Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T30

Color (9.36)
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T30 has three color modes: Normal, Natural, and Vivid. We tested all three modes, but found the default Normal mode to be the most accurate by far. The Natural mode under-saturated colors by about 10 percent, the Vivid over-saturated by 20 percent, and both produced more noise and color error.

We tested all three modes by photographing an industry standard color chart manufactured by GretagMacbeth. The chart shows 24 colors. The chart below has been modified by Imatest imaging software to show the original colors of the chart in the inner vertical rectangle of each tile. The outer edge of each tile shows the color produced by the Sony T30. The inner square is the ideal color, corrected for luminance.

Looking at the color chart, there don’t seem to be any major problems. Just to be sure, we output a graph from Imatest that shows the Sony T30’s colors as circles and the ideal colors as squares. The degree of error of each color is represented by the line attaching the two shapes.

Once again, there aren’t any major problems with the color. The most errant color is red #15, which is the most commonly exaggerated color in digital cameras. This is because cameras like to liven up flesh tones just a touch. The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T30 over-saturated colors in its Normal mode by only 1.1 percent, and came out with a mean color error of 6.2. Its automatic and incandescent white balance settings performed well, which is fortunate because the overall white balance selection is very limited. For its stellar performance, the T30 received a 9.36 overall color score. This is right up with Sony T1’s 9.76 score and better than the Sony T5’s 8.73.

Still Life Scene
Below is a shot of our static scene, recorded with the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T30.

Click on the image above to view a full resolution version.

Resolution (4.12)
The T30 carries 7.2 effective megapixels on its 1/2.5-inch Super HAD CCD. To see just how effective its image sensor is, we captured several exposures of a well-lit industry standard resolution chart. We used various apertures and focal lengths and report the sharpest shot attained. We uploaded the pictures into Imatest imaging software, which determined that the sharpest picture is the one shown below. It was taken at a 17.7mm focal length and f/4.3 aperture.

Click on the image above to view the full resolution chart

To quantify what that picture means, the software program output the T30’s sharpness results in terms of line widths per picture height (lw/ph). This is a measurement of how many alternating black and white lines of equal thickness could fit across the frame. Horizontally, it was determined that the Sony T30 could fit 1755 lw/ph across the frame; it did this using 17.5 percent in-camera over-sharpening. Vertically, the camera resolved 1875 lw/ph with 16.5 percent over-sharpening. Most of the shots taken used from 10-18 percent over-sharpening in both axes of the frame.

For the sake of comparison, the 7.1-megapixel Canon PowerShot A620 read 1708 lw/ph horizontally and 1787 lw/ph vertically. Thus, the Sony Cyber-shot T30 performed right up there with the Canon. The T30’s resolution is impressive when coupled with the camera’s ultra-slim size.

Noise – Auto ISO (3.08)
The T30 may have turned in strong color scores, but its metering system didn’t perform very well when it came to automatically choosing an ISO sensitivity. Our studio was brightly lit and the T30 still produced the amount of noise that was found around the manual ISO 250 setting. This is a disappointing step down from the old T5’s strong showing and 7.6 overall score. The Cyber-shot T30 received an overall automatic ISO noise score of 3.08.

Noise – Manual ISO (9.34)
The T30 is among a batch of recent Sony digital cameras that include wider ISO ranges. Indeed, this Cyber-shot offers manual settings from 80 to 1000. We tested the noise levels in optimal lighting at each setting and show them in the chart below. The ISO settings are on the horizontal axis and the noise levels on the vertical axis.

There is a steep rise from ISO 80 to 200, a plateau to ISO 800, then a tiny jump to ISO 1000. Overall, the T30 kept pictures clean and noise to a minimum. It received a 9.34 overall manual ISO noise score, which is far better than previous T-series models and better than most ultra-slim and compact digital cameras too.

Low Light (6.0)
The camera is designed to be at the ready for pictures at a brightly lit baseball game or a dim candlelit dinner. We tested the T30’s limits by photographing the color chart at diminishing light levels of 60, 30, 15, and 5 lux. The first test at 60 lux is similar to photographing a subject in a living room lit by two soft lamps. The 30 lux test has about the light of a 40-watt bulb. The last two tests are quite dark, but help determine if the Super HAD image sensor has any major issues with shooting in low light.

All of the images are a bit under-exposed, but none of them are completely black like what some ultra-slim cameras produce. To photograph these images, the camera used shutter speeds as slow as 2 seconds. The higher ISO sensitivities were used too. Below is a chart showing how the camera’s noise levels responded to longer shutter speeds. The exposure time is shown on the horizontal axis and the noise level on the vertical axis.

The higher ISO ratings performed much better in terms of noise while in perfect studio lighting. In the low light, the noise levels increased dramatically. Overall, the Sony T30 isn’t a stellar performer in low light, although it remains competitive among pocket-sized models.

Speed / Timing
Start-up to First Shot (8.49)
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T30 took 1.51 seconds to turn on and take its first shot. This isn’t a bad time for a digital camera, but certainly isn’t lightning fast like DSLRs.

Shot to Shot (9.06)
The burst mode on the T30 was disappointing to say the least. It took about one frame per second – a frame every 0.92 seconds to be exact. It shot 5 frames at this rate, and then took almost 20 seconds to write them to the Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo card. When the burst mode was disabled, the T30 took twice as long between pictures. In the end, this camera is not made for sports photography.

Shutter to Shot (8.66)
Taking 0.17 seconds from the time the shutter release button was pushed until the picture was taken, the T30 ranks above average among its ultra-slim compatriots.