Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX200V 18.2 MP Waterproof Digital Camera with 5x Optical Zoom and 3.3-inch OLED (Red) (2012 Model)

When i buy cameras or any other imaging equipment to preserve memories i usually try not to look at the price because sometimes it hurts to see it but there's no way you can retake another picture of your child, mother, father, loved one, a pet... 10 years later when you will look at history and when it will start matter to you more and more you probably would think why you didn't buy a better camera so you don't have so many blurry or dark or simply bad shots... This camera is totally awesome - image quality is amazing, panorama shots are awesome, especially in 3D and HD, total WOW! Love GPS feature - i used to carry around little sony GPS module with me while shooting pictures so i can geotag them later and now camera does it for me, sweet! Video is actually better than i thought it would be, it's pretty impressive and smooth, clear, vivid and image stabilizer is also amazing - actually better than most of the camcorders i owned before and it shoots in 1080p. i used to have few casios, kodaks and cannons but i found sony does an amazing job reproducing color and features are also great! Well, still cannot compare to DSLR but some modes let you shoot with background blur. Shots in the dark are also come out fairly crisp. Some might complain about not having a remote - remotes are obsolete, your smile is your remote and it makes pictures even better with smile! i just put camera somewhere (a tree, a tripod, a trash bin, a fence - you can find something to put camera on pretty much anywhere) my smile shutter is always on so all i meed to do is to smile to my camera and it takes pictures, this is actually much funner way of taking pictures. i have never had a burning need for a remote and actually prefer to live without it since i don't want another thing to carry in my pocket. I have a DSLR with remotes but those rarely leave the house because of the bulkiness. i am looking forward to test it out under water when we'll go snorkeling, feels little weird taking camera under water without a case ;)

I just took delivery of the Sony TX200v and have played with it for the past several hours. Before I get into specifics, I will tell you that it is going back to Amazon for the following reasons: - While pretty to look at, I don't see the glass front surviving very long. Not only with scratches, but I fear even a short distance drop will doom the glass. - At $500, I expected better performance and more features. - Build quality is lacking. I can physically press on the front and see the camera flex on itself. Additionally, the battery door is cheap, and I don't see it keeping water out at any depth. - Indoor photos leave much to be desired. Too much "softening" which results in poor sharpness. - Micro SD card.... Really? I damn near lost the card trying to put it into the camera. - Battery life with videos is terrible (within 10 minutes the battery was at 1/2 charge). This was with a fully charged, previously used Sony N type battery. That being said, this camera has the best video of any point and shoot I have ever owned/tried. At max resolution the images are super crisp with no stuttering on playback, and the image stabilization is also exceptional. With good lighting, this easily replaces a camcorder. However, I found the focus to be slow and incoherent with less than perfect lighting. The camera continuously kept auto-focusing between landscape and macro which got very annoying. Additionally, one minute of recording at the highest level resulted in a file over 100MB. My reasoning for returning the camera has to do with the awful indoor photos that it took, and the fact that it eats batteries in video mode. If it took decent photos, I might have kept it. But at $499, there is no way to justify its short comings.

I purchased this camera for an upcoming trip to the Florida Keys. I needed something waterproof that could take nice pictures and some video. I had been looking at GOPRO Silver cameras, but wanted something to take pictures better. The Sony TX 200V is a nice unit, but after reading some of the reviews I began to question how waterproof it is. There are reports online that the battery door seal is not as robust as other brands. I decided to give it some added protection by purchasing a waterproof case. I purchased the Polaroid case, for use when taking underwater pics & video. The camera is fast taking pictures and takes very nice photo's. It's new to me, so I can't really add any information as to the durability just yet. We'll find out in a couple of weeks when I get back from the trip, I'll add to the review and post some pics.