New Camera: Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T7

[Ben Stafford]

Sony has announced their latest offering in their T series, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T7.  The camera is just over a third of an inch thick, their thinnest model yet.  The camera also features a 2.5 inch "hybrid" LCD, 5.1 megapixel resolution, 3x optical zoom  Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens, and an advanced power management system.  The camera will be availabe in May 2005 for around $500.

We'll have to keep an eye out for details on how this camera differs from the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T33, as the technical specs look exactly the same.

The T7 also features a sliding lens cover and a start up time of under one second.  The Sony "Real Imaging Processor circuitry" allows full resolution images to be taken approximately one second apart.

Sony claims that the power management system, including the "InfoLithium " battery, can take 180 shots per charge.

The camera is also able to shoot 640x480 movies at 30 frames per second and can be stored on  Memory Stick PRO Duo media.

The package will include the camera, a 32MB Memory Stick Duo, battery, connector block and external battery charger. 

[Brian]

I'm confused. Maybe the big deal is the T7 has a metal housing where the T33 is mostly plastic. They have the slider, which is the one thing I'm glad they got rid of going from the T1 to the T33. I think the current lens cover is much better. On the back, the LCD and controls are flipped in comparison to the T33. The buttons are in different places as well. Anyway, perhaps it has better image quality, but at the moment I don't see a reason to buy this over the T33.

[Andrew]

dpreview has a side by side of these cameras

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0503/Sony/sidebyside1.jpg

it makes me sad that the t33 i have looks fat now. it's certainly very obvious a design team was locked in a room and told to come up with the thinnest camera they could sticking within the T-series look and feel.

[Brian]

Here's a few pics in hand.

http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/5843.html