Sony Cyber Shot DSC-T30 price and reviews

I have a number of testimages that I have taken verifying the quality... These images have been captured with SONY's DSC-T30 camera, with no out-of-camera post image processing other than cropping, and no Photoshop work whatsoever. The Camera's internal settings generally are: Program mode with Sharpness and Saturation both turned up one tick for images and all other settings in the camera are set to Automatic. The extreme close-up images were taken with the camera set to "Magnifying Glass" mode, which in this camera is called Macro2, accessible from the macro button on the camera body, no menu needed, which permits auto-focusing as close as 10 millimeters. This camera is also one of the best I have tested in the last 6 years. As an adjunct faculty member at FAU a south Florida +29,000 student University, teaching "Principles of Digital Photography and Post Image Processing" and authored/published a book with the same name, with Pearson Education, Inc., 2003, I have tested hundreds digital cameras that have been offered to the public in recent years, and this SONY release is truly unbelievable. One must understand that all cameras cannot do all things regardless of price and size. Digital SLRs, like Canon's 1DsMk2, which I proudly own and consider the very best digital SLR on planet Earth as of January 2006, can execute most imaging tasks beautifully; however you cannot place it in your pocket, does not have built-in flash, and cannot make a video! Comparing the image quality and color to other similarly priced cameras, the T30 seems better than on previous SONY "T" series units (the T1, T11, T3, T33, T5, T7, and the recent T9) in their now 7-step progression to the T30. The brightness on the LCD panel is also better and has two brightness levels; The LCD also has a strong protective covering. The flash also seems a bit stronger, and the imager noise is significantly lower. Understand, the tiny built-in flash is effective for groups of 3-6 people placed within 12' or less of the camera, period; any further away, other than fill-in flash, the results will be unsatisfactory. It is hard to imagine than so much technology can be contained within this truly thin package. This version has a true OPTICAL IMAGE STABILIZER that really works in both Still image and Movie Modes. The large and bright LCD panel is great for sharing images and movie clips with friends after the images are taken; The T30 has an in-camera slide-show mode with user settings for type of slide change, style, with or without music. Most critics fail to mention the packaged the Software; Be it known, SONY has one of the best (included) software packages available; Auto-Install the software; then plug in the camera into an available USB post, turn on the camera, and in 5,4,3,2,1 seconds the images and movies, begin their migration into a unique folder in your hard-drive, in a subdirectory in "My Pictures" with today's date as the folder name; Could not be a simpler process. Then options are presented for making a CD-ROM. To see T30 sample images you can go to >> http://www.416-1100.com/gallery/1444312. Images will be added periodically so check back often; and while you're there look around at other images posted at your pleasure. NOTE: I have had requests for test video clips. This camera and millions of other SONY cameras produce beautiful high resolution 640x480 30fps MPEG1 video. This site is based on site engine which cannot display MPEG1 video presently. I have attempted to convert MPEG1 to other formats for uploading, however, the results are terrible; so I'd rather not display inferior conversions, which would improperly represent actual results.

Comparison of SONY's N1, T9, T30: We have/own all three cameras. My wife carries the N1 in her purse, will probably switch to the T9 as she wants the image stabilization, and I carry the T30 in my pocket, as it is a bit thinner than the N1. All three cameras take great shots. The N1 has a bit stronger flash, however, the T9 has a more sensitive Imager, and the T30 has a High Sensitivity Mode for low level image capture, like at an evening party, or at a gymnasium. It would be best for you to go to a retailer that has these so you can hold them and get a feel for their footprints. I can understand being torn between these; I too had that feeling. So I/we decided to buy all three, one for me and one for Marilyn. I/She loves the huge 3? touch-screen; and the 8Mp imager gives plenty of information for serious cropping, and plenty of detail for an outstanding 8x10? print. However, she has a habit of shaking the camera occasionally, to the image stabilization will help, probably placing the N1 on the ?to be given to relative shelf.? The T30 gives improved portability, and has Image Stabilization which gives better performance in low light, available light situations, and plenty of detail for an outstanding 8x10? print. So there are a few trade-offs. Marilyn carries her N1 in her purse; he N1 fits neatly in the purse. I carry the T30 camera in my front pants pocket, so I opted for the T30 which is much more "men?s pocket-friendly" and now has the 3? screen, and easier to use Macro modes. These cameras have water/beach protective housings, ?Sports-pack? for the T9 a 10? underwater housing for $90; the N1 and the T30 have a true underwater housing good down to 40 meters for about $200. The choice of ONE is pretty much a personal decision as to the form-factor. They are all technology marvels. There is no bad choice between these three SONY models, its like buying shoes; Which form of loafers or sandals do you prefer? My personal choice would be the T30 of the three, because it now has the 3? screen, has more sensitive ISO setting of 1000, built-in noise reduction circuitry, several new program modes? the list goes on and on. Once again - Good Job SONY, and thanks for listening to your customer?s comments & suggestions. We are permitting the downloading of the Original Size images for those interested in looking at all available detail. Over the next several weeks more images will be added. We are testing the camera in Auto mode in a variety of real-live settings, no special lighting, no set-ups... We are trying to show the camera just like any average user would actually take pictures.
JimWilson//10/May/2006/6pm

