Sony unveils three new basic subcompact cameras

Recently, Sony updated its line of small, advanced SLR-like cameras. Today, the company refreshed its simpler, more consumer-oriented digital cameras, with three new basic subcompacts: the 14-megapixel Cyber-shot DSC-T99 ($250), 12-megapixel Cyber-shot DSC-WX5 ($300) and 12-megapixel Cyber-shot DSC-TX9 ($400).

The feature Sony has been most hard at work marketing is panorama mode, including the Sweep Panorama mode seen in the commercial with singer Taylor Swift. Found on all three new models, this lets you press the shutter button and sweep the camera horizontally while the camera fires off dozens of photos in high speed and stitches them together. Sony has also borrowed some technology from the NEX-5 SLR-like camera: The TX9 and the WX5 each feature a 3D Sweep Panorama mode, which creates a 3D panorama (to view it in 3D, you need an HDMI cable connected to a 3D-enabled HDTV

Another feature borrowed from the NEX series is background defocus. This tries to mimic the effect found on almost all SLRs of blurring the background to make the viewer focus only on the subject you're shooting. Commonly known as creating a shallow depth of field, some also refer to the quality of the blur as Bokeh. The reason Sony has included this defocus feature on the WX5 and TX9 is that point-and-shoots tend to make all subjects, whether in the deep background or very close in the foreground, as sharp and as in focus as possible. However, given how tiny the lenses housed in such tiny camera bodies are, I'm skeptical about how "unfocused" or blurred this effect can be. It will be interesting to see how well this feature works when we get the cameras into our labs.

Like many point-and-shoots, all three models can shoot HD-resolution video: the WX5 and the TX9 can capture 1080i (AVCHD), and the T99 captures 720p. All are less than an inch thick, with large LCDs and no optical viewfinders. The TX9's 3.5-inch touch screen is the largest display. Each of the two T-series models has a non-telescoping, 4x zoom lens. The WX5 has a 5x, which protrudes from the camera body. All have wide-angle capability.

The new models will be available in September.

—Terry Sullivan