Sony's Smile Shutter Seizes the Moment

Many cameras now offer face detection technology, a feature that tries to set the focus, exposure, and color balance so that faces appear sharp, well exposed, and the proper color.

Now several new Sony Cyber-shot point-and-shoots come with something extra, a new feature called Smile Shutter mode, that fires the camera when it recognizes a smile. To see how well this works, we bought one of the new cameras, the Cyber-shot DSC-T70 (Click on the image at right for a closer look), and tested Smile Shutter in our labs. We'll be posting our findings by Thanksgiving, on ConsumerReports.org. Check back and see if Smile Shutter made us grin or grimace.

[Nov. 22, 2007 UPDATE: We've completed further testing of the Smile Shutter function of the Sony DSC-T70 digital camera. You can freely access our "claim check" report on ConsumerReports.org by clicking here on this link. —Ed. ]

Be sure to also check out our newly updated digital camera Ratings (for subscribers only) of the latest point-and-shoot digital cameras. Find out which will make your favorite shutterbug smile this holiday season.

—Terry Sulllivan