In fact when shooting with the T1, two things become quickly apparent:
left hand fingers can easily stray into the lens' field of view, and the
shutter release might have been more practical had it been set on the back.
Neither of these observations are a critical flaw, but the
T1 is not as user-friendly as it first seems. While the shape
of the camera clearly has some advantages, it is also a bit less
practical than more traditional ones.
The T1 is equipped with a remarkably small 3X zoom lens that operates completely
internally, never extending past the front of the camera. The zoom provides
a focal range equivalent to a 38 to 114mm zoom on a 35mm film camera, typical
for compact cameras.
The T1 is fast to start, and exhibits
no noticeable shutter lag. Likewise, the T1 processes and stores
images that average around 2MB relatively quickly, making it
possible to take a second shot in under 4 seconds. Images are
sharp and show only a slight barrel distortion with wide angle
shots, while pincushion at the maximum telephoto is negligible.
Likewise, no major chromatic aberration is detectable with images
that have strong contrasts.
This said, the DSC-T1 applies a fairly strong compression to photos, even
at the Fine quality.
While generally the images show little
impact from the compression, it can occasionally soften details,
something that can be seen when images are inspected at 100%
on a monitor, as can some shadow noise.
Aperture: f4.0, shutter speed: 1/8
sec., 100 ISO.
Outdoors, and with good light,
the DSC-T1 captures bright and accurately exposed images.
With indoor photos focusing is assisted by a bring orange AF lamp, a generally
effective system. However, the small flash is only able to cover a modest
distance — up to 1.5 m (5 ft) — and images clearly show a gain
in noise. The effectiveness of the flash diminishes further when the zoom
is used, and for photos where the subject is near the maximum reach of
the flash, adding +0.7EV of exposure compensation is often necessary to
brighten up the image.
Of the capture modes the T1 offers,
one stands out as it is unusual for a Sony camera: the awkwardly
named Magnifying Glass Mode.
The mode allows the camera to come as close as 1 cm from a subject, making
it possible to capture great macro shots.
Photos captured with the T1 produce
excellent prints, at a very high DPI (between 260 and 430) up
to a 8 x 10 size, ideal for dye-sub printers or high quality
ink jet type printers. With its 5-megapixel image, large LCD
screen and 3X optical zoom, the DSC-T1 deserves the attention
of users that value a big high quality image in an extremely
compact camera.
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