Sony Cybershot DSCT300/B 10.1MP Digital Camera with 5x Optical Zoom with Super Steady Shot (Black) | 
| Brand: Sony
List Price: $399.99
Buy New: $265.99
You Save: $134.00 (34%)
New (27) Used (5) Refurbished (1) from $259.80
Rating:  35 reviews
Sales Rank: 30
Color: Black
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
System Memory: 15
Floppy Disk Drive: None
Monitor Size: 350
Includes Software: Yes
Optical Zoom: 5
Digital Zoom: 2
Connectivity: AV
Display Size: 3.5
Maximum Focal Length: 29
Minimum Focal Length: 5.8
Maximum Resolution: 10.2
Has Red Eye Reduction: Yes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 6.6 x 2.2
MPN: DSCT300/B
Model: DSCT300/B
UPC: 027242726765
EAN: 0027242726765
ASIN: B0011E4N66
Release Date: March 21, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Brand new in the sealed box
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| Features:
| • | 10.1-megapixel Super HAD CCD captures enough detail for photo-quality poster-size prints | | • | Carl Zeiss 5x optical zoom lens; Smart Zoom feature | | • | 3.5-inch widescreen Clear Photo LCD Plus display; Face Detection | | • | Intelligent Scene Recognition; HDTV compatibility | | • | 15 MB internal memory; capture images to Memory Stick Duo/Pro Duo media |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The Sony DSC-T300 offers excellent performance and an elegant, sophisticated design. It includes Face Detection technology to optimize focus, exposure and color for up to eight faces. The compact body houses 10.1-Megapixel resolution and a beautiful, wide 3.5" touch-screen LCD for easy operation. A Carl Zeiss 5x optical zoom lens give you the power to get even closer to the action, a real benefit for distant landscape views and dramatic portraits. A huge 3.5" widescreen Clear Photo LCD Plus LCD display includes an anti-reflective coating that provides for excellent visibility to help you compose, view, and share photos with superb clarity and color reproduction, even in bright sunlight. With high sensitivity of ISO 3200, you can shoot effectively in low light without flash to preserve the mood, while the Sony Clear RAW Noise Reduction system helps suppress the color noise that can degrade low-light shots. PhotoTV HD compatibility allows the camera to be connected to a PhotoTV HD-capable Sony BRAVIA HDTV via the optional HD output adaptor, for highly detailed, high-definition color images displayed in unprecedented realism and full HD quality in 16:9 High-Resolution Mode. 1/2.3 Super HAD(TM) CCD Shutter Speed - Auto (1/4 - 1/1,000) / Program Auto (1 - 1/1,000) Aperture Range - Auto (F3.5-F10) / Program Auto (F3.5-F10) Movie Modes - MPEG VX Fine with Audio (640x480 at 30fps), MPEG VX Standard with Audio (640x480 at 16.6fps), Presentation Mode (320 x 240 at 8.3fps) Self-Timer - 10 seconds and 2 seconds Scene Modes - Beach, Fireworks, High Speed Shutter, High Sensitivity, Landscape, Snow, Soft Snap, Twilight, Twilight Portrait, and Smile Shutter Flash Modes - Auto, Forced On, Forced Off, and Slow Synch Operating System - Microsoft 2000 Professional, Me, XP Home and Professional, and Vista, Macintosh OS 9.1/9.2/OS X (10.1-10.4)
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| Customer Reviews: Read 30 more reviews...
 Excellent Camera for Taking Everyday Shots April 14, 2008
Andrew J. Freyer (Cleveland, OH USA)
94 out of 95 found this review helpful
Lets get to the bottom line:
The Good:
This camera takes excellent pictures - as a response to CNET and other reviewers who note that the DSC-T300's pictures are soft/noisy/high contrast/ et cetera are reviewing this from a professional photography point of view. Comparing this to an SLR or any other non-subcompact isn't reasonable. Just like we wouldn't compare a Chevy Pickup with a BMW sedan. Photos taken with this camera are intended for "everyday shooting." I will use this for vacations, parties, or tours. I would not use this to photograph my own wedding. For everyday shots, the quality is superb. If you are looking for a professional camera in a subcompact chassis, then this is about as close as you will come.
