A quick follow-up of my Sony Cyber-Shot T500 mini-review

Since I published my mini-review of the Sony Cyber-shot T500, I've been astonished at the amount of interest that blog post have had.  It's my most read blog post ever, easily beating my second most read at least 50 times.  Not only has there been lots of interest here, but my Sony T500 set on Flickr (containing lots of image samples) has also had -- for me -- enormous amounts of traffic. Both here, on Flickr and by email I've had lots of questions.  Based on that and the fact that I've made a few more experiences along the road, I thought I'd write a quick follow-up to my mini-review elaborating a few things.

Let's just get one thing out of the way first: The camera is capable of taking really stunning pictures. So if you're not able to get good pictures with it, well -- it may be that it's not the camera there's anything wrong with.

If you click the picture, you will get more details about it and also access to larger versions of it (including full size).

Video sample

The most asked question I've had is for video samples.  Most of the videos I've shot has been of my family eating cake or getting dressed up for Halloween and that sort of thing, and I've been reluctant to share those clips.  However, I've shot a short snippet of dogs playing.  This snippet shows four important things:

1. The 720p video in itself
2. That you can zoom while shooting video
3. How the video appears when panning
4. That I should learn how to shoot an interesting video :-)

Lots of people specifically been asking about 2) and 3), so hopefully this answers their questions. 

I've removed the sound track, because all you'd hear would be me talking about preparing for snow and changing tires.  And that's not interesting to listen to, even for me.  Anyway: Here's the video sample.  Please note: This file is 15,2 MB.  Since I've got limited bandwith, please be gentle with me :-)  If you're not really interested in the video, consider whether you really need to download it.

Also note that the file is in Quicktime format, not the original MP4.  This happened beacuse I removed the sound.  But the quicktime file contains an unchanged version of the original video from the AVCHD/MP4-file.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD SAMPLE. Right click and choose "Save Target As" to save the file to your hard drive.

Do whatever you like with this sample. If you feel the need to give it to a friend, fine. If you for some reason want to spread it on The Pirate Bay, even better. Etc. This is neither art nor personal for me, so go on -- use and reuse it at will :-)

Super Steady Shot

When I bought the camera, image stabilisation certainly wasn't something that I had listed as a must-have functionality.  But now that I have it... well, I'm just astonished at how effective it is.

If you click the pictures, you'll get a larger version (and access to full-size version) and more detailed explanation about how they're taken -- exposure time, zoom, etc.

Battery and battery related stuff

I can now definitively say that battery life is an achilles heel of this camera. That's not just because the battery's relatively small, but also because you'll be using your camera differently from previous cameras.

Shooting video, in particular, gobbles up battery. But I've also noticed that I spend a lot of time looking at my pictures on the large 3.5" screen, and I also crop pictures and do all sorts of stuff with the camera. So getting a spare battery is advisable.

Still: If you don't shoot much video, and you don't spend much time fiddling with your camera in between taking pictures, then I think you'll be able to get the advertised 160 pictures for each charge. But if you manage not to fiddle with the T500 -- well, then I take my hat off to you :-)

Cold weather is, as we all know, a killer for battery life no matter what camera you're using. But it feels like this camera is extraordinarily exposed to that problem. I've taken pictures around and right below 0 degree celcius (freezing), and the battery drains fast. I'd say at least double as fast as normal.

If you get cold fingers in cold weather then you'll also experience that the screen can have some problems registering your touch.

Macro mode

Macro mode is antoher functionality that wasn't on my must-have list when buying the camera. But it has been lots of fun to play around with now that I've got it.

The camera can focus down to 1 cm distance, and this gives possibilities I've never before had (I come from the SLR/DSLR camp and have never owned a macro lens). Since you have no manual control over aperture on this camera, you have to be sure that you know what you're doing focus wise.

But if you keep the camera relatively level with your subject, and maybe even use the touch version of face recognition (you can force the camera to focus where you put your finger), you can get rather good results.

As above: If you click the pictures, you'll get a larger version (and access to full-size version) and more detailed explanation about how they're taken -- exposure time, zoom, etc.

You have to macro modes, by the way. The first is called macro and lets you focus from 8 cm to infinity when zoomed wide, and from 80 to infinity when zoomed to full tele. The second is called close focus. That one fixes your lens to wide and focuses from 1 cm to 20 cm.

The second mode is what I've been using most.

