"Sunlit" Portrait:
(This is my new "Outdoor" Portrait test - read more about it here.)

High resolution and strong detail. Images are slightly warm-toned, but color is very good. Contrast is high, with limited detail in the highlights and shadows. Camera wanted to focus on the flowers, rather than Marti's face.

• Exposure compensation: +0.3 EV, less than average.
• Contrast/Tone: High, some highlight detail lost, even with dark midtones
• White Balance: Daylight was best, slightly warm toned. (Here's Auto, also somewhat warm.)
• Color accuracy: Image is a little warm-toned overall, but color is quite good, blues are a just about right, other colors are good also.
• Skin tones: Very good, perhaps a little yellowish, but better than average.
• Resolution/sharpness: Good in the flowers, soft in Marti's hair and face. (The camera's autofocus system picks the closest subject, which in this case is the flowers.)
• Shadow detail: Very good, surprisingly low noise

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.0 EV, see files T7OUTDP0.HTM through T7OUTDP3.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Contrast Series
Low	Normal	High

Color Saturation Adjustment
A good color saturation control, only slight impact on contrast levels.

Saturation Series
Low	Normal	High

Excellent resolution and detail, slightly soft but plenty of detail there. Again, high contrast though.

• Exposure compensation: +0.7 EV, about average.
• Exposure/Tone: High contrast makes for harsher skin tones
• Detail: Much better, face is in good focus. Details are slightly soft, but there's still plenty of detail there.
• Distortion: Good, zoom lens avoids distortion close-in like this.
  

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.3 EV, see files T7FACAP0.HTM through T7FACAP4.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Normal Flash "High" setting

Slow-Sync Flash "High" setting

Underexposed with the flash in the normal setting, better with high setting. Slow Sync produced more even lighting, but a strong warm cast.

• Exposure: Dim at normal setting, but high setting produced decent exposure. (Still slightly darker than I'd prefer though.)
• Flash balance with room lighting?: No blue highlights from the flash (so good color balance with room lighting), but images are rather warm overall.
• Color: Somewhat reddish skin tones from the influence of the room lighting, dark colors in bouquet. Not bad overall though.
  

Normal Flash Series:

Intensity Series
Low	Normal	High

Slow-Sync Flash Series:

Intensity Series
Low	Normal	High

Auto White Balance

Incandescent White Balance

More color left in the images than I'd prefer, but the Incandescent white balance setting doesn't do too badly. A bit more than the average amount of exposure compensation needed.

• Exposure: +1.3EV, adjustment needed, a bit more than average
• White Balance: Incandescent warm but probably acceptable, Auto is really too warm-toned.
• Color: Warm overall, skin tones yellow, blue flowers very dark, others flowers OK. (Probably about average, household incandescent lighting is a very tough light source.)
  

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.7 EV, see files T7INTP0.HTM through T7INTP5.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

ISO Series
The Sony DSC-T7 has average to a bit better than average image noise for a 5-megapixel digital camera. Noise in our test shots was low at ISO 64 and 100, became visible at ISO 200 (with some softening of subject detail), and was quite noticeable at ISO 400, with further loss of fine detail. Images captured with the T7 at ISO 400 were a bit rough and soft-looking when printed at 8x10 inches, to the point that we personally wouldn't count on printing them that large. At 5x7 inches, ISO 400 shots still showed some image noise, but at a level we think would be acceptable for most consumers. At 4x6 inch print sizes, noise ceased to be an issue altogether.

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Good color, with high resolution and strong detail.

• Sharpness/Detail: A lot of visible fine detail.
• Sharpness in Corners: Slight falloff, but better than average.
• Color: Auto white balance pretty accurate, Daylight setting a little warm.
• Detail lost to anti-noise processing?: Moderate, noticeable in the shadowed brick patterns.

High resolution and strong detail, with a pretty good dynamic range.

This image is shot at infinity to test far-field lens performance, and to present a near-infinite range of detail to the camera. NOTE that this image cannot be directly compared to the other "house" shot, which is a poster, shot in the studio.

• Sharpness/Detail: Good detail and definition.
• Sharpness in Corners: Very slight blurring, but still better than average.
• Color: Good.
• Dynamic Range: Pretty good, some detail loss in the brightest highlights, but still pretty good overall.
• Detail lost to anti-noise processing?: Moderate, in the brick patterns.
  
  

Resolution Series:

ISO Series:

Sharpness Series:

Contrast Series:

Contrast Series
Low	Normal	High

Saturation Series:

Saturation Series
Low	Normal	High

Color Series:

Color Series
Normal	Black & White	Sepia

Lens Zoom Range

A fairly typical 3x zoom range.

The T7's focal length range of 38-114mm equivalents is typical of most point & shoot digital cameras (just slightly less wide-angle than most). It corresponds to a moderate wide angle to a modest telephoto.

	Wide Angle
	3x Telephoto
	Digital Telephoto

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Good color with the Auto setting, if slightly cool, and great detail and resolution.

