quite common for digital P&S's.  So I'm not surprised about this.  I would judge this camera as a camera of normal 2008 P&S quality: It's light years ahead of cell phone cameras while it will be beaten on IQ by any modern DSLR.

A little more disturbing is the hit-and-miss quality of auto white balance: If you're adventurous and turn flash off indoors, you will discover that the auto white balance function struggles now and then.  What's interesting -- and I'm sure it's not a feature -- is that the camera sometimes selects different white balances if you snap several exposures of the same motive.  If you really care about WB and flash off, you're better off selecting one of the preset white balances (fluorescent, lamp light, cloudy, etc). 

You might say that this is a weakness, but I'm not sure if it's a real weakness: If you're the kind of person that turns off flash and fiddles with ISO levels, then you're also the kind of person who should prefer to set your own white balance.

I'm not making excuses for Sony here, I'm just saying that I'm not sure this weakness will be relevant for that many users.

Video quality.  I haven't used a video camera since the DV cameras of the mid-90's.  Compared to those cameras video quality is just stunning (and I remember how good DV was compared to Hi-8)!  I really can't fault it at all.  I'm not suggesting that you could film the next Barry Lyndon on this camera.  You can't.  But for recording memories, typical family stuff and travel snippets, this camera will do.

You should note this before deciding on the T500: The maximum length of clips are 10 minutes but there's no limit to the number of clips you can store on a Memory Stick except for the size of the Memory Stick itself.  You can take still photos while you record videos, but for some reason maximum three pictures per clip.  Since the still images are 1280x720, just as the video is, you could just as well extract as many frames as you like from from the video itself.

I'm not bothered at all by the 10 minute limit -- in my opinion video should be edited anyway.  But if you're thinking of recording your children's school plays in their entirety you may be bugged by this limitation.

The audio is better than audio from any other P&S I've tried, largely due to the fact that the camera has stereo microphones.  In that way audio is remarkable.  The microphones seems to have more than enough sensitivity for covering a normal living room range.  I guess that's the arena this camera is targeted at.  I'm satisfied with the sound, but just as you shouldn't expect Barry Lyndon video quality you won't get a professional grade sound mix from the built-in microphones.  Both audio and video seems to be of good amateur quality, and that's what it's supposed to be too.

Sony CyberShot T500 Footage from Michael Niles on Vimeo.

On the whole the video functionality is great.  What's most amazing is that you can get all this into a package that doesn't weigh more than a cell phone and is the size of a deck of cards.  The battery is so small that you can bring a spare in your wallet!  Home video have come far since my days with DV cameras in the 90's.

I'm a novice with video editing software, so I haven't been able to put together anything useful for you to see yet.  But take a look at the video by Michaels Niles (embedded here or take a look at the full size HD version on Vimeo). The quality is amazing considering the video's shot with a P&S camera.

Battery life. This is the area where I think the T500 will get most complaints.  The manual states that the battery should be capable of 160 shots as measured with the CIPA standard.  But I can assure you that you won't ever be able to get 160 shots from it.  That's not because Sony is lying to us, but because the big screen and the video capability will make you use this camera very differently from the CIPA tests.

You will be recording video.  A lot.  Video recording virtually bleeds the battery.  The processor works hard to update the screen continously, encode all that video and move it to the memory card.  Then you'll play it back.  It's easy to forget is that playback of video consumes nearly as much power as recording do.  Playback is essentially recording in reverse. So if you shoot 15 minutes of video, play it back once or twice and snap a dozen shots, you'll probably find that your battery is drained.  I can't really fault Sony for this, because a usage pattern like that is very different from how I handle my SLR and previous P&S cameras.  Battery life should therefore not be the factor that puts you off the Sony. 

If you don't think you'll use the video function at all, you'll probably be satisfied with battery life and have little or no need for a spare battery.  But let's face it: If video didn't interest you, you probably wouldn't spend this amount on what's at core is a satisfying but unexceptional P&S still camera. You will be using it as a video camera and you will be using that capability a lot more than you probably think.  Therefore you should buy an extra battery together with your camera.  I didn't and I regret it already. 

