Ultra-slim with Ultra-wide Lens
February.2010

The Sony Cyber-shot TX7 comes with a huge 3.5" LCD which has a touch-screen menu interface. The camera is packed with Sony's unique and useful shooting modes: hand-held sweep panorama, hand-held twilight, anti-motion blur, backlight correction HDR, and high-speed burst. The lens is very wide for being so small, but Sony does a good job correcting lens distortion and purple fringes. Images are very good for this type of camera.

 

New to this generation of TX ultra-slims, the TX7 has a 25mm wide angle lens which provides better vertical coverage for the panoramas. The touch-screen menu interface is different, but improved from previous TXs. It's clear and easy to use, and we like the ability to select the focusing point by using the touch-screen. In full sunlight, the LCD brightness needs to be set manually to 'bright' because the 'normal' setting is a little dark.

 

Overall, the TX7 is an excellent ultra-slim camera: it's fast, easy to use, packed with features and beautifully built. However, excellence doesn't come cheaply: the camera retails at $400. (In addition, we paid $49 for an extra spare battery for our trip.) We got over 200 pictures for each charge, which is not bad given the big 3.5" LCD.

 

Previous generations of Cyber-shot had a Color Mode with sepia and black and white capture options. We are a little disappointed to see this mode eliminated in the TX7 and newer Cyber-shots. Probably to appease some critics, Sony allows the TX7 to accept both Memory Stick and SD cards. Unfortunately, this causes a side effect: it's harder now to insert a memory card.

 

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HIGH
  • features packed
  • quick, easy to use
  • very good image quality
  • stylish, beautifully built

  • very wide 25-100mm zoom lens
  • effective optical image stabilization
  • huge, excellent 3.5" touch-screen LCD
  • 1080 HD video with optical zoom
  • stand with HDMI, USB, AV output ports
  • sweep panorama mode
  • hand-held twilight mode
  • anti-motion blur mode
  • backlight correction HDR mode
  • high-speed burst mode
  • smile-detection

 

MIND

  • no black and white mode
  • expensive spare battery

WISE
  • the slickest ultra-slim to date
CAMERA SPECS SUMMARY
  • deluxe ultra-slim camera
  • price when tested: $399
  • February 2010 street price: $379
  • image stabilized zoom lens 25-100mm
  • multi-format: 4:3, 16:9
  • 3.5" touch-screen LCD (921K pixels)
  • 1080 HD video
  • SD/SDHC & Memory Stick cards
  • rechargeable Li-ion battery
  • 10 megapixels
  • dimension: 3.9" x 2.4" x 0.70"
  • weight: 5.3 oz
  • Cyber-shot TX7 info @ SonyStyle.com