Rating: 
Summary: For All Of You Who Have Read The Bad Reviews... STOP!
Review: I am one of the most skeptical people you will meet and I am also very neurotic, which means when it came to doing the research for a new digital camera I was extremely thourough. The first thing I did was place a call to my geekiest friend who I knew I would recieve good advice from. Knowing what I was looking for in a camera he instantly suggested the sony dsc t1. I began to read approx. 150 reviews only to become very confused by all the horrible reviews I was reading. I called my buddy back to ask what he thought about this and he told me to STOP reading user reviews, because most people who write a review never have anything good to say and he suggested i check out steves digcam online for a very thorough and informed review. I did this and found that the camera got quite a wonderful review on this site, and I figured if I read anymore I wouldn't end up with a camera...just a headache! I purchased the sony dsc t1(which also came highly recommonded from the salesman) and I could not be happier with my purchase. Once you get past the cool level of the camera, based on size, sleekness and overall screaming of "play with me" by this camera you'll find it is much more than that. It takes excellent pictures. Is extremely easy to use, and like you'll read in most of the good reviews of this camera, the suggestion to READ THE MANUAL, is very beneficial. All the naysayers out there seem to me, to have no idea how to use this camera, because I can't believe all the complaints people seem to have, with blur, and red eye, and blah blah blah. The truth of the matter is that all cameras have idio syncracies and as the owner it is your job to figure them out and make the appropriate adjustments, and if you take the time to read this manual you'll find how easy it is to correct the problems you might find your having, and then you'll find what a joy this pocket size marvel is. Last but not least, I am very much a beginner, but what I've learned quickly is that any program you use, be it photoshop, picture manager, and my recommended Picasa2 from google, the ease in which you can correct problems like red eye or sharpness, blurring etc. are as easy to fix as one click away, so if your worried that your pictures dont look good when viewed on your beautifully massive lcd screen, DONT. Thats not the way you or your friends are going to look at your pictures. They'll see the pictures that you've taken time to correct(if you need to) on your computer, to which I promise can be absolutely stunning if you take a little time. I guess what I'mn trying to say is BUY THIS CAMERA AND YOU WONT BE DISAPPOINTED!
Rating:
Summary: Buyers Beware
Review: ****Before purchasing this item, be aware that you are purchasing through the listed merchant (Circuit City) and NOT Amazon.com. Thus, if you want to do something like cancel your order online, well, you CAN'T! Instead, you have to call CC's 1-800 number and put a special cancellation request in. Be sure you read every detail about the dealer before purchase. Also, CC has a rather poor policy on credit card charges. Instead of waiting to charge the order when the item(s) are shipped, they instead charge you for the amount as soon as you put the order through on Amazon.com's website. Amazon says they can't do anything about this, so you will have to ask the CC sales rep to reverse the charges. Even though CC's return/exchange policy says a refund cannot be made after an order has been placed, pester them until they will cancel the order. If it hasn't been shipped yet, chances are you can cancel the order and reverse any charges incurred on your card. The only good thing is that the sales rep I spoke to seemed helpful and courteous enough.****
Rating: 
Summary: design & color problems
Review: 1. The sliding lid has no lock and comes down very easily if it's sitting in your pocket - very annoying & wastes battery life.
2. the flash is at the same height & right next to the lens which leads to a very high rate of red-eye & i mean A LOT of red-eye.
3. The color balances were off - the colors came in very reddish-orangish which I would have to manually alter in Photoshop. Save yourself some money and wait till the next version comes out. It's a slick camera size-wise for sure, but it's just not good enough...
Rating:
Summary: design & color problems
Review: 1. The sliding lid has no lock and comes down very easily if it's sitting in your pocket - very annoying & wastes battery life.
2. the flash is at the same height & right next to the lens which leads to a very high rate of red-eye & i mean A LOT of red-eye.
3. The color balances were off - the colors came in very reddish-orangish which I would have to manually alter in Photoshop. Save yourself some money and wait till the next version comes out. It's a slick camera size-wise for sure, but it's just not good enough...
Rating: 
Summary: compromise camera
Review: 5.1 MP from the T1 is disastrous compared to my Sony 717 which is also 5.1 MP. The lack of clarity is also worse than my old Canon IXUS 2.0 MP. I thought that Sony had finally combined their brilliant electronics with imaging in an ultracompact size, but the image quality is a big disappointment. I have now reverted to lugging around my big 717 again. To all potential buyers - compare with the Canons and you will see what I mean.