The optical zoom is fantastic, as is the image stabilization -- I do not have a very steady hand. Of the first few test shots that I took with this camera, one was of a license plate from a car parked about 100 meters away. I zoomed in with full optical and digital zoom, and snapped a photo of what looked like a very grainy and pixelated white blob jerking quickly around the screen. To my surprise, when I viewed this shot, the camera had cleaned it up so that not only was there no motion blur, the license number was perfectly visible. I could even see the county name on the bottom! Needless to say, I won't be taking many pictures from this far away, but still it is good to know that the feature is there if I ever need it.
The smile shutter works surprisingly well, and I use it all the time. What not many of the other reviews that I read talked about was the functionality of the smile shutter. When the feature is enabled, the camera is not in normal photo mode. You will have to take it out of Smile Shutter mode if you want to resume taking pictures. Once enabled, the smile shutter constantly looks for faces, and puts an orange box around each one. It will identify up to 9 faces. Once a face is ID'd, it judges how much the person is smiling, and if they are smiling enough, then a picture is taken. It will take pictures of smiles until you take it out of smile mode. In fact at a party of mine, I put the camera on a tripod, set it up for smile mode, and told people to go smile in front of it. By the end of the night, every single person had a smiling portrait in my camera. Excellent feature. The funny thing is, no one believes that the camera actually can determine who is an isn't smiling - so when they finally see the red-eye flash go off, 90% of people cant help but smile a real, and perfectly captured, smile of pleasant surprise. When in this mode, this camera only captures happiness.
The Add-A-Smile Feature is completely useless, but because of it, your camera will be a hit. I have tried the add-a-smile feature on 20+ people and more often than not, they end up looking creepy. However, this is hilarious. You will never seriously use this feature, but its a joy to have all the same.
Video is surprisingly good. When in "fine video" mode, I would be hard pressed to tell the difference between this and broadcast quality. "Fine video" does take lots of memory though - 1 hour ~ 4 GB. To fit more video on the card, you can switch to "standard" but unless you are using this ONLY for youtube, don't bother with standard.
Touch Screen - Once you learn it, it is a very intuitive interface.
The Bad:
There is a learning curve on the touch screen - Most people will be turned off initially by the touch screen. I have found that the learning curve has put people off from borrowing my camera to take pictures. I always have to explain how to use it. Not a huge deal, I bought the camera for me, not for people who want to take pictures of me.
Fingerprints collect on the screen - well, its a touch screen, what do you expect?
Bottom Line: This is a great camera for everyday shots. For shots that you do not intend on editing professionally, this is a great camera. For shots that are for viewing pleasure, this is a great camera. If perchance you do want to edit professionally photos taken by this camera, the resolution gives extreme detail.
All in all, I have never considered returning this camera.
Great incarnation of the DSC-T series, but stingy Sony! April 3, 2008
dosers (South Pasadena, CA USA)
90 out of 92 found this review helpful
As the previous reviewer stated, this camera overall is a joy. The quality is great, both in build and pictures. Very little 'fringing' in the Zeiss lens, zoom is fast (faster than previous DSC-T models) and quite.
My biggest problem on the new design (it's a thinner and has less physical buttons than a T-30 or 50) is the relative design flaw of not having a good way to open and close the lens cover. This was a lot better on previous models.
It definetely takes getting used to.
Another issue is with Sony - it's so apparent they are getting ever so stingy, in that they are including less and less in the box. The biggest insult to consumers in my opinion is the MISSING smart battery! Until now, Sony supplied batteries that would tell you the exact amount of minutes left on the charge; and they were quite accurate. In the 300 no more. But, 'don't despair' - it can still do it, only Sony didn't want to spring for the cash to include said battery in the box. If you want the 'feature' of telling time left on the battery there is an insert in the box, pointing you to Sony's website and how to spring another $50 to buy said battery (Amazon carries it too).
