Sony's Cyber-shot S730, a Little Bit of After-Christmas Point and Shoot

A little behind the rest of the pack, Sony today has announced a new Cyber-shot compact aimed at beginners who don't ask too much out of their digital camera.

The Cyber-shot S730 boasts a 7.2 megapixel resolution, which should be enough for A3 prints. It's actually a good thing that this model's resolution has been kept at reasonable values, since most compact cameras with tiny sensors and huge resolutions have a poorer performance in terms of high ISO performance.

Optically speaking, the unit uses a 3x zoom lens, enabled by the 5.8-17.4 focal range. In terms of apertures, the lens is nothing to brag about, although things could have been worse. At the wide end of the focal range, the maximum aperture (which translates into the lowest f-stop) is f/2.8; at the telephoto end, the maximum aperture is limited to f/4.8.

Also, Sony is not touting monstrous ISO sensitivities, the camera having a maximum limit of 1250. Even so, given the small size of the sensor, it is advisable not to exceed ISO 400, no matter what the manufacturer claims.

A new multi-point autofocus mode ensures pin-sharp images, even when your subject is moving or isn't in the centre of the frame, the press release also reads.

Pictures and camera settings can be viewed clearly on the large 2.4-inch screen and there's also an on-screen Histogram mode that displays image brightness. Touching a button switches instantly to Playback mode, making it quick and easy to check pictures during shooting.

The new point and shoot can help beginners pick the optimum image size for shooting, depending on the preferred printing paper size and the amount of memory space remaining.

The Cyber-shot S730 will be available throughout Europe from mid January 2008 for an as-yet unspecified price, but since it's an entry-level model, it shouldn't be too expensive.

We are just a few, but there are many of you, Softpedia users, out there. That's why we thought it would be a good idea to create an email address for you to help us a little in finding gadgets we missed. Interesting links are bound to be posted with recognition going mainly to those who submit. The address is .