Sony DSC-TX7

[KevinBarrett]

Any thoughts on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX7?

A quick run-down of features includes a 4x Carl Zeiss zoom lens (25-100mm equivalent), 10.2 MP Exmor R sensor (1/2.4"), 3.5" 920k dot touchscreen, optical image stabilization, intelligent sweep panorama, and 1080p video with stereo sound. Okay, yes, it's still a compact with roughly ten times the pixel density of an a550, but as a feature-filled gadget to take on everything else a metal-bodied DSLR doesn't cover (including portability), it might be pretty nice.

It's still fairly new (announced just 74 days ago) but I have to ask, has anybody here used one or heard anything about it? How does its image quality stack up against other similarly featured compacts? The TX7 seems to be a TX1 (you'll remember that camera debuted with the WX1 to showcase Sony's new back-lit CMOS sensor) with better video, a wider lens, and more intelligent auto features. I like the look of the slick touchscreen interface for iPhone-like picture browsing. If my experience with other Sony point-and-shoots is any indication, pictures recorded by an Alpha to a Memory Stick should be viewable on any other camera that accepts the format.

[pakodominguez]

I found the TX5 more interesting (but the TX7 video capabilities are definitely better) because rugged and it can go underwater up to 3 mt.

I bought (and sent back) the WX1 because I was not happy with the colors and with the quality at the long end of the zoom. I'm thinking on the HX5V, but I don't know yet. The camera I want is the new Alpha Slimline!

[KevinBarrett]

Ooh, good call on the water resistance of the TX5. I wonder how many people will buy the $250 132ft Marine Pack for their TX7 (or how they use their touch screen once they do)? There seems to be very little compromise between the two cameras to build in all that ruggedness, just a slightly smaller touch screen (3.0" vs 3.5"), mono sound, and 720p video vs 1080p (the only compromise I don't understand). Oh, and the zoom is a little slower on the TX5 (f/6.3 vs f/4.6 at the long end).

The HX5 doesn't look bad either, particularly for the 25-250mm equivalent zoom. I wonder if anybody's figured out where the stops fall on that range and how it stacks up against the TX7?

[Javelin]

I don't know anythng about the cameras mentioned except the form factor is very similar to one I bought my ex wife which had excelent build quality and the touch screen operation was kind of the perfect thing for it.

I hate to suggest this but the "Sony talk Forum" or STF over on DPR is not the pit of vipers the SSTF And MTF forums are/were theres lots of good people there and lots of discussion on these models.

lol... heres a tread

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read. ... e=34867380

[KevinBarrett]

I visited over at DPReview to see what was up and who was talking about the TX7, but nobody seems to be using or talking about it besides a fellow who cranks out "OOB" pictures, and his forum contributions aren't really about cameras so much as awkward photomanipulations.

The HX5 seems to be all the rage over there, though.

[Birma]

There is a TX7 review here http://cameralabs.com/reviews/Sony_Cyber-shot_DSC_TX7/ in case you haven't seen it.

[KevinBarrett]

The TX7 arrived yesterday! The battery charged up very quickly, so I popped it in and started recording my first thoughts of the camera. First of all, the weight in the hand is reassuringly heavy. It has a plastic appearance due to the gooey scratch-resistant finish, but all over it is metallic and cool to the touch.

As I said in another thread, the touch screen interface is slick and easy, I can usually go right to whatever I want. I say usually, because yesterday I was stuck in Close Focus Macro mode and didn't know how to back out to standard Program Auto. The effect was that the camera was stuck at its widest zoom setting and any nudge of the zoom rocker would brink up an alert window. Eventually I got there by going right back to the Macro control and choosing "Auto". The menu is well divided and almost nothing that you might use frequently is more than two touches away, but nearly everything is at least two touches away. Switching between shooting and viewing is one touch, deleting anything is three touches. Beginning to shoot a video from still shooting is one touch, thanks to a red button, and beginning to shoot stills from anywhere in the menu trees is as quick as a shutter press.

Image quality is very pleasing. It's exactly as jpegy as I knew it would be, with plenty of noise for a pixel-peeper at ISO 400, but these are not surprising or unexpected. What is startling is the high quality of the lens and the edge-to-edge clarity. High contrast scenes like branches or wires against an overcast sky might show a little light fringing, but nothing like a beercan. The DoF is as awesome as you'd expect from a 1/2.4" sensor, too, giving plenty of sharpness through a close-up macro shot, though since macro happens only at the widest zoom setting, you can imagine what that does to the corners. I haven't done any intense pixel-peeping yet, but there's no noticeable CA in any of my shots.

I suspect there is plenty of in-camera distortion correction going on, as lines mostly appear straight throughout the zoom range until you go into Intelligent Sweep Panorama mode. Suddenly the lens takes on a fish-eye characteristic, but the output is all corrected again: lines parallel with the axis of your pan are straight, all others curve. The stitching is better than Sony presents in their own mirrorless camera teaser trailers.