Summary. In the end it all comes down to this: If you're in the probably not too big group of people who want a decent P&S camera with good HD video recording capability, then you're also willing to accept this camera's shortcomings (of which battery life is the biggest).  If you don't care about video, there are equally good still cameras to be found at 2/3 or less of the T500's price. 

Pros	Cons
Great HD Video recording capability	Lots of functionality drains battery; comparatively long charge time (approx 2 hrs)
Large, beautiful screen	The touch interface's shortcomings becomes apparent when you delve into the advanced functions. They're not hard to use; it's just that the iPhone've shown us how touch could be use to make things easier. I also suspect that the touch screen will become difficult to use in cold weather (as is the case with the iPhone).
The minimalist design isn't just about great looks: It helps make this the easiest to use P&S I've come across (as long as you use it as a P&S or camcorder without using any advanced functionality; when you dive into the menus, the camera becomes a little more complicated to use)

 

Updates.

• I've noticed some purple fringing, but within acceptable levels.
• I've started a set over on Flickr containing test shots from this camera (stills only).
• In full auto, the camera never selects higher ISO than 400 even though it's theoretically capable of ISO speeds up to 3200. 
• Yep, the battery life will drive you crazy.  Buy a spare.
• The battery door is a little flimsy.  I've experienced several times that it flips open when it's in my pocket.

PLEASE PROCEED TO MY SONY T500 FOLLOW-UP/MINI-REVIEW PART II WHERE I TRY TO ANSWER MOST OF THE QUESTIONS I'VE GOT FROM READERS OF THIS MINI-REVIEW.

Comments

[Jason]

Thank you for your review! What did you think of this camera's performance, specifically in shutter lag and shot-to-shot time?

[Jo Christian Oterhals]

Jason, I haven't noticed anything worth mentioning. The camera seems fast and responsive when I operate it.

It has to be said that I haven't tried using it in unusually dark conditions. Neither have I tried stretching the built-in buffer to its limit (by taking as many pictures continously as I possibly can). So maybe the T500 will behave differently then, but so far I haven't noticed anything other than responsiveness from the camera.

[John]

Can you tell me does window dvd maker can play this HD video? I want to play continuous smooth video which I can burn to DVD.
Which software should I use?

[Jo Christian Oterhals]

John: As far as I know Windows Media Player does not support MP4-files. However the free and open source VLC Media Player can both playback and convert these files, as can Quicktime from Apple. As I say I haven't tried the Windows software included with the camera, but it should be able to do support the files.

You also have commercial alternatives such as Adobe Premiere Elements 11. The newest version.

[Feinripp]

Thank you very much for this short and interesting opinion / review of the T500. Helped a lot!
One question, The 100% crop of childs eye is this ISO400? If so, this is rather good even in daylight.
greets Ralf

[Jo Christian Oterhals]

Ralf: Yes the eye is a 100 % crop of an ISO 400 image. I think it's acceptable. In my opinion you have to take a camera like this for what it is: A quick and dirty-camera for most people.

If you have quality demands bigger than that, you should consider a very different class of camera. (I.e. very expensive compacts with bigger sized sensors or DSLR) But with that you lose portability. So everything's a trade-off, no matter what you choose.

[Vuong]

I'd like to say thanks for the review, and the pictures are fantastic, I think I'll be getting this camera.

I read on the forum where you posted your link about someone's problem with indoor photos, but I assume he didn't focus properly or use his settings correctly. How have your indoor photos been?

[Jo Christian Oterhals]

Voung: I'm sorry to say that I'm probably not your average indoor photographer. I take pictures indoors without flash, and I think that's not what the average t500 photographer will do.

However, I'm not afraid of using Photoshop Elements to correct white balance errors. I adore the SuperSteadyShot functionality (image stabilisastion) so to be honest: With the T500 I'm able to take pictures I otherwise would be unable to take with my SLR.

In short: I'm a fan.

[Darren Kennedy]

Hi. Fantastic review of what seems like a great camera. I have a tendency to pixel peep so I won't ask you some of the questions I am dying to know but I do have a couple of things I am hoping you can answer.

Did you end up getting a second battery and if so, does it last longer than the one that came with the cam? The sony site shows the included battery with different specs. than the replacement.

