Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX7 - On The List of Top 5 Point and Shoot Cameras

The Sony people have been doing photography products forever. So they should be able to produce the next best camera, right? Is the Sony Cyber-shot DSC TX7 it? The next best camera, I mean.Taking a look at the features and specs, you get the feeling it is another in the sea of digital point and shoot cameras. Nothing that really jumps up and says, "Hey, I'm special!" OK, maybe the appearance is special, especially when compared to the Canons and Kodaks and Nikons. The TX7 is pretty sleek and good looking. It kind of looks like there could be a cell phone in there when you pull back the cover. But no keypad appears, just a cute little lens. And that doesn't look impressive either.All that said, this little digital point and shoot camera is really getting the praise from folks who have laid down their hard cash to purchase it. Just take a gander at the user reviews at the online stores, like Amazon and B & H Photo - users are loudly proclaiming their satisfaction with this camera.A couple of really cool items are worth mentioning here. (You can check all the technical specs for yourself.)The first item is video. Sony has been a leader in this area, and the Sony DSC Tx7 is right up there with the best of them. You can take full 1080p HD video with this puppy. However, 720p is probably good enough quality in order to save space on your storage card. That is unless you are planning to show your top quality video on the big screen at the Cinema-12 MoviePlex theatre.Speaking of storage, Sony did us all a favor by adding an extra storage slot for the more popular SD cards in addition to their own "memory stick" storage units.The second thing that is worthy of note is the low light images. All of the camera manufacturers are focusing on this right now, and Sony seems to have nailed it with their technology. You can take photos in dark areas without using the flash, and this includes movie mode, as well.One more thing that is really cool is what they are calling "Intelligent Sweep Panorama Mode." This is the best thing since baked bread. You hold the shutter button down while you sweep the camera across the landscape, and the camera takes a bunch of images and stitches them together in a seamless image. The results are pretty amazing.Of course there is more. So much of it is impressive that the Sony Cyber-shot TX7 has made in onto the Top 5 Point and Shoot Camera list, an independent list formulated by yours truly as a measure of user satisfaction with point and shoot cameras.