Sony Ericsson C702 review: Allroad Cyber-shot

A 3.2 Megapixel camera with extras

The Sony Ericsson C702 has a 3 megapixel autofocus camera with a dual LED flash, self-portratits mirror and active lens cover. The double purpose alphanumeric keys are a welcome enhancement to the camera handling. The D-pad can also be used for switching between still camera and camcorder, while scrolling up or down changes the exposure compensation.

The cool Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot SE v2.0 camera user interface is no news anymore, and it works like a charm in C702. The camera user interface main features are the pop-up sub-menus enhanced with icons and small photos, for even more intuitive performance, and the Multi Menu packing all the available settings.

Spiced up with Face detection, geotagging and macro mode, the camera capabilities of the C702 easily catapults it to the ranks of some of the best Cyber-shot handsets.

The face detection works well when the two eyes are visible. We tested it with tree people in a frame and Face Detection kept the tree faces in focus.

The built-in GPS allows geotagging as we mentioned earlier. When a photo is taken geographical identification data is added to the image, so that the location where the photo was taken can be shown on a map.

Some camera menu options

The other settings are extensive and include shooting mode (normal, panorama, frames, burst), scenes (auto, twilight landscape and portrait, landscape, portrait, beach/snow, sports, document), picture size (3, 2, 1 MPs, VGA resolution), focus (auto, face detection, macro, infinite), light, self-timer, metering mode (normal, sport), white balance, effects, and settings multi-menu with the other camera settings.

Key camera menu features

The photos of the 3.2 megapixel camera are pretty good, with fine detail and nice level of sharpening. The images are well balanced with mild contrast. We have some issues with the focus in macro mode, but do remember that this is not the final version of the camera firmware. Generally, image quality is above Sony Ericsson K810.

Sony Ericsson C702 sample photos

The videos taken with C702 are captured in QVGA resolution at 30fps in MPEG4 file format. We like the quality and smoothness of the recorded clips but we can't help wishing for 30fps video at VGA resolution, although even the high-born Sony Ericsson C902 doesn't have that either. For those interested in the details, an average 30-sec clip has is about 1.5MB in size. The other data is as follows: AAC mono at 16.000kHz, 29.83 fps and 375 kbps data rate.

Here is a Sony Ericsson C702 sample video.

The options for the video camera are pretty much the same as those for the still camera with very minor differences. Check out some screenshots of the video camera user interface.

Some video camera menu options

Browsing images

The Photo gallery is accessible through the Media center. Generally, the Photo gallery is a convenient tool for managing a vast collection of camera photos with great customization capabilities.

The Latest Photo section provides quick access to most recent images.

Next, Camera Album is a thumb list for each month of the year. When a month is open, it reveals a 4 x 3 grid of thumbs of photos. Scrolling down shows all the photos taken in the respective month. The highlighted photo is a bit larger for better viewing.

"...The Sony Ericsson C702 has a 3 megapixel autofocus camera with a dual LED flash, self-portratits mirror and active lens cover. Spiced up with Face detection, geotagging and macro mode, the camera capabilities of the C702 easily catapults it to the ranks of some of the best Cyber-shot handsets..."

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The Pictures section opens again as a 4 x 3 grid of thumbs with non-camera images, like the preinstalled wallpapers. When exiting the full screen view of a picture, it smoothly zooms out to thumb view.

Photo viewer in Media center

Photo Tags is a feature for displaying previously marked favorite photos.

Also here is the Pan and Zoom option and the slideshow function, revealed when you further scroll down the submenu. Slideshows in C702 are just fine - before they start you are asked to pick a mood and the handset plays the animated slide show with background music to suit the chosen mood. The transition style of the slideshow also varies according to the mood.

Some options for the Photo gallery in Media center

Maximum zoom-in on an image is usable

Accordingly, picture browsing via the classic file manager is still possible, only missing timeline view.

Picture browsing through file manager misses only timeline view