Did you consider other cameras before you purchased the sony? If you did, which ones? Do you have any general thoughts on both picture and video quality when you compared them? I am looking at the panny TZ5, casio z300 and the panny fx150.

Thanks,
Darren

[Jo Christian Oterhals]

@Darren Kennedy: Please ask the questions your dying to ask anyway. I'm pixel peeping a little myself, though I try not to :-)

Yes, I got the second battery. The one I got is an InfoLithium battery. It got the same number of mAH as the one supplied with the camera (650 I think). So it doesn't last any longer. A good thing about the new battery, though, is that it shows the number of minutes you got left on the battery (the supplied battery only shows quarter, half, three quarters and full). This is specially usfeful when shooting video. I'm not sure if you can get bigger capacity batteries.

Regarding battery life: On a recent trip to Brazil I managed to get approx 100 shots on one charge. I almost never use flash, but I spend much time looking at my pictures on the built-in screen, zooming in and out, using the built-in post-processing functions to zoom, crop, rotate, etc. This is quite a different way from how I use my SLR, so considering the miniscule size of both camera and battery I don't think 100 shots is too bad.

Of the cameras you mention I just considered the TZ5. I think that's a terrific camera. The zoom range is considerably bigger on the TZ5. I had two reasons for choosing the Sony:

1) It had better video quality and much better sound quality (stereo). Maybe I was imagining things, but I thought I could hear some noise if I zoomed during video recording. No noise at all on the T500.

2) The T500 looks better, at least in my eyes.

Hope this helps, Darren. And as I said: Just ask me your pixel peeping questions too :-)

[Benoni]

For someone who just wants to write a review of one of his newly aquired gadgets this is more than I have found on many in-depth reviews! Very informative. In fact I think this will be my next hot-shot gadget. But I hope you don´t love this more than your iPod Touch!?

[Jo Christian Oterhals]

@Benoni: Well, I don't know which gadget I own that I love most. But the iPod Touch certainly is the most used. It's also the most user friendly. If someone told me I had to get rid of every gadget I own, except one, I think I'd keep the camera. An iPod Touch cannot record memories :-)

[cc]

Hi thanks for the great review. I've had a T1 for 4 years and am looking to upgrade to a T500. I shoot stills and lots of video clips.

Any comments on improvements to some of the T1s shortfalls..ie
weak flash
shaky video/pics on highest zoom
no zoom WHILE shooting video
anything else?

Also the T1 can be charged while in the cradle..but the T500 can't???

Lastly, I haven't found anyone that has posted a raw video clip from the T500. The one above is a flash file. Any links?

thx...

[Jo Christian Oterhals]

@cc: Since I've never used the T1 I don't know whether the flash is better, worse or identical on the T500. As I wrote in another comment, I don't use flash much so to me this is almost a non-issue.

As for shake: I've been amazed by the SuperSteadyShot function on the T500. See these pics for examples: With zoom, 1 sec exposure time and full zoom, 1/8 second exposure time. Both handheld. In short: This is one of the best things with the T500.

You can zoom while shooting video, and the zoom doesn't make any noise at all.

As for the T500 being unable to charge in the cradle: I haven't tested that (I haven't bought the optional charger), but that's what the manual says. It may be that I've misunderstood something, because I found this strange too.

I'll try to post a raw video clip if I find somewhere with enough disk space to support it.

[cc]

Hi, thanks for the reply. I decided to go out and buy one. ..I have 14 days to return it for a full refund.

So wrt the flash it is much more powerfull.

Out of the box you can't recharge the battery in the cradle..the battery must come out of the camera. I see there is an accessory you can buy to charge from the cradle. My T1 would charge from the cradle or directly into the bottom of the camera so the battery never came out.

I played around with recording HD video clips and after a LOT of hassle came up with a process to convert the MP4 file into an HD WMV file which my editing software can deal with. The raw MP4 files are encoded in AVCHD which is not a well supported format.

Interestly, the space required to store an MP4 HD file for x min is the same as an MPG file for the same minutes in the T1

cheers....

btw you get a $20 coupon for accessories when you buy the camera. I'll probably use this for a second battery.

