Sony DSC-T33 Review

The screen display when in the AUTO (point-n-shoot) mode. Minimal information is displayed and only a few parameters such as image size or recording mode can be changed. Upper left is the battery level and remaining time in minutes that's constantly displayed. Whenever the zoom setting is changed, the sliding gauge below the battery icon is displayed vriefly. The image size is "5M"egapixels, the image folder is 101, there's 388 shots left and in the center are the AF target marks. The focus mode is Single AF.

The camera mode is selected from the first option in the menu: Auto, Program, Magnifying Glass (super closeup mode), Twilight, Twilight Portrait, Landscape, Soft Snap, Candle, Beach, Snow, Magnifying Glass Mode, High Speed Shutter and Fireworks.

Program AE mode is also automatic but it offers the user a wealth of settable options. The white balance set to fluorescent, ISO speed to 100, spot metering, the color saturation, contrast and sharpness are on the "+" setting, and more. All of this information can be cleared off the screen by pressing the Monitor button. Pressing the Monitor button will also enable the live histogram display.

Half-pressing the shutter will activate the autofocus system, if successful it displays a green "OK" dot and the AF target marks turn green and the shutter speed and aperture values are shown at tbhe bottom.

After a picture has been captured it can be quickly reviewed by pressing "Left" on the 4-way controller.

Record options (other than Auto mode):

Camera - Select the still image exposure mode from:
Auto, Program, Magnifying Glass (super closeup mode), Twilight, Twilight Portrait, Landscape, Soft Snap, Candle, Beach, Snow, Magnifying Glass Mode, High Speed Shutter and Fireworks.

Exposure Compensation - Offset the exposure metering by ±2.0EV in 1/3EV steps

Focus - Multi AF, Center AF or focus fixed at 0.5m, 1m, 3m, 7m or infinity

Metering - Multi-pattern (default) or Spot

White Balance - Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Fluorescent, Incandescent, Flash

ISO - Auto or manually locked at 64, 100, 200, 400

Picture Quality - Fine or Standard

Record Mode - Normal, Burst or Multi Burst
(The MultiBurst mode lets you record sixteen frames at high speed. The capture rate is selectable for 7.5fps, 15fps or 30fps via the menu. These 320x240 images are merged into one 1280x960 finished image. When the image is played in-camera it is animated in sequence.)

Burst Rate - 7.5/15/30 frames per second (only when Multi Burst is active)

Bracket Step - 0.3, 0.7 or 1.0EV (only when Bracketing is active)

Flash Level - High, Normal or Low

Picture Effect - None, Sepia or B&W

Saturation - Default is 0 but may be + or -

Contrast - Default is 0 but may be + or -

Sharpness - Default is 0 but may be + or -

Macro (close-up) focus mode allows you to shoot much closer than normal. The focus range in macro is from 3.1 inches to infinity. Not close enough? Use the Magnifying Glass Mode to get as close as 0.4 inches (1 cm) for up to 3x life size images!

Record motion video with audio. The 640x480 "VX Fine" mode is 30fps and requires the use of Memory Stick Duo Pro media to insure that it can stream the data fast enough from the camera. The VX standard mode is also VGA resolution (640x480) but at a lesser 16fps frame rate and can be recorded on regular Memory Stick Duo media. The length of recording is limited only by the space available on the Memory Stick being used.

Movie clips can also be recorded in 160x112 resolution at 8fps, these movies will playback in a smaller window. The advantage is that the file sizes are smaller and more practical for e-mail purposes.

Memory Stick Capacities (approx.)

Movie mode options:

Exposure Compensation - Offset the exposure metering by ±2.0EV in 1/3EV steps

Focus - Multi AF, Center AF or fixed focus at 0.5m, 1m, 3m, 7m or infinity

Metering - Multi-pattern (default) or Spot

White Balance - Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Fluorescent or Incandescent

Picture Effect - None, Sepia or B&W

Image Size - 640 Fine, 640 Standard, 160 e-mail