Metering and (auto) white balance

When I bring up auto white balance again, it may seem like I'm repeating myself since I spoke about this in the original review. But now I have the pictures to prove it: That auto white balance is a bit hit and miss, is something I'm accustomed to from other cameras.

But that auto white balance can vary from shot to shot in otherwise identical conditions, is somewhat of a mystery to me. If you get a too orange picture the first time, it can be too green the second, and even perfect the third. Why this happens I really don't know.

If white balance is important to you, be sure to use one of the preset white balances. Then at least you'll get consistency. That'll be helpful when your post processing in Photoshop. If you click on the picture to the right you can read more about this strange phenomenon and also see bigger versions of the examples.

Metering, on the other hand, is remarkably precise. It'll give you perfectly exposed pictures most of the time, and really only fail when you expect it too: In extreme backlight, when photographing near-white stuff (such as marble or snow) or when using long exposures when it's very dark.

Under is a couple of examples where I had to help the camera along by clicking in a little positive exposure compensation. In one of the examples (the rain stained glass ceiling) I guess you wouldn't even have thought the original exposure was wrong. Here I under exposed to achieve the silhouette effect I wanted.

Conclusion

If you're interested in the T500 you should go to your camera shop and try it out for yourself. As I said in the original mini-review I lack experience with most other cameras out there today, so I can't really judge whether this camera is as good as, better than or worse than this or that camera. What I do know, however, is that I'm very satisfied with the camera and I think I've been able to snap some very beautiful pictures with it.

But it's not as good as a DSLR (this class of camera never will be) and it's not as good as a good HD camcorder (or so I'm told). If those are your expectations I think you'll be dissatisfied with any camera you buy.

Comments

[Hilde]

Just a short note... You know you can upload video to Flickr as well?

http://www.flickr.com/help/video/

[Sharon]

Hi
Greate review .

How mush time can you record with HD in 8GB / 16GB ?

Thanks
Sharon

[Jo Christian Oterhals]

@Sharon: Using the very best HD quality, I can record 43 minutes on a 4 gb memorystick. I guess this means that you can record approx 1 1/2 hours on an 8 gb stick and 3 hours on a 16 gb. I guess you saw this in my original review, but you should know that the maxiumum length of a single clip is 10 minutes.

@Hilde: I know I can upload video on Flickr. But I see that the rules say that the video should be a little like a slide show. This is as far from a slide show you can get :-)

[Vuong]

Hi again, I was wondering if you used the newer mark 2 memory stick with your camera or just a normal one?

Thanks.

[Jo Christian Oterhals]

@Vuong: I use a Memory Stick Pro Duo mark 2. I know it supports the older one too, but I don't know if that one's got speed enough to support video recording (the manual doesn't say).

Where I bought the camera, the price difference between an ordinary and mark 2 was almost nothing. You could also buy more expensive Memory Sticks, but I thought that was overkill. (Had I been using an expensive Sony SLR with extremely big image files, I guess I'd thought different)

[Tamer]

Hi,
Thanks for your review. I've bought the T500 2 weeks ago. I takes great pictures in good light, but I've two problems with pictures in the night. When I use auto settings the pictures come grannular hazy ( ISO 800 or 1600). When I use the Twilight mode the pictures are extremely blurry and I get a sign that the camera is detecting vibrations(hand sign). IF i place the camera on a table the pictures get better but the sign of vibration is still flashing. I'd like to ask you if you have similar problems, am I using wrong settings, or is this a problem with my camera? Thanks

[Jo Christian Oterhals]

Tamer, I can't say that I've experienced what you have. When using my camera I can't say I've ever seen it choose more than ISO 400, no matter how dark it is. So I've had to manually set it to 800 or higher.

That being said: At those levels, the pictures are very grainy/noisy. So these settings should only be used either if you want the grainy effect or you have no other choice.

Remember that vibration reduction can't work miracles. If the camera chooses a shutter speed below 1/6 on wide or 1/25 on tele I'd say that you probably will get shake anyway (I've managed to get pictures reasonably sharp at lower shutter speeds, but then you have to concentrate and hold steady!). So keep an eye on the shutter speed on the display when taking your twilight/night pictures.

It works for me. BTW, if you want to you can send me one of your failed pictures. Send it to jcoterhals@yahoo.com. I can have a look at the EXIF information and see what shutter speed was used when you had problems.

[Lawrence]

Hi, i read the review before i also purchased the camera, its a great camera and does pretty much everything i need it to do, but just a question regarding the hi-speed shutter mode, whenever i go into it, everything suddenly goes dark, even the pictures i take. Is this normal?