[Jo Christian Oterhals]

@cc: What editing software are you using? Conversion is easily done with Quicktime Pro ($29), but any conversion gives some quality loss. So if I were you I'd try to find editing software that lets you edit native MP4 files (such as Premiere Elements 11).

[Gallo]

Hello Jo Christian!

Thanks, too for the 'review', it's hard to find info in the T500 like that anywhere else (...).

I already posted my thing at the dpreview forum but got no response so for, so I try it here again ;-)

I also intend to get the T500. May I ask you about taking pictures in a club or at a concert, when the lights are changing very quickly?! I did have a rather outdated DSC-V1, which could be adjusted very exactly (shutter time,...) but it did not have a picture stabilizer. All I read about your experiences this goodie makes it worth taking pictures anywhere. I only had one in my last cellphone, a K800i. And it made real good pictures for a phone, especially at night!

So, can you tell me, if the stabilizer is working well on a night out? Is there a way to manually adjust the shutter time??

Thanks!

Gallo

[cc]

I was using Roxio EMC 10 to convert the MP4. I use Proshow Gold to edit the videos and stills and then create DVDs or Flash files for the net. I choose Proshow because it supports Captions and can pull them from the EXIF data of stills. This feature is really important to me as well as the output options.

Anyway I called their support and they told me to update Codecs and reinstall Proshow which I did. I can now import AVCHD video clips natively.

[Jo Christian Oterhals]

@Gallo: To be honest I'm not the club or concert going type, so I can't help you here. But the image stabilisation works very well. Have a look at my follow-up post of this review, where I say more about SuperSteadyShot among other things.

You can also have a look at this picture on Flickr (I have more) which shows you what SuperSteadyShot can do. I've handheld stuff down to 1 sec shutter, and been able to get away with fairly sharp pictures. So the stabiliser, in my opinion, not only works - it works very well.

As for manual adjustment of shutter speed: No. This camera is void of any manual controls, except for exposure compensation. You can also choose programs (fireworks, beach, etc). But no manual setting of either aperture or shutter.

[Gallo]

Thanks a lot for the info. I played a little with a T77, there the ISO could be chosen manually, but above 800 the pictures became way too grainy...

If there is no adjustments, where do you get the info about the shutter time then?!

I think I may risk it... The idea of those HD movie clips makes me curious :-)

Thanks again and greetings from Austria to the North!

Gallo

[Jo Christian Oterhals]

@Gallo: Thanks for the greeting :-)

ISO can be set manually on the T500 too. I thought you asked whether you could manually set shutter speed.

I think you'll still find ISO speed above 800 to be too grainy (unless you want that particular effect). This is due to the miniscule size of the sensor, and is not a problem that's limited to the Sony T-series. It's the same with Ixus, Coolpix, and other cameras.

Info about shutter time can be seen on the display while shooting, and it's also stored in the EXIF information embedded in the JPEG files.

[Gallo]

Hi Jo Christian!

Ordered a black T500 right now! It should be arriving by the end of this week. Got myself an 8GB Memorystick with it, should be enough for the moment :-) I wonder if I am also going to think that the battery is really bad, but after my DSC-V1 experiences it should do the job for me...

If you're interested, I will let you know about pictures at concerts and in clubs!

Cheers,

Gallo

[Jo Christian Oterhals]

@Gallo: Of course! I'd like very much to see your concert pictures.

[John]

Dear Jo,

Thank you for your great review. I bought the camera with additional FD1 battery. 2 question. First is if you are taking just the video, how long does your battery last. Mine last about 30-40 minutes in total? the NP FD1 battery seems to be slightly larger than supplies NP BD1, and battery door does not close flush when FD1 battey is used, is this your case? Also mine FD1 does not show minutes left in the battery, does yours show? Please let me know. (I am wondering if my bettery is geninune) Thank you very much

[Jo Christian Oterhals]

@John: I don't have my spare battery with me now, so I don't know what it's called. But my spare shows the number of remaining minutes, and it fits perfectly. The door closes as it should and the battery's exactly the same size as the one that comes with the camera.

It does not last any longer than the original, though. It has the same number of mAh. The number of minutes for video is about what I get.