Here is my personal review of the Sony DSC-T30, Canon Powershot SD700IS and the Casio EXZ-850. I will post this review under each product as I have owned and tested all three. If you don?t wish to read a long drawn out review here it is: I liked the Casio the best, the Sony came in Second and the Canon came in third. I arrived at this conclusion by considering 3 main things: 1.picture quality 2.ease of use 3.price. Starting with #1 as much as I wanted to like the other more reputable companies, the Casio continued to surprise/please me. The picture quality right out of the box is great. I needed something to supplement my Nikon D200 when I need to take a quick picture of my daughter, wife, travel destination, etc. Sometimes I don?t have the ability, or energy to haul out my d200 as great and almost perfect as it is. I like my pictures ?hot? and vibrant which the casio delivered with no effort whatsoever. You pull it out, turn it on with one hand and snap away. It was also the fastest of all three. No real lag between turning on , zooming, and shooting. The sony was very slow zooming compared to the casio, and both the sony and the canon required two hand operation, which is hard with a baby in one hand. The sony took very good pictures but not as good as the casio. The canon was a major disappointment for me. It requires too much tweaking to get good pictures. One example of this is my human subjects were coming out looking orange and underexposed. Skin tones were not natural looking and the exposures were boring. When you take it out of auto mode and bump up the exposure, it looks better but not great. When you change the color settings from auto to some of the others, there was always a tradeoff, such as when you go to neutral, it fixed 75% of the skin tone issues, but then added gray to the rest of the colors, just not appealing to the eyes. The one good thing that I can say about the canon is that when you need to crop and zoom in photoshop, the images were SLIGHTLY smoother. But I don?t do much of this except for the purposes of my test. Like I said, for me this camera is just for a quick point and shoot. The Sony picture quality was a close second to the casio and the canon was a distant third from the casio. I did not try video on any of them as I have a sony minidv camera for that. #2 ease of use. The casio wins in all aspects, one handed operation is great. Camera feels great in my small-medium size hands, I liked the idea of the fixed lens on the sony but after actually using all three, I now like the lens that comes out of the body, with the sony, due to the location of the lens, I always felt like I was going to touch the lens glass with my left hand and had to be mindful of not getting my hand too close to the lens as to not affect picture quality. After seeing the prettier looking designs of both the canon and the sony I briefly didn?t like the boxy look of the casio, but now I feel like it makes it easier to hold, even with the curved design of the canon. I also thought I didn?t like the fact that you have to use a docking cradle with the casio, but after fooling with trying to find the holes and cables for both the sony and the canon, not to mention that true to sony fashion, you must use a proprietary cable (and memory stick vs sd), I now like the fact that I just plop the casio in its cradle and push the usb button and it sucks my pictures right in, although I have had quite a few occasions that Photoshop has not been able to capture them without taking it out and re-doing it. I am sure that you could use Microsoft?s built in utility or Casio?s utility with no headache, I am just so used to Photoshop. I will just take an extra memory card on vacation and not worry about viewing them on my laptop at the hotel. One good thing I can say about the sony is that it has 56mb built in memory as a back up to running out or forgetting your stupid memory stick duo. I will not bother giving any positives about the canon because it lost just based on the poor picture quality. and the little door for the usb cable is a pain in the b*** to open. And one more thing about the Canon, IT DOESN?T HAVE A BATTERY MEATER! WHAT KIND OF PEA BRAIN FORGOT OR NEGLECTED TO PUT THAT IN! I am sure it was so that people don?t keep charging the battery before it is dead, so that you can have a longer battery life with each full charge, but this also causes you to have to buy a second battery because you never know if it is going to die when you most need it. So it is either a really good marketing idea on Canons part or a REALLY DUMB idea from a consumer standpoint, either way the customer looses. #3 price. The casio was $100 less and I was able to buy it from one of my favorite retailers COSTCO! Went into a store and they have a kit that comes with a carrying case, and 256 of memory for something like $380. both the sony and the canon cost me about $499.00. Do I need to say anything more. Just put the fact that it is a casio out of your head because they finally made a nice product. Hope this helps cause now I have to go to fed ex to send $1000 worth of cameras back to amazon and costco. Oh yeah and the extra screen size on the sony is worthless because the picture you are trying to frame on from the sony looks terrible. The casio has an excellent screen but a worthless viewfinder. But you will never need it with such a great screen.