Thin Is In!

The Cyber-shot DSC-T33 is one ingeniously designed and compact camera. With it's smooth silver-plated body, devoid of any bulky bits jutting out from the sides as in most other cameras, it truly is a pleasure to carry around, for it can easily fit into most, if not all pockets, quite easily.

Perhaps the best part of this contraption is it's unusually large 2.5-inch LCD -- 40% larger than those on most conventional point-and-shoot models. Despite occupying most of the camera's back, Sony managed to place the various controls e.g buttons for deletion, the general menu, the self-timer, and zoom into a sensible layout that's not too taxing for your thumb. Another added bonus is the lighting fast power-up of the DSC-T33 -- ideal for capturing those candid moments.

However, there were a few minor quirks. Firstly, I'm not particularly fond of the positioning of the shutter button that's located near the power button. One accidental push may sometimes prove fatal. True, you need to press hard on the power button to turn the unit off...but still, I despise the awkward positioning in the first place.

Furthermore, the microphone too isn't located at the right place i.e. it is housed right where your thumb would naturally sit while holding the camera. In essence, one would need to constantly remember to move the thumb out of the way for recording voice-overs with mini-movies etc. Another minor gripe is the fact that owing to its ultrathin body, the DSC-T33 fails to stand up on relatively uneven surfaces for timed shots.

Now, on to the snapped images. Image quality outdoors is good and generated photos appear crisp and strong on detail. Indoors is quite a different story, for the photos were generally lacking that spark -- vibrance, in other words. Another caveat is the use of digital zoom on the DSC-T33. Strangely, it introduced a little distortion to images when used.

Nevertheless, I absolutely loved the menu system on the DSC-T33. It's comforting to know that every setting is just a few taps away e.g the white-balance settings, the exposure adjustments, special effects and so on.

The DSC-T33 comes with a cradle that is used to download all images from the camera and to recharge its lithium ion battery. A Memory Stick Duo card as well as a Picture Package software accompanies the DSC-T33 too. The latter provides standard tools: slide-show options, CD-R burning, and video CD burning -- in other words, nothing out of the ordinary.