Sony has launched its first underwater Cyber-shot digital camera in the form of the TX5. Due out in March, the camera is claimed to be waterproof to a depth of 3 metres, drop proof from a height of 1.5m, and fully functional at temperatures as low as -10°C.

Fitted with a 10.2 million-pixel Exmor R CMOS sensor and a Carl Zeiss 4x 25mm wideangle zoom, the TX5 measures only 17.7mm thick. Sony claims it is the world?s thinnest and smallest waterproof digital stills camera. To aid handling underwater, the camera features a touch-menu on its 3in LCD screen that makes accessing features and functions easier when wearing gloves.

Sony has included the latest version of its ‘Sweep Panorama’ mode, that is able to compensate for moving objects and people when it stitches it burst of high resolution images together, while ‘Handheld Twilight’ and ‘Anti-Motion Blur’ modes combine multiple exposures to reduce the impact of image noise in low light conditions.

At the time of writing no UK pricing had been set.

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