The good: Fast performance; excellent design, LCD; optical zoom works in movie mode.
The bad: Short battery life; photo quality merely OK for the money; touch-screen not for everyone.
The bottom line: Though some will be disappointed by its photo quality, the barely there, high-tech Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T900 is a very good ultracompact camera.
Sony's high-contrast Xtra Fine display is quite good. At its Normal
brightness setting, there was no issue seeing the screen in direct
sunlight. Well, after wiping away fingerprints there was no issue; the
T900 seems to collect more than most. If having to wipe off
fingerprints is a deal breaker, you'll want to skip this camera and
probably all touch-screen models for that matter.
Aside from fingerprints, you might take issue with the touch screen's responsiveness. I found the T900's to be fine with fingers, but better with the included stylus (or Paint Pen as Sony calls it) likely because you can be more precise with it. It clips onto the wrist strap and allows you to quickly poke around the three onscreen menus (Home, Menu, and Display) along with the in-camera retouching and painting tools (you can add stamps, frames, or draw on pictures) all while keeping the screen free of fingerprints.
Navigating the camera settings is easy enough, once you remember what menu system you want. The Home menu gives you access to all the main features and options, while the Menu screen provides context-sensitive options; for instance, if you're taking still pictures, you get all the settings related to the shooting mode you're in.
Photo quality for the T900 is a bit tricky. The results are roughly the same as the sub-$250 Cyber-shot DSC-W290, which was very good for its price. The T900 is $100 more, though, so the expectation is there that the photos should be better and they aren't. (The extra money no doubt went into the better LCD and miniaturization of everything.)
Color and exposure were very good: pleasing and accurate,
though reds were occasionally a little too vivid. The camera goes from
ISO 80 up to ISO 3,200, but usability drops off significantly above ISO
400 (typical of cameras in its class). However, even at ISO 80, photos
viewed at full size have a grain to them that only gets more pronounced
as sensitivities get higher. It had little to no impact on large prints
(13x19 and below) made from test shots taken up to IS0 200. If you're
planning to make prints that large, just keep the ISO as low as
possible. In the end, the photos are good for a snapshot camera, but if
you're expecting better quality because of the higher price tag, don't. (Click to see a slide show of sample photos from the T900.)
Those interested in picking up the T900 for the added benefit of HD movie capture will be happy that the quality is very good. And, you get use of the 4x optical zoom while recording.