Rating: 
Summary: exactly what I was looking for
Review: Although I have much experience with cameras, camcorders, and digital images, I have never owned a digital camera before. My main camera has been a Nikon 6006 SLR, so I am pretty picky about quality. After extensive research, I settled on the DSC-T1. It is exactly what I expected, and almost exactly what I wanted, but allow me to elaborate because it may not be exactly what YOU want. I was tempted by larger digital cameras (and I will eventually get one of those too). For example, the Panasonic Lumix is few bucks cheaper and has more controls, a BIG lens, great image stabilization, and 12x optical zoom (digital zoom is meaningless). It is even possible to get a medium size 5MP digital camera with 5x optical zoom and better pictures than the dsc-t1 for much less. However, I concluded that I would rather have a good camera with me 24x7 than leave a great camera in the car or at home. I was SO right. I have already captured SO many photos I would have missed. I carry the camera at all times in one of those silk bags that come with Oakley sunglasses. I considered other small cameras like the Casio Elixim Z4, but it does not have video in US versions. The Canon S400 is very good, but it is slower and thicker with a much smaller LCD, and a newer version is coming out April 30th. No ultra compact that is clearly better than the DSC-T1 is on the horizon. In addition to ultra compact size, I wanted at least 4MP, at least 3x optical zoom, quality video ability, speed, ease of use, and flexible shooting modes. This camera has 5MP, 3x optical zoom, excellent 640x480 video mode, speed, ease of use, and shooting modes flexible enough to accommodate everything from action to night images. Video is in MPG files, which can be played back on the free Real Player. It is not possible to zoom while shooting video, but it is possible to zoom before recording begins or when recording has been paused. I haven't tried the software that comes with it yet. I run Windows XP, and I just place the dsc-t1 in the cradle, turn it on, and it appears as another disk drive in Windows Explorer. I can copy files from it and paste them onto a hard drive. I can then delete the image files from the camera to free up the space on the memory stick just as if I were deleting files from any Windows folder. Apparently slowness is a problem with all digital cameras except for a few of the most recent ones, and the DSC-T1 seems fast to me. This may be the result of the newer and faster Duo Pro Memory Stick technology. Get the 256MB Duo Pro Memory Stick. The 512MB stick costs three times as much. Don't bother with a spare battery. They are too expensive, and the battery life is OK. You don't want to be frequently opening the delicate little battery/memory doors on digital cameras anyway. Don't worry about having no optical view finder. They just make cameras bigger. The 2.5 inch LCD is bigger than any other digital camera and is quite sufficient. Such a small camera is a little tricky to hold SECURELY without getting in the way of the lens, so if you tend to drop things, then you WILL eventually drop this unless you use the wrist strap at all times, which partially defeats the convenience aspect. I still haven't attached the wrist strap because I am extra careful, but someone could still bump into me while shooting. On the other hand, I don't want to overstate this problem because the camera is quite durable/graspable when the lens cover is closed. Almost every indoor picture with the kids has at least a hint of red eye. I consider about 60% of them to have too much, but I still get more quality shots than I have time to email, so I really can't complain. BTW, 5MP jpeg files are about 2MB each, which makes email a challenge. Less than one out of ten indoor pictures seems grainy. It is actually possible to take decent pictures in total darkness when using the flash because the auto focus works in the dark, which is not true for every camera. It is possible to use one of the modes that forces the camera to 100 speed to guarantee maximum resolution (0% graininess), but you may have to brace the camera well for the slow shutter speeds that result. In fact I took some good pictures from my front porch at NIGHT by bracing the camera, but this will take more practice. Note that such pictures did not use a flash because a flash is useless beyond a few yards away, and only works WELL up to 6 feet away.
One pleasant surprise was the excellent sound quality. I carried a digital voice recorder 24x7, which would fill up until I had time to manually transpose my notes and delete them forever to free up memory on the recorder again. Before that I used the very expensive little Pearlcorder L400. It was less convenient to transpose from a tape, but at least I could keep the tapes forever. Sound quality on all of them was poor. Whereas, with the DSC-T1, I discovered I could take hours of VIDEO notes in 160x160 mode with perfect sound quality and then just copy these files onto my hard drive to keep forever. This is when I knew I was keeping the DSC-T1.
Rating:
Summary: It's not worth it if you can't see what you're doing
Review: Always having had good experiences with Sony products, and having decided it was time to go digital, I was immediately drawn to this camera, but found it wasn't "well rated". It took me a while to figure out that the reviews in consumer and even photo magazines may be putting (or not putting) a dollar value on features which the individual consumer may have more or less use for. For me, perhaps more than for them, it's hard to see the display on many cameras.
