Not content with earlier announcements, Sony on Thursday added another entry into its touchscreen Cyber-shots with a second high-end model. The T500 is dominated by the same 3.5-inch touchscreen interface and 10 megapixel sensor as the T700 but exchanges the 4GB of internal storage with Memory Stick cards and high-performance video capture; as the first Sony camera capable of recording in HD, the T500 records in widescreen 720p in H.264 with stereo audio, making clips easy to either edit in common HD editing tools such as iMovie or to downscale for uploading to most online video sites.

Other changes also compensate for the absence of internal storage. The new point-and-shoot upgrades to a 5X zoom, image stabilized lens; it also has native HDMI out to play videos at full resolution on HDTVs. Light sensitivity up to ISO 3,200 and face detection are shared with other T-series Cyber-shots.

The camera will ship in a single shade, metallic black, and is due in September at the same $400 asking price as the T700.