The Cyber-shot DSC-TX5 is the tougher cousin of the TX7: it uses the same image sensor, but puts it in a body that can stand up to some rough treatment. Sony claims that the TX5 can handle up to 10 feet of water, temperatures down to 14 Fahrenheit (-10 Celsius) and being dropped from up to 4 feet. There are a few other changes from the TX7: the case is smaller, screen is a lot lower resolution, the controls are slightly different and it captures HD video in the MP4 format rather than the AVCHD format used by the TX7.

The camera body is just 0.69 inches thick, with a large panel on the front that slides up to protect the lens. On the back of the camera body is the 3.5-inch LCD screen, which is a touch screen. This is the interface for most of the camera: the only physical controls are are the shutter and zoom on the top of the camera body. We had no problem with the shutter and zoom controls, but we did find the touch screen to be a bit problematic: it occasionally missed touches, and it sometimes got confused if the thumb was touching the top right corner of the screen, as the raised ridge that the thumb sits on is rather small and it is easy to slip.

Performance (read in-depth performance coverage at DigitalCameraInfo.com)

We found in our suite of in-depth tests that the TX5 had generally very good performance, with bright, accurate colors and low noise at most ISO levels. The only minor issues that we found were a tendency for the images to get slightly soft at the edge of the frame across the zoom range; sharp edges and details at the edges of the frame lack the definition of those at the center of the image. We also saw some chromatic aberration (a slight color fringing caused by the lens refracting colors of light differently), but this wasn't a huge problem. Overall, we were impressed with the image quality of this camera.

The TX5 also offers the special shooting modes of the TX5, including low light shooting, one-touch panoramas and a mode that reduces motion blur by quickly taking several shots and combining then. We found that these modes were generally very effective, with the anti-motion bur mode in particular producing much sharper images than normal shooting.

We found that the video that the TX5 captured was pretty good as well: it shoots high definition videos at a 720p resolution, and we found these to be pretty sharp. Although they lack the crisp details of a dedicated camcorder, they contain an acceptable level of detail and had good, accurate color. However, one thing missing is a HDMI cable: if you want to play back the videos at full resolution on a HDTV, you'll have to buy a separate $60 adapter that plugs into the bottom of the camera.


Comparisons (read in-depth comparisons at DigitalCameraInfo.com)

There are a number of similar cameras to the TX5: the Canon D10 is as tough, but looks a lot less stylish (it looks kind of like a toy camera). The Panasonic DMC-TS2 has a similar set of specs to the TX5, but is a lot more blocky and industrial looking, as well as being about $50 more expensive. It is tougher, though, handling water down to a depth of 33 feet while the TX5 can't go deeper than 10 feet.