The large display on this camera makes it easier to see what image you're going to end up with, and this makes it far superior to any other five megapixel camera I considered. Since everyone who has been in the vicinity since I began taking pictures with it has been impressed, I believe any photographer will appreciate this feature.
The small, flat, size also makes it as convenient as, well, a camera phone, and you can't take pictures if your camera is too much of a nuisance to carry around.
Rating:
Summary: A good camera once the settings are fixed
Review: As many people have noticed, this camera does not take good pictures out of the box. But if you spend a little time taking test shots and playing with the many controls, it can produce stellar results. With mine, I found that by setting it to Program mode (instead of Auto), setting the exposure to -0.3 EV, and the speed to ISO 100, I get consistently excellent results - not quite as good as bulky cameras costing twice as much, but impressive for something as small as this. Thankfully the camera remembers these settings between uses, so the adjustment only needs to be done once. Since then the camera has been a constant companion and lives in my pocket all the time (the lens cover has never once opened accidentally, perhaps because I slide it into my pocket endwise). The vulnerable controls and LCD on the back of the camera are protected by my PDA, which lives in the same pocket. Also, don't be afraid to change the flash power setting. This can make a huge difference when you're taking a closeup of Tiddles or shotting your daughter's birthday party. (Sony - why isn't the flash power automatically coupled to the focus distance?) Instead of Sony's expensive accessories, I bought a cheap PCMCIA memory stick adapter that lives permanently inside my laptop. That means I only have to take the power adapter when I go travelling. The ludicrous docking station and USB cable stay home. The camera needs more memory. The supplied 32MB isn't nearly enough; I immediately upgraded to 256MB, which is more than I'll ever need. But the single biggest drawback is NO TRIPOD MOUNT. Big mistake, Sony. To anyone who uses Photoshop to correct the colour balance or other defects: learn to use your camera! There's a menu setting for this. Play with it and do some test shots. Put a little effort in now and save a lot of time later. At the end of it all, it's a great camera, incredibly versatile and capable of high-quality results, but with some serious but (mostly) easily-corrected defects. Most people aren't going to spend the time making test shots and calibrating the camera, which is a shame because it's necessary if you're going to take good pictures. Sony should not have released this camera in this condition, and I hope they get it right next time - if they do, they'll have a real killer on their hands. Even so, I'd still strongly recommend this camera to anyone who's willing to put the effort in and who (like me) doesn't have the option of waiting for the next version.
Rating:
Summary: accessories to the fact
Review: attention small camera seekers: this is the ONE. Just buy a hard sided ipod case to keep it in - perfect size, clips on anything, just slide out camera and go. I travel to Europe alot, and this was really a great tool - surprised by quality and ease of use. No waiting to take pixs, and didn't run out of power ever. Not much to take along, either - not trying to sell the camera, but if you're a traveler, be confident that this will do the job beautifully and unobtrusively.
Rating:
Summary: Sony DSC T-1 a winner !
Review: Bought the T-1 a little over a week ago.All I can say is wow! The camera's features compared to it's size are incredible.Sony engineers truly are the masters at miniturization that's for sure.I also found the site "www.a-digital-life.com" that had a excellent review and great,large pics.The site also has alot of good articles about new technology and gadgets but I digress.
Let's get down to the nitty gritty about the T-1.I will start off exploring the camera's only three flaws in my opinion.That's the "red-eye" reduction,flash and the lack of some sort of lock for the slide down lens cover.You can accidentally open the cover(and subsequently start up the camera) and expose the lens to debris,etc.The other problem was the "red-eye" reduction.Bottom line it's just not up to snuff for the camera.The flash is also a little weak.Besides those three annoying,yet totally easy to live with things,the camera is a winner.Oh,one more little annoyance.In order to take video @ 30fps,you need the top of the line $300 512MB Memory Stick Pro Duo stick.Ouch! expensive,but I think worth it given the camera's cool factor and if you can afford it.
Now the good stuff about the T-1.One:It's size!It's barely bigger than a box of Altoids!Two:The HUGE 2.5" screen.It's the same quality screen that you see on PDA's.It has absolutely no glare in direct sunlight.Three:Shutter time.The shutter is BLAZINGLY fast! So you can take alot of pics in very little time.Four:Startup time is less than a second.Five:Quality construction(which is a HUGE deal to me)It feels and is a quality built camera.Feeling substantial yet not heavy in my hand.Plus,I'm just a sucker for anything with a brushed metal surface..lol.Finally: The overall experience.What I mean is,do you feel that you got a little more than what you paid for?Does the camera excite you? Are your firends totally blown away and jealous? YES,YES and YES!!! If you've got the dough,go get one now!
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