If you thought that Sony’s ultracompact Cyber-shot TX100V (announced at CES 2011) was thin, wait ’til you get a load of the newest addition to the line, the Sony Cyber-shot TX55, announced yesterday. At just 12.2mm thin, the TX55 is super pocketable, but it’s still jam-packed with features — in fact, Sony claims it’s the thinnest camera with optical image stabilization. Similar in styling to the slightly more expensive TX100V, it shares a similar feature set, though not the GPS capability of the TX100V.
Both cameras use a 16.2 megapixel backside illuminated CMOS sensor, offer full 1080i AVCHD video recording, and both sport a big, high-resolution OLED touchscreen (1,229,800 dots), though the TX55’s is a smidgen smaller at 3.3 inches rather than 3.5 inches. The other big difference is the TX55’s 5x optical zoom lens (compared to 4x in the TX100V). Sony has also added what it calls “By Pixel Super Resolution” to enable a 10x digital zoom that Sony purports will not degrade image quality as with a traditional digital zoom.
Sony also adds in-camera special effects filters to the Cyber-shot line for the first time, including HDR Painting, Rich-tone Monochrome, Miniature, Toy Camera, Partial Color, Pop Color, and Soft High-key.
Other features include:
- Sweep Panorama mode
- 3D Still Image mode
- High-speed autofocus
- Shoots 12 megapixel stills while simultaneously shooting full HD video
The TX55 will start shipping in September for about $350.
