November 2007
Sony's Smile Shutter
It can spot your grin in a crowd but not Mona Lisa's
Digital cameras have been getting smarter. First, they could automatically remove red eye. Then they learned to recognize faces. Now, Sony claims, a trio of its new models can recognize a smile, and then quickly run off up to six shots.
Sony's exact claim for its Smile Shutter feature is as follows:
"Imagine a camera smart enough to catch every smile! In Smile Shutter Mode, your Cyber-shot cameras can automatically trip the shutter at just the right instant to catch the perfect expression."
To put that claim to the test, we bought the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T70, an 8-megapixel subcompact, with 3x zoom and 3-inch LCD that costs about $300, a bit pricey for a subcompact. The other two Sonys with Smile Shutter, both with 8 megapixels, are priced even higher: The $350 DSC-T2 has a 3x zoom, 4 GB of memory, and a 2.7-inch LCD, while the $400 DSC-T200 has a 5x optical zoom and 3.5-inch LCD.
We tested the DSC-T70 on individual faces as well as groups of people, and by also using 8x10 printed color photos of a variety of faces and expressions in order to analyze what changes in facial expression the feature was detecting. In fact, we found that it wasn't just the movement of the lips. Subtle eyebrow movements also helped trigger the Smile Shutter feature. The portraits also included varying degrees of smile and skin tone, as well as the presence and absence of facial hair and glasses. Besides using shots of people, we also tried the Smile Shutter on prints of the "Mona Lisa" and some cartoon faces.
Smile Shutter worked well with shots of individuals and groups, regardless of skin tone, with various degrees of smiling and other expressions, with or without eyeglasses, and with or without facial hair. It was better at capturing open-mouth smiles (with teeth showing) than those with the mouth closed. Because we didn't test the DSC-T70's shutter lag or next-shot delay, we can't yet say whether the DSC-T70 shoots at "just the right instant" (We are fully testing the DSC-T70 and will include it in our soon.)
The DSC-T70 recognized the "Mona Lisa" as a face, but her enigmatic smile eluded the Smile Shutter. Cartoon faces, such as Charlie Brown's, weren't even recognized as faces. We also found that using Smile Shutter didn't significantly tax the DSC-T70's battery.
USING SMILE SHUTTER
You turn Smile Shutter on through the camera's menu.
Next, you press the shutter halfway down to lock the focus on your subject. (The feature relies on Sony's face detection technology, which can detect and track up to eight faces.)
Then, press the shutter all the way and the camera begins detecting smiles. (While Smile Shutter is enabled, you can't shoot at all unless a smile is present, so to use your camera normally, you must turn the feature off.)
Smile Shutter can be used in two ways:
If you don't select any particular face, it detects the first smile that appears in the scene, and then snaps up to six images without your having to press the shutter.
Alternatively, you can use the LCD as a touch screen to single out one face. The camera then waits until that person smiles before it shoots.
You can set smile detection to one of three sensitivity levels--low, medium and high--depending on how much of a smile you want to trigger a shot. In our tests, especially when shooting groups, the high setting generated a shot very easily, often when a subject was only slightly smiling. Turning the setting to medium or low limited shots to more definitive smiles.
We also found that Smile Shutter won't capture every grin. For it to work best, the subject's eyes shouldn't be covered with bangs of hair or many types of sunglasses. And eyes should be as level in relation to the camera as possible.
BOTTOM LINE
If you're an adept shooter, you might consider Smile Shutter gimmicky. And not even Sony's technology can coax a grin from a moody child. But the feature could be useful when shooting unpredictable subjects, such as a bunch of children at a party, or when you want to make sure that one particular person in a group--such as a bride--is smiling, even if everyone else isn't. (A useful feature, which will have to await a future model, would be for a camera to shoot only when all the subjects are smiling.) To some degree, Smile Shutter lets you pack your troubles in an old-kit bag and smile, smile, smile.
Sony's exact claim for its Smile Shutter feature is as follows:
"Imagine a camera smart enough to catch every smile! In Smile Shutter Mode, your Cyber-shot cameras can automatically trip the shutter at just the right instant to catch the perfect expression."
To put that claim to the test, we bought the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T70, an 8-megapixel subcompact, with 3x zoom and 3-inch LCD that costs about $300, a bit pricey for a subcompact. The other two Sonys with Smile Shutter, both with 8 megapixels, are priced even higher: The $350 DSC-T2 has a 3x zoom, 4 GB of memory, and a 2.7-inch LCD, while the $400 DSC-T200 has a 5x optical zoom and 3.5-inch LCD.
We tested the DSC-T70 on individual faces as well as groups of people, and by also using 8x10 printed color photos of a variety of faces and expressions in order to analyze what changes in facial expression the feature was detecting. In fact, we found that it wasn't just the movement of the lips. Subtle eyebrow movements also helped trigger the Smile Shutter feature. The portraits also included varying degrees of smile and skin tone, as well as the presence and absence of facial hair and glasses. Besides using shots of people, we also tried the Smile Shutter on prints of the "Mona Lisa" and some cartoon faces.
Smile Shutter worked well with shots of individuals and groups, regardless of skin tone, with various degrees of smiling and other expressions, with or without eyeglasses, and with or without facial hair. It was better at capturing open-mouth smiles (with teeth showing) than those with the mouth closed. Because we didn't test the DSC-T70's shutter lag or next-shot delay, we can't yet say whether the DSC-T70 shoots at "just the right instant" (We are fully testing the DSC-T70 and will include it in our soon.)
The DSC-T70 recognized the "Mona Lisa" as a face, but her enigmatic smile eluded the Smile Shutter. Cartoon faces, such as Charlie Brown's, weren't even recognized as faces. We also found that using Smile Shutter didn't significantly tax the DSC-T70's battery.
USING SMILE SHUTTER
You turn Smile Shutter on through the camera's menu.
Next, you press the shutter halfway down to lock the focus on your subject. (The feature relies on Sony's face detection technology, which can detect and track up to eight faces.)
Then, press the shutter all the way and the camera begins detecting smiles. (While Smile Shutter is enabled, you can't shoot at all unless a smile is present, so to use your camera normally, you must turn the feature off.)
Smile Shutter can be used in two ways:
If you don't select any particular face, it detects the first smile that appears in the scene, and then snaps up to six images without your having to press the shutter.
Alternatively, you can use the LCD as a touch screen to single out one face. The camera then waits until that person smiles before it shoots.
You can set smile detection to one of three sensitivity levels--low, medium and high--depending on how much of a smile you want to trigger a shot. In our tests, especially when shooting groups, the high setting generated a shot very easily, often when a subject was only slightly smiling. Turning the setting to medium or low limited shots to more definitive smiles.
We also found that Smile Shutter won't capture every grin. For it to work best, the subject's eyes shouldn't be covered with bangs of hair or many types of sunglasses. And eyes should be as level in relation to the camera as possible.
BOTTOM LINE
If you're an adept shooter, you might consider Smile Shutter gimmicky. And not even Sony's technology can coax a grin from a moody child. But the feature could be useful when shooting unpredictable subjects, such as a bunch of children at a party, or when you want to make sure that one particular person in a group--such as a bride--is smiling, even if everyone else isn't. (A useful feature, which will have to await a future model, would be for a camera to shoot only when all the subjects are smiling.) To some degree, Smile Shutter lets you pack your troubles in an old-kit bag and smile, smile, smile.