[Tamer Attia]

Thanks Jo. I appreciate your help. I'll send you 2 of these pictures on your e-mail.

[Jo Christian Oterhals]

@Tamer: I've sent you a *long* reply by email. To make a long story short: I don't think there's anything wrong with your camera, but that you've tried taking pictures in surroundings that are so dark that it's virtually impossible to get sharp pictures -- even whith stabilisation.

[Jo Christian Oterhals]

@Lawrence: I guess your problem is that you're trying to use this mode inside your house or when it's getting dark. What this mode does, is that it prioritizes a high shutter speed to freeze movement (useful if you're photographing sports).

If you use this scene mode, the camera won't even lower it's shutter speed even if it means that it will underexpose the picture. So using this indoors or in the dark/dusk, will result in the "blackouts" you're describing.

[Lawrence]

@Jo
Ah! Thanks, that clarifies it up for me.
So ideally, would the 'blackouts' be 'rectified' if i was using this outdoors? Or is there a particular way i should use this mode?

I'm just playing around with the camera, trying to get used to the functions and what everything does before i go on holiday.

and yeah, the battery life is a real downer, i'm starting to think whether 2 batteries will be enough...

[Jo Christian Oterhals]

@Lawrence: I'm not exactly sure when and how you should use it. But try it outdoors and see what happens. To me it looks like the cameras tries a fixed exposure, so this may be a little hit or miss. I don't find the manual on the CD-ROM to be very clear on this point.

[Lawrence]

Unfortunately it may appear to be a fault on the camera itself, i went to a Sony store today to test out a few of their T500's and it doesn't appear to have the same problem, which is a shame, since i've barely had it for 24 hours.

[JohnC]

i bought a T500 this weekend and the first time i used the video, there is a message "not enough memory on the memory stick". do you know why this is?

thank you.

[Jo Christian Oterhals]

@JohnC: I don't really know. You *did* buy a MemoryStick and if so, how large was it?

[Milton, from Brazil]

Great review.
I was in the exact same situation as you, deciding between the Panasonic TZ5 and the Sony T500. My main objective was to have a great HD video and a nice camera. I wanted to replace my Canon Powershot A620 (great one too).
I bought the T500 yesterday, and I'd like to share some impresssions:
- @JohnC: the message probably indicates a fake memory card. I've read that the T500 recognizes non-original batteries AND memory cards. When I was at the store yesterday, the clerk offered me a 16GB Memory Stick, and warned me that this one was fake. I tried anyway, and the display showed the message you refer. The clerk offered me another 4 GB card, and said that one was original. It worked.
- So whenever I buy a new memory card, I'll test it on the spot. I've read some tutorials on how to recognize a fake one, but I'd rather test it immediatelly.
- Battery life is crap. I'll search the net until I find a solution for it. Well, if you find a solution, please warn us.
- I use Connect360 to stream pics and videos from a Mac to a Xbox 360. I couldn't watch avi videos (shot with my Canon Powershot) because Xbox didn't recognize them. BUT I can watch the T500's 720p videos!!! Whoa!! Great for me! So I just download the videos to the Mac and voila, I watch them in my big screen tv in the hall.

[Jo Christian Oterhals]

@Milton: Thanks for a very thorough comment. It surprises me that you can watch the videos on your XBox without modification. If I remember correctly, I was unable to do that on my Playstation 3 -- and that machine have read just about every format I've tried.

[John]

Dear Jo,

If you could kindly advise if you have used any aftermarket battery? If so what specific brand you recommend or used? If not does anyone have any comments about aftermarket battery such as power 2000, wasabi power, lenmar, pro power etc. Is any of them safe to use? Do you know of any website re review of aftermarket battery? Thank you

[John]

Dear Jo,

I have another question for you or maybe other can answer. Which aftermarket battery you recomend? have you or others used such as pro power, digitalworld, power2000, lenmar aftermarket battey for T500? Any comments from you or others will be appreciated. Thank you

[J]

Dear Jo,
Do you know if I can safely use any aftermarkt battery for T500? if so which one? If not does any one knows such brand as pro power, power 2000, digitalworld, wasabe power is safe to use? Not so much of price, but I am looking for a back up battery that has more than 680 amh power. Any help any one can share will be appreciated.
Many thanks

[Jo Christian Oterhals]

@John: I've only bought Sony batteries, so I'm not able to answer your question well.