Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 38
 Great camera with a crummy battery September 5, 2010
Daniel
So far, this camera (with the marine pack underwater case) is just what I wanted; a compact camera for every day use, and one that I can take diving or snorkeling.
The bad part is the battery life, which blows. The battery lasts about 30 minutes of video shooting, and don't waste time reviewing pictures in the field if you want to take more than a couple dozen. This is like shooting with film again; taking your time and picking your shots so as to not waste that precious battery.
I ordered a second battery (a must, really) but hate that there is no long-life battery option. This camera is so good, I want to shoot constantly with it, but can't.
Don't buy untill Sony solves this basic problem.
Sony Cybershot August 22, 2010
Mr. Christopher B. Kende (New York)
Very compact. Low light pictures a big improvement over previous models. If anything there are too many specialized settings and the menu icons can be confusing. Otherwise very pretty pictures and nice to use.
 LOVE this camera. GREAT PICTURES! August 21, 2010
JQ (IOWA)
This camera is wonderful. I would give it 10 starts if I could. Awesome picture with and without the flash. We we just in Italy and toured many churches and historical sites that did not allow flash. This little camera took the best pictures, they did not dark or distorted at all. The panoramic feature was fun and we captured many great shots as well using the panoramic feature. The screen without the viewfinder was great and I did not even wish I had a viewfinder at all. The lens cover was just fine. I know others said they had a problem with sliding the cover, but unless you just coated your hands with vaseline it is a non-issue. Best of all, my family is now getting this camera because they saw first hand what it could do. They stopped taking pictures with their cameras and will get copies of the pictures I took with my camera. This camera blew me away. I love to show it to others. The video feature looked great too. Sony- I would be a great spokesperson for this little camera alongside Taylor Swift.
Unbelievable video. Okay shots. Horrible battery August 21, 2010
-collector-
Video: 5/5 stars
I would like to give a video review but the 1080i takes unbelievable shots that 100MB is not enough. The clarity is amazing. Also, the Picture Motion Browser software that's included makes transferring media a cinch. Be sure to purchase at least an Sony 8gb Pro Duo HX card; you'll want to definitely utilize the space. My main reason for purchasing this camera was the 1080i feature and it is well worth it.
Pictures: 3.5-4/5 stars
My other Sony Cybershot w290 (12.1MP) takes better pictures. The photos on this TX7 are a bit soft but no doubt clear for someone who just wants birthday and/or vacation photos. The zoom is not too far but the panorama feature is absolutely cool. The back light feature really enhances the photos quite nicely.
Battery: 1/5 stars
It's not the camera's fault of course; however, the NP-BN1 battery sucks so much juice out of the 1080i videos that you'll be recharging every other hour. Also, the battery takes roughly an hour to charge but more will give a bit of boost. Be sure to use the battery all the way then allow for a full recharge just like any other battery. I'd recommend purchasing another battery and for $32.00 on Amazon.com is really a deal (better than $49.99 at other places).
Overall: 4/5 stars
This camera is truly unreal. The TX9, however, will be released in several weeks (middle September) with a 12.1MP feature. So, for an extra $50.00 I would purchase that camera since I personally enjoyed the crispiness and clarity of my W290. This TX7 is just so comfortable, light and portable. It's for the faint of heart but it's not for the professional user either. Just people looking to capture memories in 1080i makes this camera worth the $349.99 (better than $599.99 and up for the handycam). To keep something in your pocket that captures superb video makes me a true TX7 user.
Lots of pro's, a few con's they could have fixed August 13, 2010
Bruce_in_LA (los angeles, ca United States)
We looked closely at the TX7 as an upgrade to our T9 from four years ago. The T9 is so familiar to us by now it's really an extension of my hand, but we're trying to look objectively at the TX7.
Good (mostly comparing TX7 and the earlier T9)
1) The new low light feature is incredible. It takes several pictures in a second in light almost too dim to see anything, and merges them (over 2 seconds) into a single picture that is very good. So this is a huge improvement over early generation cameras, as long as the dim object is not moving.
2) The widest angle lens is a good deal wider than this series of camera a few years ago.
3) The panorama mode is neat - it feels like you are taking a movie for 2-3 seconds as you pan horizontally, but the product is a very long photo.
3) The movie function is much improved. I would say it is about as good as the Kodak Zi8, which is usually reviewed as good as or better than a Flip. You can zoom during movies.
5) Overall, especially in challenging conditions, consistently somewhat sharper and better than the T9.
Less good
1) Movies - The marketing makes a big fuss over HD mode movies, but makes it sound like it's a huge pain to transfer its internal HD movies to any kind of DVD format (for mailing to relatives). The regular format movies copy onto DVDs with some run of the mill shareware we have. The format is H264 so they should drag and drop on Ipods, I think.
2) Picture formats. We always used our T9 (6MB max) storing 2MB photos, which seems a great balance between size and quality for us (fine for 4x6, 5x7 prints). For the 4x6 format, the new TX7 has a low resolution "VGA" mode (100kb) but then jumps up to 5MB as the next 4x6 format. What? 5mb is overkill for routine prints (slow to move around, fills up hard drive, web upload, memory card, etc). The TX7 has an intermediate resolution mode of 2MB but only in the 16x9 format. I think a lot of people still use 4x6 and 5x7 prints, so I wish there was a storage format between 100kb and 5mb.
3) Size - It's a bit larger and heavier than the T9, but of course it's still a pretty small camera.
4) eZoom - It has an electronic zoom that exceeds the 1-4x optical zoom, but buries it in a sub menu, and restrains it alot "to preserve quality". Well, duh, it's virtual zoom, of course there is some effect on quality. Anyway, in the 5MB picture mode it gives you 1-4X optical zoom, and then up to 5x (wow, one extra X) with e-zoom. On the other hand, in the 100 kb mode, it zooms to 1-22x. I think this is too paternalistic on their part. The T9 wasn't so "controlling" - they assumed if you could afford a $400 camera you understood what virtual zoom meant.
5) The battery is very tiny - with luck you can get 200 photos, but it dwindles really fast during movies. I guess the "pro" is that if you shell out for a 2nd battery, that battery, too, will weigh almost nothing.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 38
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