• White Balance: Auto setting good, just a little cool. Daylight also good, but a little warm.
• Color: Slightly cool skin tones, but still good. Blue robe and background a little purple, but overall color is still pretty good.
• Sharpness/Detail: Very good. (Close to the limits of the poster though.)
  

Standard Macro Shot

Macro with Flash

An average macro area with great detail. Flash performs pretty well, albeit with some falloff.

• Minimum Macro Area: 2.91 x 2.18 inches (74 x 55 millimeters), about average.
• Softness in corners?: A small amount, but much less than average. (Most cameras get fairly soft corners in macro mode.)
• Flash performance in macro mode?: Throttles down fairly well, though with falloff in the left corners.
  

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Good, appealing color, and a good exposure as well.

• White balance: Auto setting produced good results, though a hint greenish overall, Daylight was a little warm and yellow.
• Color Accuracy: Pretty good color and saturation. Reds and greens are oversaturated, bright yellow is very slightly dull. Other colors are more accurate than average. Good color overall.
• Shadow detail and noise: Slightly limited detail in the briquettes, low noise though..

The results in the tests below mirror those seen above in other test shots. The test series are repeated here without further comment, for the benefit of our more quantitatively-oriented readers.

ISO Series:

Contrast Series:

Contrast Series
Low	Normal	High

Saturation Series:

Saturation Series
Low	Normal	High

Color Series:

Color Series
Normal	Black & White	Sepia

Low-Light Tests

Poor low-light performance, marginal for average city night scenes, even at high ISO settings. Pretty good low-light autofocus, very good with AF-assist light.

• Exposure limit: Only usable at one foot-candle at ISO 100 and above, marginal in Night mode. (One foot-candle is about as bright as typical city street lighting at night.)
• Autofocus Limit: About 1/4 foot-candle, or to almost 1/16 foot-candle with AF assist.
• White Balance: Slightly reddish.
• Noise Levels: A little high, particularly at the higher sensitivities.
• Detail loss to anti-noise processing?: Moderately high at one foot-candle.
• General Notes: A maximum shutter speed of one second severely limits performance here, if you plan on a lot of after-dark shooting, you should probably consider a different camera. (Flash range is extremely limited too.)

(Note: If you'd like to use a light meter to check light levels for subjects you might be interested in shooting, a light level of one foot-candle corresponds to a normal exposure of two seconds at f/2.8 and ISO 100.)

	1 fc 11 lux	1/2 fc 5.5 lux	1/4 fc 2.7 lux	1/8 fc 1.3 lux	1/16 fc 0.67 lux
ISO 64	1 sec f3.5	1 sec f3.5	1 sec f3.5	1 sec f3.5	1 sec f3.5
ISO 100	1 sec f3.5	1 sec f3.5	1 sec f3.5	1 sec f3.5	1 sec f3.5
ISO 200	1/1 sec f3.5	1 sec f3.5	1 sec f3.5	1 sec f3.5	1 sec f3.5
ISO 400	1/2 sec f3.5	1/1 sec f3.5	1 sec f3.5	1 sec f3.5	1 sec f3.5
Night Mode (ISO 64)	2 sec f3.5	2 sec f3.5	2 sec f3.5	2 sec f3.5	2 sec f3.5

Flash Range Test

Very dim at eight feet, with decreasing intensity from that point on.

• Flash range at telephoto lens setting: Less than eight feet. (Typical of sub-compact cameras, flash range is extremely limited.)

8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft	12 ft	13 ft	14 ft
1/50 sec f4.4 ISO 64	1/50 sec f4.4 ISO 64	1/50 sec f4.4 ISO 64	1/50 sec f4.4 ISO 64	1/50 sec f4.4 ISO 64	1/50 sec f4.4 ISO 64	1/50 sec f4.4 ISO 64

ISO-12233 (WG-18) Resolution Test

Good resolution, 1,300 lines of "strong detail." Average barrel distortion at wide angle, moderately high pincushion distortion at telephoto. Low chromatic aberration, particularly at telephoto, good sharpness in the corners.

• Resolution: 1,300 lines both vertically and horizontally. (Could argue for 1,350 vertically, but 1,300 is more correct.)
• Artifacts begin at: ~1,000 lines.
• Extinction point: ~1,650 lines.
  
  
• Barrel/Pincushion distortion: 0.8 percent barrel at wide angle, 0.5 percent pincushion at telephoto. (Barrel is average, pincushion is higher than average.)
• Chromatic Aberration: Moderate to low at wide angle, quite low at telephoto.
• Corner Sharpness: Very good at wide angle, slight blurring at telephoto.

Resolution Series, medium focal length

Wide Angle	"Fine" JPEG	"Normal" JPEG
2,592 x 1,944	T7RES2592F	T7RES2592N
2,048 x 1,536	T7RES2048	-
1,280 x 960	T7RES1280	-
640 x 480	T7RES0640	-

 

Resolution Test, Zoom Series

2,592 x 1,944 (Fine, Wide Angle)	T7RESW
2,592 x 1,944 (Fine, Telephoto)	T7REST

Sharpness Series: