Sony DSC-T11 (Successor to T1)
I do have an addiction for cool gadgets. I have taken the plunge and purchased a DSC-T11 off of a vendor on E-Bay. E-Bay makes the world seem much smaller especially since this camera is NOT going to be released in the states. Additionally, FEDEX rocks! I place an order with the vendor on Monday and by Thursday I had the camera in hand, shipped directly from Hong Kong.
Some nice pictures of the T11 can be found on DPReview which in my opinion is one of the better sites for camera information. Check it out here: http://www.dpreview.com/news/0404/04041401dsct11.asp.
Steves DigiCams also has a good review of the T1 which has been released in the states. Check it out here: http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_reviews/t1.html.
Here is a picture of my camera.
My thoughts...
Basically this camera is very small, about the size and weight of an IPOD. (It fits very nicely into the IPOD case too) It is functionally identical to the T1, with some minor speed improvements. Sony also did away with the sliding cover and enlarged the strap connector. The 2.5 inch LCD is one of the best around, I suspect Sony will not have the lead for long in size, some other companies are using 2” LCDs. The LCD has a back light that can be turned off, great for saving on battery life, especially since there is no view finder. When the backlight is off, it appears to be like looking through a window when you are outside, very cool.
I am also very impressed with the time that it takes to capture your first shot, I would say about a second to compose and snap the picture. (It is longer if you were in play mode and then switch to record mode).
Now the negatives, Indoor and low light photos are not very good. The camera has a tendency to increase the ISO setting to compensate for the weak flash. Any setting above 100 usually results in noise. Realistically the flash will only illuminate about 5 ft.
I do recommend the camera if you plan on taking lots of outdoor or brightly lit scenes. It is definitely not a replacement for your other cameras. For me I needed something even smaller than my Canon S50 which I can bring every where. I was making do with the camera in my Treo 600 for the every day occasions. The one megapixel camera really sucks. But when you see something that you really want to remember some camera is better than no camera, but 5 megapixels is even better.
Alex