It's just too bad - I don't even mind the extra charge so much as I don't see the point of Sony offering less features on their new top end DSC camera and then charge extra to get back 'up to spec'. Charge $20 more from the get go and include the darn thing....
 Good, but June 11, 2008
Lisa Guinn (Cupertino, CA USA)
44 out of 50 found this review helpful
This camera had a lot of features that I wanted:
* good size of LCD screen
* cover for lens
* internal zoom - so no mechanical lens in/out
BUT I forgot to check on these things that it DOESN'T have
* Ability to connect to PC via mini-USB (uses a Sony proprietary USB connection)
* Ability to charge the battery inside the camera (uses a separate charger)
* Ability to use a "standard" SAN disk (uses a Sony memory stick)
* A view-finder, so that I don't have to try to use the LCD screen outdoors
It's a good camera, but I probably would not have purchased it if I had done a better job of my research up front.
First Review! Great Camera... April 1, 2008
R. Gates (Larchmont, NY United States)
29 out of 34 found this review helpful
Wow this camera is amazing. I am extremely happy I forked over the extra cash for the T300. I was originally going to buy a Casio Exilim EX-Z100, but I am so much happier with this one. Its pictures aren't SLR quality and the whole painting in the camera thing is kinda dumb, but the 10.1 mega pixels and the 5x optical zoom and the optical image stabilization and the 3.5" touch screen really sold it for me. Plus its awesome just flipping down the door on the front to power it on. The new face detection is improved over the T200 and it can do multiple smiles on the smile shutter. Ya the touch screen takes some getting getting used to and it's annoying to say ok or back every two seconds, but it's a touch screen. I mean come on. For me the pros outweigh the cons by a lot. There is nothing out on the market today that is as innovative and new as this camera, plus you know its quality because it's a Sony.
PROS:
-5x Optical Zoom (Very versatile and it starts at 33 mm, so its technically wide angle)
-10.1 Mega Pixels (I know mega pixels don't make a camera, but I crop a lot so the more the merrier)
-Optical Image Stabilization (You really need optical, digital is about as useful as digital zoom)
-3.5" Touchscreen (Touchscreen interface could be better, but its still a huge display and good for showing off pictures. Plus it's still a touchscreen)
-Face Detection and Smile Shutter (Yes I know every camera has face detection now, but this one actually works. On up to 8 faces! Plus it can distinguish between children and adults and the awesme smile shutter now works on 8 people!)
-Sleek Design (It's super-thing and the brushed aluminum looks awesome. Same with the sliding door)
-Sony Quality (You're getting a trusted product. Plus it feels solid and well built, even though its light and its built with top of the line materials)
CONS:
-Touchscreen Interface (Bigger screen is cool, but it's still kind of a new technology for cameras and its not the most responsive screen ever)
-Neurotic Menu (It asks you if you're sure to do things and then if you're ok and then if you really want to switch it and when you're done you have to hit back)
Other than some interface issues, this is a very good sexy little machine. Don't expect it to be an SLR and ISO 3200 is somewhat useless but it's good features outweigh the bad by a lot. Use it for a couple of days and you will fall in love with it. Trust me its worth $400.
 Not Good... April 7, 2008
P. Baek
24 out of 36 found this review helpful
Pros:
* Good overall design, sleek, ultra portable.
* BIG LCD screen
* Effective image stabilization and face detection--usually
Cons:
* Pricey
* Image Quality not any better than last generation
* Oversaturated reds
* Terrible white balance
* Useless ISO over 400
* Smile detection works only sometimes--practically worthless
* LCD screen easily scratched; touchscreen sometimes unresponsive
In the end, I returned the Sony and bought a Canon 870IS which takes better shots, performs faster, and is less expensive.
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