Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX5

Noise (14.93)

Noise is the curse of digital photography. Caused by random glitches in the image sensor, it shows up as a staticky pattern on images, especially those shot with the ISO cranked up. Although there is noise on the images captured by the TX5, we found that the amount of noise was generally a lot lower than other cameras, with images having a cleaner, smoother look. Sony says that their new Exmor R sensor has lower noise than others, and that certainly seems to be true in our tests. More on how we test noise.

We test the amount of noise at different ISO levels for two situations: shooting in a brightly lit room (3000 Lux) and a dimly lit room (60 lux). We do this because many cameras treat these two situations differently, introducing noise removal or other processing that tries to remove the noise from the image. We found that the amount of noise didn’t differ much in either situation, though; the noise remains mostly constant up to an ISO level of 800, but then climbs to just over 2 per cent at the maximum ISO level of 3200. There is a price to pay for this relatively low noise, though; the images have a fuzzy, almost soft-focus look that is because of the noise reduction processing that the camera does. For examples of what this noise processing looks like in real images, see below.

Noise Comparisons
	ISO 125	ISO 400	ISO 800	ISO 3200
60 Lux
3000 Lux

If we compare the noise to other cameras , you can see that the TX5 has lower noise than most (except for its less robust stablemate, the TX7), and that the noise remains lower across the ISO range. In particular, the noise at the higher ISO settings is much lower than the Panasonic DMC-ZS3.

ISO (5.50)

The TX5 has an ISO level that ranges from 125 right up to 3200, all at the full resolution of the camera. There is a scene mode that is described as ‘High ISO’, but this does not increase the maximum resolution: it just sets the camera to use a higher ISO setting than the standard auto mode.

ISO Comparisons
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX5	Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX7	Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3	Samsung TL225
ISO Low
ISO 125	ISO 125	ISO 80	ISO 80
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX5	Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX7	Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3	Samsung TL225
ISO 200
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX5	Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX7	Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3	Samsung TL225
ISO 400
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX5	Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX7	Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3	Samsung TL225
ISO 800
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX5	Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX7	Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3	Samsung TL225
ISO 1600
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX5	Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX7	Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3	Samsung TL225
ISO 3200
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX5	Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX7	Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3	Samsung TL225

NOTE: The images above are not used in our testing or scoring, but are included here to show real-world examples of the differences between cameras at the various ISO settings.