Typical price: £280
What is it: Compact digital camera with 3x optical zoom and 7.2-megapixel sensor
What we think: Pocket-friendly and stylish, it continues the T-series tradition of ease of use and image quality
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T30 Review
Reviewed on: 8 June 2006
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
Image quality
To its credit, the T30's lens produced very little fringing or vignetting and only minor geometric distortion at its extremes, which often wasn't noticeable in typical snapshots. Exposures were generally accurate and can be modified with exposure compensation (plus or minus 2EV in 1/3-step increments) or by choosing another of the three metering modes: matrix, centre or spot.
Colours were fairly neutral and skin tones generally pleasing. A weekend outing with an inordinate number of blue-eyed friends highlighted the T30's penchant towards red-eye. Even with the red-eye reduction enabled, the gaggle of light-coloured eyes turned demonically crimson. Noise was relatively under control for a pocket camera. At ISO 100, it barely registered; at ISO 200 and 400, it became more apparent but was still under control. By ISO 800 and ISO 1,000, it was very visible, though pictures were usable, especially if you're printing at only 100x150mm.
While the T30 amounts to only an incremental improvement over the T9 -- the main difference, other than some style points, is its extended ISO range -- it's hard to complain about this fancy-looking snapshot camera.
Additional editing by Nick Hide
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