Sony Cyber-shot HX30V Digital Camera Review

Sharpness

We found that the HX30V offered only fair sharpness through its zoom range, as its lens is designed more towards offering an expansive zoom range than edge-to-edge sharpness. In our labs we found that the camera produced sharper images toward the center, with sharpness falling off considerably toward the edges. Sharpness also fell off dramatically as you zoom in on your subject, as the maximum aperture is forced to close down from f/3.2 to f/5.8.

One thing working against the HX30V in our test was the lack of sharpness enhancement by default. While we frown on cameras oversharpening their images, a little bit actually enhances image quality. In this case, the HX30V could do with a small dose of sharpening, either in a post-processing program like Photoshop, or in the camera using the sharpness controls. More on how we test sharpness.