Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX5 10.2MP CMOS Digital Camera with 4x Wide Angle Zoom with SteadyShot Image Stabilization and 3.0 Inch Touch Screen LCD (Red)

I bought this neat camera for my wife and five-years-old daughter for pool and beache activities this summer. It has been a really helpful device to record every exciting moments, such as the situation of ocean waves splashing on us, paranoma scenes, or even recording the pretty underwater scenes in the pool. Sony TX5 has done a great job. My daughter right now knows better how to perform this camera more than us. I suppose the touch-screen features are quite easy to understand, even for a girl of five years old. In essential, I like this compact camera. However, it has to be noted of two exceptions:1) The edge distortion of this 24 mm len is quite severe. You have to adjust for yourself not getting a strange image, specially on faces of your family. You might be able to ignore this problem in the case of when you snap on the large and tall buildings.2) The sliding lid on the front will get some beach sands inside. It is very hard to get those sands out. I have tried to blow it with hair dryer, but in vain.Except for these two, I satisfy with this real compact, low-light capturing, and pretty camera. So does all of my family! :D

I bought this camera just before I went on my honeymoon in Mexico. I specifically wanted a waterproof but stylish camera and this fit the bill perfectly. Over all this camera is pretty easy to use once you got use to the interface. There were a lot of preset options so it was easy to switch from panoramic to low light etc. We took countless panoramics with it which turned out great. The panoramic feature is really easy to use. We went on zip line excursions and rafted through water filled caves. The light in the caves were too low for the camera to work so we had to use the flash which made the background too dark and washed out any people in the photos. We got to zipline through waterfalls and I used the camcorder function to capture it. We took photos under water in the pools at the resort and they come out nicely. A bit of water got under the touch screen after a few trips in the pool. This didn't affect the touch screens functionality but was annoying to look at when reviewing your photos.After about 2 days being in and out of water, the red paint that covers the slide started to flake off. The camera still worked just fine but I was pretty bummed about the camera being half red and half silver. We got home from the honeymoon and uploaded all of our photos and videos successfully. Then I put the camera away for a month or so and pulled it back out to take on a ski trip. I suppose something happened in the month time frame that the right side of the touch screen stopped working. The right side had all the preset functions so I couldn't switch from low light into any other mode. I sent the camera to Sony repair hoping for them to fix it or replace it. I got a call about a month after I sent it from Sony saying they didn't have the components needed to fix it and that they have ordered them but they would take 3 months to get to the warehouse. They gave me two options, wait 3 months to get my paint chipped red TX-5 or they could send me a brand new TX-9. The TX-9 is a higher model but is not waterproof, which was my main reason for getting the TX-5. I should be getting it in the mail any day now.Overall I was very happy with the TX-5 performance while it was working. Great point and shoot with some fancy features but easy to use. I'm just really disappointed the TX-5 didn't last very long but I am happy with Sony's customer service. If you need your camera repaired quickly...you might not feel the same.

This is my third Sony Cybershot and I love them! I purchased this for a recent vacation to the Caribbean and wanted a waterproof camera. This one held up well with all of our adventures and took great underwater pictures. Just be cautious that the lens fogs up when going from underwater picture-taking to out-of-water picture-taking, so you'll need to wipe the lens first for a clear picture. The details of the pictures are better than my older Cybershots which comes in handy for the following drawback: The initial setting of focus places the subjects at quite a distance (much more than my other Cybershots.) So even when taking pictures of someone/something a few feet away, it is neccessary to zoom in if you want your subject to fill the screen. Personally, I found this to be a bit of a pain. Overall, though, I love this camera and would purchase it again. It functioned as well as I had hoped for the price. In response to those who claim the battery life is too short - we didn't have too much trouble. We charged the battery each night, but were able to utilize the camera for a full day of fun in between charges. That said, we didn't use up battery life looking through the pictures we had taken until we were back to our room for fear of draining it before the day was done. Oh, and one more thing.... the description SAYS "red", but the color is MOST DEFINATELY raspberry-pink! I'm okay with it because I love pink, but I would have been disappointed if I had my heart set on red.

I have this camera for about 1.5 years. It has been great taken pictures near waterfalls, damp places, in pool water and very easy to carry and use. The paint on the cover started to chip away little by little about 8 months into usage. But that is not important to me since it does not impacting the images. But today, the real problem happened! Halfway into my hiking, the camera started to shake whenever I turn it on. I can hear the motor turning sound in the camera. Searching on line tonight, I found many people have the same problem with other Sony models as well. And they said it is the image stablelizer failed. Rightnow, only panorama mode works.Sony.com said this means the camera need to be repaired. Someone said the repair could cost more than $100.I'm very sad the camera is not useful any more.