Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T300

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By Will Greenwald, CNET.com
Mar 05, 2008

A great design, fast shooting, and lots of features can't overcome the fact that the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T300 simply doesn't take very good pictures.

With its T series, Sony has an unfortunate habit of taking at least one step back for every two steps forward. In early 2007, it released the Cyber-shot DSC-T100, a great little camera with fast performance, a broad feature set, and solid photo quality. A few months later, Sony shipped the T200--also fast with even more features, but photos that simply didn't look as good as the T100's. Now Sony presents the Cyber-shot DSC-T300. The T300 is fast, includes even more features than the T200, and ups the resolution from 8 to 10 megapixels. Unfortunately, its photos look even worse than the T200's.

Design

At a casual glance, the T300 looks almost identical to its predecessor. At just 21.4mm thick and weighing 149g without battery and Memory Stick Duo, it's slightly thinner and lighter than the T200. Underneath its stylish, slim body and signature sliding lens cover, though, the T300 received some important tweaks for the T200's faults.

The T300's zoom rocker rests comfortably on the upper-right corner of the camera making it much more accessible. (Click for a larger image)

The T200's tiny, top-mounted zoom nub posed to be a problem for people with large fingers. (Click for a larger image)

Besides its stylish sliding lens cover (a signature feature on all Cyber-shot T-series cameras), the T300's display stands out as its most notable feature. You control almost every aspect of the camera via a 3.5-inch touchscreen LCD, leaving just a power button, a playback button, a shutter release, and a zoom rocker as its only physical controls. The screen dominates the entire back panel of the camera, barely leaving half a centimeter around it for the bezel. On the bright side, this huge screen gives you a large, bright view of your pictures and the menus. On the other hand, it leaves almost no room for your thumb to rest while shooting. A large, sturdy lanyard mount on the right side of the camera offers some space, but big thumbs will still tend to brush against the touchscreen.

Even if you can shoot without accidentally tapping the screen, you're still going to have to delve into the camera's menu system at some point. The menus aren't just irritating; they're downright neurotic and take far too long to navigate, requiring constant reassurance with countless taps of "OK". Change the resolution, hit "OK". Change the white balance, hit "OK". Enter the camera settings menu by hitting "OK", then confirm each setting by hitting "OK" again.

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