I bought this as a replacement when I lost my other Sony Cybershot camera (I think it was the T100, but cant remember it anymore). I was leary because I was not real happy with my other camera and was actually happy to have lost it. After reading reviews and looking at the things this camera could do, I took a chance and bought this newer, MUCH BETTER, version. I LOVE this camera!!! First, Im not sure why someone else had battery trouble, but I have taken this camera to every party and have taken well over 100 pics and some video and my camera has never died. I do fully charge it before I leave, and I always take my charger just incase (its small enough to throw in my purse or car), but I have never needed to use it!

Now, Im not a professional and Im not going to write a detailed description of ISO, and lighting specialties ect. I will leave that to the real professionals. What I will say is that it takes great pictures and it does so with ease. I dont have to change the scene, it automatically detects what I need (LOVE THIS FEATURE). I never really new what scene I needed anyway! Plus, by the time I would pic a scene the photo op was usually over anyway. I like to literally point and shoot! Thats what these cameras are supposed to be for anyway, right! But with the auto scene feature the camera is always ready to go! and it catches the greatest shots! and fast!! I can not tell you how important the quickness is when trying to take a picture of my 2 year old. Which brings me to another great feature...there is a smile detection setting!! You can set this camera to recognize when someone smiles and it takes the shot!! I didnt believe it until I tried it. And you can actually set it to detect just the childs smile, if you are taking a pic of with multiple people in the photo! Im not sure how the heck this works, but it is amazing and I am impressed!

There are so many other great features! I also LOVE the video capability. This camera has stereo recording, which puts this about 100 bucks higher than the same camera without stereo, I think its worth it because I find Im using it instead of my regular video camera. It has 3 recording levels, but even at the lowest you get a good quality video with great sound!

The editing functions in this camera are great too! There are simple actions as well as fun and (a little strange) options. There is actually an option to turn someone frown upside down! Seriously, if you take a photo and the person doesnt smile, you can edit it so that it looks like they are. Weird, right? But it is fun and a conversation piece anyway!

I could go on and on, but I am so glad I got this camera!

I've had my red T900 for a few weeks and here's a list of the things I love, in roughly decreasing order of importance:

- GREAT video quality. This camera shoots 720p videos at 30fps, and the quality both indoors and outdoors has far exceeded my expectations. I previously used a T100 but also use cameras from Fuji and Casio for some occasions, and the difference between the T900's 720p high-quality mode and the typical VGA fine mode on other cameras is like day and night. Not only do you get HDTV resolution, the colors are more vibrant and the clarity is just great.

- You can optically zoom the lens during video recording. This is a must-have feature for me as I mostly shoot video clips of my kids.

- Very good still picture quality. This is no digital SLR, for sure, and the image quality is probably not as excellent as Canon's and Panasonic's compact digital cameras, but it's still very good. I read some reviews before deciding on this camera and I had worries about picture quality, but they were dispelled the minute I reviewed the still images on my PC. Very good contrast and clarity, and they make great prints.

- Smile shutter. I never thought I'd buy into this feature, but now I absolutely love it! You can set the sensitivity to three levels, and you can even choose "child priority" or "adult priorit"! And it really works! This is just totally awesome for taking still shots of my kids. (Smile shutter does not work in video mode.)

- Large 3.5" touch-screen LCD. There're no conventional controls, just touch-screen, like most Sony camcorders. The LCD is 1920x480 in resolution, and the menu text looks a little jagged, but you'll love its brightness, fast speed, and clarity for viewing images.

- Fairly easy to use. Sony employs a top-level HOME menu system with sub menus, but it's not too confusing, just a tad harder to figure out the advanced stuff than on an, say, iPod touch.

- Stylish and feature-rich. This is quite thin but still features 4x optical zoom with optical stabilization. The zoom also works in movie-recording mode. It takes Memory Stick PRO Duo cards up to 16GB. Battery lasts about 150 pictures with flash. Not bad. It's light-weight so easy to carry in a pocket, too.

In short, I love this digital camera. It's perfect for all occasions.

The compact size makes this the perfect travel camera without having to sacrifice resolution. The quality of the pictures and video shorts is amazing for such a compact design. My only disappointment is that the docking station does not charge the camera.

Picture and video quality were good. However, I was only able to get 60-70 pictures out of a fully charged battery. Very unacceptable. My present Panasonic camera gets 150-200 pictures from 2 fully charged AA batteries. While the camera is very slim and compact, the advantage is lost if you must carry around spare batteries. Returned for a refund. I would not recommend this camera because of the poor battery life.

I'm adding a review mainly to give another opinion in contrast to those who complain about the battery life:

I got the camera 9 months ago and went ahead and sprung for a spare battery - so far I've NEVER run down a battery in a single day unless I was shooting >30 minutes of movie. For just pics I get 180-200 per charge, and I'm rarely taking more than 100 a day.

I guess if I were a pro I'd want more battery - but if I were a pro I'd want more camera too. The settings for this camera give me VIVID photos - closeup, landscapes, portraits, sunsets, rainbows - all with excellent color and contrast.

The touch-screen controls on the back give me both easy to navigate menu options and an absolutely superb view (when taking) and playback.

It DID take a little while to familiarize myself with the various menu options, but for a camera with this many bells and whistles I'd expect to have a learning curve. Now that I know the settings it's easy to whip the thing out of my pocket, fire it up, and within a few seconds change my settings from pic to movie, from a bright sunlit beach to a sunset or fireworks at night.

I'd expect to spend four times as much for a camera that takes better photos.

Reviewed many cameras before choosing Sony Cybershot Camera. High ratings and good reviews. My daughter loves it.

I never thought about buying a Sony camera. However I have a Sony credit card and accumulated a lot of points. So I thought I would buy this because my wife want something small. I did not have high expectations.
Boy was I surprised. Took some pictures and it just completely blew me away. I did not bother with any settings and just used the automatic settings. All the pictures, including people and landscape came out sharp and vibrant. Even my 8 year old was able to take some impressive shots with this baby. I will try to load some images so take a look. The screen is wonderful. When they say photorealistic, believe it. I would give it a 4 and half star. I did not give it a 5 because let's face it, a DSLR will take much better pictures.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T900 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom and Super Steady Shot Image Stabilization (Silver). I has another digital Sony camera 10 Mp, I bought 2 years ago, I liked it because its photos are very nice and clear, easy to use. I just bought the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T900 12.1 MP Digital Camera from AMAZON, after using this camera, I feel better, this camera is the best. The price offered by AMAZON was accepted and cheaper than any store.

my friend had the 700 series... after using that one, i decided to get one, one of the 900 series.. not much of a difference other than picture size and probably built in memory.. only thing i found as negative is that it has very small memory, so you have to get a memory stick, 2gb sony memory stick, so it will add$15-25 to price you pay for the camera , not as much as the price, but extra work.

battery-wise, if you don't use video a lot, it's alright..

other than that, absolutely great! sleek, touch-screen, easy to operate and understand settings, videos are good, etc.. very, very lovely machine... i paid around $320, but is it worth it i think

Not bad, but the T200 is still better: as in more rigged, less plasticky, easier menus with faster, more accessable settings, beefier housing and of course, much cheaper - I ended up GIVING this away to the wife and going back to my T200, so save your money: the "old" T200 kicks it's behind!!