The Sony DSC-T2 features an eight-megapixel sensor which is coupled to an internal Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar branded 3x optical zoom lens and a 2.7-inch touch panel LCD display. The DSC-T2′s 38 to 114mm equivalent lens incorporates Sony’s Super SteadyShot optical image stabilization to minimize blur caused by camera shake at slow shutter speeds. The lens is protected by a sliding cover which nicely retracts flush with the surface of the camera body when closed, making the T2 more pocket-friendly. Other T2 features include ISO sensitivity to a maximum of ISO 3,200, a Memory Stick Duo/PRO Duo card slot plus a truly whopping 4GB of built in memory, and power from a proprietary NP-BD1 InfoLithium rechargeable battery.

Like the T200, the T2 doesn’t include a dock and requires a dongle converter for the docking port (included) to connect the USB cable (also included), or to connect a cable for display on a TV (not included). But as the third Law of Consumer Electronics states, “One more small piece to lose: bad.” It’s doubly a problem with the T2; since it includes 4GB memory and will only write to an external card if the internal memory is full, you need that dongle. The alternative is springing for a standard or HD-capable Cyber-shot Station.

And then there’s the touch screen. Over time, Sony has streamlined the operation and layout of the various options, making it less onerous of an interface. But finger touches don’t always register immediately. Furthermore, unlike the higher-end model Ts, which have 16:9 aspect screens and use the blacked letterbox area for the touch-screen icons, the T2′s 4:3 screen overlays the icons on the viewing display, and they can be difficult to see against some scene types.

Sony’s Cyber-shot DSC-T77 is a slim 10.1 Megapixel compact with a 4x optically-stabilised lens and a 3in touch-sensitive widescreen display. Announced in August 2008, it’s the successor to the Cyber-shot T70. Sony’s kept the display, sliding front panel and minimal physical controls, but increased the resolution by two Megapixels, extended the zoom range from 3x to 4x, enhanced a number of the automatic settings, and slimmed the unit down to a mere 15mm thick.

The earlier T70 was popular with gadget-lovers who were drawn to the touch-sensitive controls and smile-shutter feature which actually waited until the subject looked sufficiently happy before automatically taking the shot. With the new T77, Sony’s further enhanced these features while adding a longer zoom and making the body even slimmer. As before though, the big question is whether the touch controls are a novelty or a genuine enhancement to the user interface. Find out in our review of the Cyber-shot T77 where we’ll test the new features and compare its image quality against key rivals in a similar price bracket.

Like all of Sony’s recent cameras, the Cyber-shot DSC-T77 has built-in memory instead of having a memory card included in the box. The T77 has a paltry 15MB of onboard memory, which holds just three photos at the highest quality setting. Thus, you’ll want to get a large memory card, and fast. The DSC-T77 supports Memory Stick Duo media, and I’d start out with a 2GB card.

The DSC-T77 can use two different batteries: the included NP-BD1, and the optional NP-FD1. The only difference between the two is that the FD1 has the InfoLithium feature, which allows the camera to tell you exactly how many minutes of battery life you have left. Both batteries have just 2.4 Wh of energy, which is about as low as you’ll find

There’s no denying that the T77 is a very cool looking gadget. Everyone to whom I showed it was impressed by its slim body, elegant styling and solid build quality. It is available in a wide range of colours including silver, black (shown here), pink, brown or bright green. Despite its low weight the camera’s body is made of steel and is exceptionally well built. The sliding front cover is solidly mounted and feels very secure, and when closed it provides good protection for the lens and flash.

The all-black T500 has a mostly metal body, and sliding the front cover down reveals not only the optically stabilized 5x f3.5-4.4 33-165mm-equivalent lens but a larger-than-normal stereo microphone as well. The whole body measures 3.9 inches wide by 2.4 inches high by 0.8 inch deep, but the little camera feels more substantial than Sony’s slimmer models usually do with a weight of 6.2 ounces. A texturized rubber grip juts out from the right side giving you something to push down on to drop the lens cover and hold while shooting. On back a wrist-strap loop sticks out providing you someplace to rest your thumb next to the 3.5-inch touch-screen LCD. On top are the only physical controls: a power button, play button, and a shutter release that has a zoom ring on front and a switch at the back for quickly jumping from still shooting to movie mode.

