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Why did I choose to buy the Sony cybershot T900 digital compact camera?
 I 'm an avid hobbyist photographer, and I'd always believe that a good digital compact camera can actually be an excellent backup to the Digital SLR camera. I had been a loyalist to the Canon family of DSLR cameras and now I'm using the Canon 450D. In the past, I've used the Canon Ixus, Casio Exlim, Olympus Mju and recently the Panasonic Lumix, prior to the Sony Cybershot T900. I decided to give the Sony Cybershot T900 a try because I was attracted to the following features in the ads:
How does the cybershot T900 compare with past digital cameras that I've used?
Quite a few features of the Cybershot T900 did stand up against the past cameras that I've used before:
- True artificial intelligence with scene detection – Example, the T900 could automatically detect a portrait scene right down to a macro close up scene, and it automatically switches to the correct scene mode to take the shot. This is something the cameras I own in the past could not achieve fully, especially for macro shots. For my past cameras, I had to press a button or change a setting to set up for macro close-up shots.
- Amazing macro capability – For a compact digital camera, I'd never expect that the T900 could achieve a 2cm to 5cm macro close-up shot with the same sharpness as a normal shot. I could not even achieve this with my Canon 450D without using a macro lens.
- Zooming features during HD video recording – With the T900, I could actually perform live zoom in and out during an active HD video recording session. For my past cameras, the zoom level is fixed once the video recording starts. In addition, the T900 does not have a limit to the length of video that I can record (subject to available storage on the memory stick). This is unlike the Panasonic Lumix FX36 (my ex-camera), which had a 22 min limit on each video clip.
- Smile shutter – The smile shutter really helps to take a big smiley picture when you are not able to fully anticipate the coming smile, especially from a child. See some of these pretty shots following that utilized the smile detection feature.
What do I like about the Cybershot T900?
My immediate liking about the Cybershot T900 was its ease of use for most common types of photo scenes. Most of the time, I need not have to worry about wrong exposure, light balance or flash. The camera does all the work and all I have to work on is the composition of my photograph.
 As a normal use camera, all the current features of the Cybershot T900 met almost all my needs. As a backup camera, it's a great sidekick.
What wows me about this camera is its ability to shoot sharp photographs at very short distances (macro feature), which makes it very easy for me to snap a business card or some article from a magazine. Another wow factor is the extremely easy to use touch-screen user interface. The third wow factor was the smile detection technology. It's not perfect as it doesn't work all the time. But when it works, and often does, you do get some pretty good smiles.
What don't I like about the cybershot T900?
It's not that I really dislike it but rather I had wished Sony would have incorporated the following in the T900:
- Battery life: The T900 claims to be able to shoot up to 200 shots on one battery. That's fine with me though I had wished it could match up to the Casio Exlim which could shoot up to 600 shots on one battery. The consolation is that when I bought the camera at the PC fair, they gave me another original battery for free.
- Memory stick: Why must it be different from the industry standard by being a Sony memory stick? It's so darn incompatible with non-Sony products. My only consolation is that I have a card reader that supports the reading of Sony memory sticks, so it still alright so far.
- Wide angle: While the Cybershot T900 almost met all my needs, it came short of a 25mm wide-angle lens which my previous camera, the Panasonic Lumix Fx36, possessed the upper hand here. Well, at least my DSLR have a reason for existance given the powerful features that the Cybershot T900 already offered.
What is my overall assessment of the Sony cybershot T900 digital compact camera?
In summary, I still highly recommend the Cybershot T900 despite the lack of wide-angle feature, shorter battery life and a tad too pricey (retailing at S$679 in Singapore) for some. In compensation for its shortcomings, the Cybershot T900 offers powerful features (e.g. zooming during live HD recording, superb macro capability, simplicity of use, and smile detection technology) that clearly showed that it is still a winner in its class. As a back up camera, I'm all for it as it can cover almost all typical photographic scenes.
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