T1 Disaster Pictures Examples for you to see

[jrichmond]

You have heard me complain about my T1. Now here are some examples of its problems. These pictures were taken at Future Park shopping center in the northern Bangkok suburbs. No editing was done other than to downsample them.

I do work in transportation planning and often like to take pictures of traffic and public transport. Look what happened to this scene with buses. I tried repeatedly to hold the camera as still as possible, but it is impossible to avoid camera shake at the exposures used -- the aperture is too small and exposure too long. Meanwhile, the noise reduction -- which cannot be turned off in program mode -- causes the most incredible, surreal distortion (auto mode is also a possibility, but you cannot change any settings there and the default exposure of 1/8th under low light produces inadequately exposed pictures).

I also took some shots of people on a bridge, and you can see the further blurry mess that resulted. I find it amazing that reviewers do not try to test out "difficult" scenes like this, but tend to stick to the best lighting situations which don't properly put a camera to the test.

In short: steer away from this camera. I am thinking of purchasing a DSC-F77, which has a faster lens likely to match my previous DSC-F55.

--Jonathan

[mestleman]

I had spent many nights testing different settings and
finding the best way to take pictures in the T1 at low light.
After weeks. I gave up as the problem is in the hardware. I wonder how the V1 would perform at the same situation.
Note that in the V1, the shutter is the same 1 second
or a little bit faster since it has F2.8 lens and Noise
Reduction is enable at all times the shutter fall below
1/6 seconds. So if anyone among you has taken a shot
using the DSC-V1, pls. share the pictures too. I purchased
an old F55 from Ebay and would receive it over the
weekend. I'm curious how it can beat the T1 when the
F55 shutter speed is 1/30 fastest and the image should theoretically come out black. But like Richmond said, it's
even better than the T1. Hmm... maybe the F55 can adjust
itself to 1/5 second explosure or its ISO is not true 100
but higher.

As a rule. The bigger the sensor, the better the image. The
T1 has too small pixel sensor that's why it can't get enough
light. And the F55 has pixel twice its size so it should do
better. However, the aware winning V1 size is not really as
big as the F55, so I wonder how it actually performs. I had
been visualizing a lot lately why it should theoretically work.
I plan to own both F55 and V1 (if this can produce a good
image).

If the V1 is as bad (hope someone can send a pic and I really
need to see the pic). Then I'll get 2 F55. Hey, guys, another
one is being bidded at Ebay for $71. I got mine there. It's
the T1 owners chance to get one. Get it before I hoard it
(what may be the last few real digicams around)

c

[jrichmond]

As I warned in an earlier posting, I am not recommending anyone to go out and get an F55. It does take sharper pictures than the T1, and I have many great low light photos taken with it.

However, it is now outdated in many ways, and I'd say explore the DSC-F77, which is similar (fast lens, no zoom) but newer.

[mestleman]

I go to Steves main page. There is no DSC-F77. Or are you
referring to F707? Or what's another name for this "F77"?

[jrichmond]

As I mentioned, the DSC-F77 is not officially available in the USA,
and US reviewers have therefore not featured it. You can purchase the camera from a number of retailers grey market, however, and a search with Google will yield plenty of web pages giving information on the camera.

[amazingthailand]

These examples are night time photos taken hand held. That being the case, the exposure and problems you are experiencing are not abnormal.

When you are going to take shots like this you must brace the camera on something very steady to minimize movement. What you are seeing is camera movement during the exposure. All cameras will exhibit this same problem with long exposures. A lot will have to do with the photographer and his/her ability to hand hold the camera steady during the exposure.

Granted, faster lenses will shorten the exposure, but the diminutive size of cameras like the T1, preclude a fast lens.

Try bracing the camera against a wall or post when you take the photo. It should improve the results, but don't expect tack sharp photos without using a tripod. And even with a tripod, movement of people, vechiles in the photo will still blur those items.

Declan

[jrichmond]

The point is that I've got better results with another camera and I certainly did not expect this one to be quite so bad.
I realize that camera shake is a major part of the problem
but it is particularly hard to hold something this small steady.

Quite apart from the camera shake, the noise reduction brings an an awful lot of strange artifacts.

[nicke2323]

Thanks for your effort jrichmond. But with all respect, these pictures are no worse than I would expect from any handheld compact digital camera under those lighting conditions. Are you absolutely sure you get significantly better results using other cameras in *comparable* lighting?

If so, please post pictures taken from both the T1 and another camera at the same time.

Otherwise I don't think it's very fair of you to keep trashing this camera on every forum on the net.

[jrichmond]

I am posting comments -- accurate comments including replies from Sony -- to two forums on the net (and have also done a selling site review). I have had the camera for well over a month before most people in the USA have seen one, so it is important to get the word out about this camera's problems. There are a few similar comments from other owners scattered about.

I have now taken several thousand shots with this camera, and the issues bothering me stick out because I haven't experienced them before.

[mestleman]

Does Noise Reduction really produce artifacts? Isn't it
supposed to remove all the noises. I wonder what's the
difference between image done with NR and without
in addition to noise reduction. Like does it change the
color of the image.

The T1 is F3.5. If you would change to F2.8. The
shutter would be less than twice faster... like from
1/2 sec to 1/3.5 second. So even if the T1 has F2.8
(which it doesn't) I don't expect huge improvement.
The V1, P10 has somewhat similar performance at low
light to the T1. When Richmond stated his F55 is much
better. This really got me curious as I think it is possible
that larger sensor should produce better response. So I
got a F55 at Ebay for comparison. When I get it next week.
I'll make a comparison report compared to the current
5 megapixel cameras. If the F55 is obviously better,
Then 2 megapixel are optimum for low light below that
of pure SLR costing dozens of times over.

matt