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.
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