Anyway, that's all for now. I've got to go to work. Anyone curious, feel free to ask me about the camera! One more thing I'll add because many debate between this camera and the HX5: since the lens is at the corner of the camera, many more compositions are possible, including setting that lens right down on a table surface for dramatic macro shots, either in landscape or portrait orientation. I'll share some pictures later.

[Dr. Harout]

Congrats and lots of happy moments to record with it.

[KevinBarrett]

Two disappointments:
1.) The TX7 can read files recorded by other Sony cameras, but with limitations; a 12 MP jpeg from an a700 is too large to be viewed in the TX7, and the camera displays only a small thumbnail instead. Medium files from the a700 can be viewed normally, but who shoots in Medium? Files shot on an Alpha will always be on top of your viewing stack when reviewing pictures on the TX7.
2.) When reviewing pictures taken in the portrait format (vertically), the image is shrunken so that its long dimension fits within the screen's short dimension, leaving lots of black space on either side. The black space takes priority, however, and does not decrease at all when zooming in to review the image more closely. My four year-old cell phone can handle this, why not my four month old camera? I wonder if other "X" series cameras get the same treatment.

[pakodominguez]

Two disappointments:
1.) The TX7 can read files recorded by other Sony cameras, but with limitations; a 12 MP jpeg from an a700 is too large to be viewed in the TX7, and the camera displays only a small thumbnail instead. Medium files from the a700 can be viewed normally, but who shoots in Medium? Files shot on an Alpha will always be on top of your viewing stack when reviewing pictures on the TX7.

same happens if I try to view A700 files on the Maxxum 7D... in other hand, the A700 read perfectly my girlfriend's W200 pics

2.) When reviewing pictures taken in the portrait format (vertically), the image is shrunken so that its long dimension fits within the screen's short dimension, leaving lots of black space on either side. The black space takes priority, however, and does not decrease at all when zooming in to review the image more closely. My four year-old cell phone can handle this, why not my four month old camera? I wonder if other "X" series cameras get the same treatment.

I got a WX1 for a week (I took it back to the store, I wasn't 100% happy with it, now I'm thinking on the W350, but actually I want the Alpha NEX!!!) and I managed to get the vertical shots on "full frame" by asking the camera to no rotate verticals (somewhere in the menus...)

Regards

[Javelin]

On my ex wifes camera there was an autorotate setting for viewing that was defaulted to off (?) maybe thats it?

[KevinBarrett]

I was at a wedding once where the photographer was somebody's aunt who had recently bought a Sony P&S, an H3 or an H10. Her battery went dead almost as soon as they began taking pictures after the ceremony, so I allowed them to put her memory stick into my a700 and continue shooting that way. Well, they didn't know how to use the a700, so I ended up shooting the pictures and handing the card back to them. I'm too nice. The woman was able to view the full resolution 12 MP JPG files on her 8 MP camera.

Oh, and the a700 has a funny response to the i-Sweep Panoramas, it shows a heavily blurred thumbnail...I'm surprised it even tried.

[KevinBarrett]

Continued thoughts on the TX7:

Today I used the office's camera at work and discovered that I've been spoiled by the TX7's touch screen. Compact cameras should have touch screens. Period. There seem to be a lot of people in other forums comparing the TX7 to the HX5, but such a comparison is completely invalid once you use the TX7. The better comparison would be between the TX5 and TX7.

Had it been my own penny, I might have got the TX5 instead, for these reasons:
a.) The high quality video on the TX7 gobbles up (expensive) memory quicker than would ever be practical, and I don't even have a means of displaying 1080 video, i, p, or otherwise. After consuming 2 GB with 15 minutes of footage, I bumped back the settings well within the TX5's capabilities.
b.) The larger screen size is very nice, but it can't display larger images than what the camera itself records. Images from my a700 are shown as tiny thumbnails, which means I can't use it for reviewing those images with friends or clients, etc.
c.) The TX5 is less expensive than the TX7, and more rugged.

But the TX5 is also waterproof, right? Yes, and that is certainly a selling point, but the TX7 was given to me, and the TX5 wasn't. So, if I want a waterproof camera to take snorkeling, it's still cheaper for me to buy Sony's Marine Pack than to buy a new TX5. For that premium, the Marine Pack offers thirteen times more water protection by depth than the simply adequate amount built into the TX5 (132ft vs 10ft). Ten feet is good for rain, live RHPS viewings, most swimming pools, and most activities in a lake or river, but the last time I snorkeled I dove far deeper than ten feet.

[David Kilpatrick]

Thanks for this info Kevin. I'm not sure that even when I could swim 10 metres underwater without flippers, that I ever went deeper than 10 feet really - with flippers and a snorkel. Perhaps 15 at the most when I was a kid. 'Far' deeper than 10ft with a snorkel is an effort for most everyday users particularly if your hands are full with a camera and you can't use them as well, so I would be happy with 10ft.

Except, unless the camera floats, I'd probably drop it in 15 feet and have to get you to retrieve it for me - full of water?

David

[pakodominguez]

short review from NYTimes
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/techn ... tx5&st=cse
as usual, some things are missing, probably Sony didn't put the manual on the box (or the reviewer didn't read it...)
Apparently, bellow 10 ft it just stop working.