The T500 camera integrates a wide (16:9), 3.5-inch (measured diagonally), transflective, touch panel LCD screen for easy navigation, framing and viewing in strong light conditions. It has a Carl Zeiss® 5x optical zoom lens with a wide field of view (33 – 165 mm, 35 mm equivalency). It incorporates Optical SteadyShot™ image stabilization and high sensitivity settings up to ISO3200 helps combat blur and facilitate flash-free shooting for natural-exposed photos. The model also incorporates face detection technology, an intelligent function that automatically detects up to eight faces in the camera frame and adjusts focus, exposure and flash. If having to wipe off fingerprints is a deal breaker, you’ll want to skip this camera–and probably the increasing number of touch-screen models, for that matter. Aside from fingerprints, you might take issue with the touch screen’s unresponsiveness. It’s adequately fast for poking around the three onscreen menus (Home, Menu, and Display) along with the handful of controls that are accessible directly from the screen including flash, macro, timer, and resolution. Navigating the camera settings is easy enough. The Home menu gives you access to all the main features and options, while the Menu screen provides context-sensitive options; for instance, if you’re taking still pictures, you get all the shooting choices like scene modes and resolutions. Nevertheless, Sony dropped this Home/Menu distinction in its 2009 models for a reason.

Besides the enhanced video functionality, the Sony Cybershot DSC-T500 has a 5x 33-165mm Carl Zeiss zoom lens (35mm equivalent), a 3.5-inch touch screen LCD display, Optical SteadyShot image stabilization, face detection, and sensitivity to ISO 3200. The T500 has an HDMI connector so images and video can be shared on high-definition TV sets, and new slideshow features with music and fades. The new Sony Cybershot DSC-T500 digital camera will be available at the end of September for about $400. For more on the T500, click on the press release link below.

The fact that the T500 features a large switch dedicated to changing the camera over from still image capture to video shooting might be your first clue that this isn’t your typical digicam with video capability tacked on. Using their experience designing camcorders as a jumping-off point, Sony appears to have thrown a lot of weight behind the T500′s high-def video recording capability.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T700 is closely related to the DSC-T77 that was announced at the same time. The T77 is a replacement for last year’s DSC-T70 model, and both new cameras feature a higher-res 10-megapixel sensor which is coupled to a more powerful Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar branded 4x optical zoom. Where the T70 had an already roomy 16:9 aspect ratio 3.0-inch touchscreen LCD, the Sony T700 boosts this to an even larger 3.5-inch display with a staggering 921,600 dots of resolution, triple that of its lower-priced sibling. The other main difference from the T77 is that the DSC-T700 has almost four gigabytes of available memory, vastly more than the 15MB found in the T77.

Touch screen cameras certainly are nothing new at this point. But for everyone except jaded camera reviewers, it seems that the novelty of being able to tap your way through settings changes on a huge screen hasn’t worn off. Biases about whether or not a touch interface does more to get in the way of ease of operation than it makes up for with cool touch-responsive integrations aside, there’s still something a bit “sci-fi” about a camera with little or no physical interface: even though the convenience of actual buttons means that they’ll probably never become a thing of the past, touch screens continue to seem like the technology of the future.

Additionally, the T700 boasts an unprecedented 4GB of internal memory, to keep pictures on hand, like a pocket photo album. Unfortunately, the T700 fared poorly on our tests for low light and resolution performance. The touch screen also proved to be problematic, with less than ideal response times, and a general feeling of inaccuracy. The camera offered less control than we’d like in many shooting situations. On top of that, the photo album functionality felt tacked on, and not well implemented. Overall, we found the camera to have a nice body, and a few good features, but only average performance, despite its substantial $399.99 price

The T500 camera connects to a compatible HD television via an HDMI™ cable (sold separately). Photos and videos can be enjoyed as slide shows in high definition for a cinematic experience. Subjects can take center stage as slideshows move through sophisticated pans, fades and wipes. Slide shows are given a boost with background music, including use of up to four pre-recorded music tracks of up to five minutes in length. You can even add your own tunes, using the bundled software.

The T500′s basic specification is impressive. It has the same 10.1-megapixel 1/2.3-in Super HAD CCD sensor as the T700, a high quality 5x optical zoom Carl Zeiss lens equivalent to 33-165mm, and a big 3.5-inch widescreen touch-sensitive monitor. It has a strong all-aluminium body with a clever two-part slide-down front cover, and is available in silver, red or the gloss black shown here. At just 21.4mm thick it is one of the slimmest cameras on the market, and weighing 180g including card and battery it’s small and light enough to slip unobtrusively into your pocket.

The body design is attractive without being too flashy. The details on the front panel are arranged so that the camera looks good when hanging vertically from its wrist strap, and the overall shape is easy to hold and operate. There is a small but useful rubberised finger grip on the front, while the strap lug on the back doubles as a thumb grip. Since it is operated almost entirely via the touch-screen interface the T500 has very few external controls, so the whole of the back of the camera is taken up with the large LCD monitor.

Besides the enhanced video functionality, the Sony Cybershot DSC-T500 has a 5x 33-165mm Carl Zeiss zoom lens (35mm equivalent), a 3.5-inch touch screen LCD display, Optical SteadyShot image stabilization, face detection, and sensitivity to ISO 3200. The T500 has an HDMI connector so images and video can be shared on high-definition TV sets, and new slideshow features with music and fades.