Before I conducted this side by side comparison, I purchased and returned the Olympus Tough 6000, Casio EX FC-100 and Casio Exilim EX-S10. The Olympus took awful pictures. The S10 was just blah - no real feature improvements of the Exilim 5MP I have now. The FC-100 was just too big.

So yes, I am picky! I wanted a small, sexy, functioning, easy to use, superior camera. I was torn between the Canon Powershot 780IS and Sony Cyber-Shot T90. I visited with both at a retail store and was still undecided - besides Amazon prices were much cheaper. I ordered both and did a side by side comparison in my home. The Canon went back - sorry Powershot.

Here's the scoop. Just for base leveling - I just like to take good pictures of my dogs and garden and husband and just life. I'm not a professional. I mostly post my pictures facebook or email - very rarely do I print.

Both cameras were sexy and small. Both were hefty and felt solid. Both require you remove the battery to charge it. That's about where the similarities end.

The Canon menu interface was clunky and not intuitive. I have not used either brand of camera in the past - so I have no bias from previous experience. Simple things like changing the picture setting took a couple minutes to figure out. The Sony has a touch screen - which at first I thought was just hype. I mean really, Ashton is cute and all - but I don't need a touch screen. Then I used it!! It rocks!! Very easy to navigate. Quick to learn and very functional.

The T90 is almost completely automatic. The only feature missing is the "make me look skinny" setting. Plus in auto mode - the camera tells you which setting is selected (portrait, landscape, gourmet food- seriously). So you don't have to worry if your mountains will look like sushi or vice versa. The smile detection comes on automatically when you take a picture of a face. It's doesn't work on dogs - but it did recognize a Barbie doll face. There are tons of features - like touching the screen to focus on a person or object for the auto focus. Smile settings - little smile, medium, and big. The screen is a nice size for viewing and sharing on the spot. And seriously, it has a gourmet food setting. I have no idea why- but it's cool. There is also a beach setting, snow setting and underwater setting (camera is not waterproof).

The big deal breaker was the picture quality. I took at picture of the same scenes with both cameras at the same time. Both camera set to auto setting and then set to landscape. I uploaded all pictures to my laptop and viewed them in the format and size directly from the camera. The Sony pictures were more vibrant, had more detail and were crisp. I asked my husband to look at a side by side of the pictures - he picked the Sony pictures, as well. I also tested the image stabilization on both cameras. The Sony again was superior. Neither camera did well when I jumped up a down while taking a shot. But, the Sony outperformed on hand wobbling. So, done!! The Sony won.

The Sony also has less shutter lag and shorter "boot up time". I love the touch screen. The camera is small, easy to use and fun. The picture quality is great.

This camera takes great pictures in all kinds of light. The smile detector actually works! You don't even have to press the button. When it's set for smile detection you aim the camera and voila! The camera is small enough to fit in your purse and go everywhere with you. It also has a nice size viewing screen. The zoom is very easy to use because there's a button that moves back and forth, not like my old camera where you had to go to the menu to get the zoom. It takes a while to get used to all the functions of the touch screen, but once you learn, it's worth it!

This a trully automatic camera! No need to fiddle with setting, just leave it on auto mode and you'll have great pictures!

I got T90 instead of canon is780. Canon is780 was hard to turn on and the pictures were so so.

What I like about t90:
1. Movies are great, full HD, small in size and you can use optical zoom while shooting movies!!!

2. Auto mode really does work on this camera. It detects the best settings for the shot PLUS it takes two pictures with two best possible settings!!! This is really handy when shooting with low light.

3. Big lcd screen, love it!

4.Picture quality is comparable to SLR cameras.

5.The form of this camera makes it very easy and convenient to use. Very well made!

I purchased this camera during the summer and i have to say i am truly impressed with the picture quality, i know there are a lot of 12.1mp cameras out there and many of them are cheaper but you will not get the same quality pictures! the lenses in this camera are what make it amazing! Also this camera is tiny! you can take it anywhere and the video it shoots is 720p!! and is truly high definition. Another thing that really sold me on this camera is how fast it starts up, you slide the front open and its ready to go in around a 1/2 second really nice feature.
My one complaint about the camera is you have to remove the battery to charge it, kind of annoying but other than that its perfect!

I simply could not believe Sony would bring to the market a camera like this one. I've had many Sony products, including three digital cameras (from the 1997 Mavica to a 3MP and a 5MP Cyber-shot). This camera is very slim and convenient, the touch screen and the software are great. BUT, unless you simply want to show-off your camera, I'd rather keep my wife's old 3MP cyber shot. The indoor pictures were awful, and I know how to take pictures. The automatic mode gets lost with low light and shoots with 800 ISO, so the pictures are all grainy. Unless you set it manually, and you get a more decent picture. But still, I compared with the old 3MP (indoor and outdoor with a tripod) and the picture quality was much better with the old one.
I'll not buying any more Sony. I switched to Canon (and looking at Amazon's rankings, it seems I am not alone)

I received this camera a few weeks ago and have enjoyed it ever since. It was an upgrade from an older 7.1 MP Sony camera (DSC-P200). This model is a tremendous improvement over my previous model. I compared it to similar price level models from Canon and Nikon and found this models interface to be more user friendly, admittedly this could be due to my familiarity with Sony products.

Pros:

Great vibrant photos
Good crisp images when not using zoom
Compact yet sturdy
Touch-Screen
Nice display
Great interface-I love that you can browse photos by date as it makes organization much more fluid and intuitive.

Cons:

Zoom is not on the level of other similarly priced models (though models with better zoom are bulkier-you have to pick your preference when selecting).

Touch-Screen can be a little tedious, Sometimes the touch-screen will not
recognize or respond to my actions and I do not have large fingers/hands. I would imagine someone with large hands/fingers could have a problem with the touch screen responding to a particular command when multiple options are present on screen.

With all that said me and the Mrs. are very happy with the purchase. Others who have used it have been impressed as well-her Aunt is actually talking about ordering one now. It's great as a point and click camera and is compact enough to be carried effortlessly. We are still wanting a DSLR camera, but this camera will hold us over until we make that transition--and even then, I know the DSLR will never be a full everyday carrier type of replacement!

This cybershot is one of the best that I've owned. The extra large screen is great for seeing the subject before taking the picture. Touch screen features are very user friendly as well.

Everything is good with this Camera except for not being able to read 16GB Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo. It reads max up to 8GB. Whereas Sony says it is supposed to read upto 32GB. I tried Cameras from Amazon and both had the same problem

I love it. I just had it for a couple of weeks. It is very easy to use, just put it on auto mode and leave the rest for the camera to do.
I am impresed how clear the pictures and videos are.

Great camera. Almost equal to Sony T77 but with some extra functions. Small, light and easy to use. Pictures with great quality. I recommend.