Sony Dsc T30

Measuring 94 x 56 x 23 mm and weighing 130g the T30 is slightly bigger than the rest of the T series but it has a huge 3in LCD screen which makes up for it. It sports an image stabilised lens and vertically sliding lens cover, making the design really impressive. The back is different in that it is made out of a for different material and is black - it’s a definite improvement. Sony have also replaced the collection of 5 buttons with a 5-way rocker menu control which is less fiddly for more masculine digits.

We’ll get the bad bits out of the way first - What were Sony thinking when they stuck a 3x optical zoom on this camera? Most of their competitors are offering 4x optical zoom so we were so surprised to see that they hadn’t followed the trend - never mind. Now that is the only downfall - everything else is positive. The T30’s got a juicy 58MB internal memory, and 38mm to 114mm lens which is good. Another feature that impressed us was the built-in slide-show mode which allows you to create transitions and then upload your own music - or you can choose from the camera’s four preloaded music selections. What’s more is that you get a cable so you can watch your funky slide shows on your TV.

The T30’s performance is excellent. We were impressed by the speedy start-up-to-shoot time of 1.8 secs and the tiny 1.3 secs between shots. This is superb, however, flash use does lengthen this time to 2.4 secs.

We got some good quality pics from the T30. For typical sized snapshots you can expect some perfect pictures as exposures are very accurate. Colours are neutral and skins tones were noticeably good. One unfortunate downfall that we noticed was the dreadful red-eye reduction mode. It actually did more harm than good when you look closely at the finished product.

Overall Opinion

Staying in line with the rest of the T series - the T30 is another good camera. Perfect for the casual photographer requiring an easy-to-use, nippy, accurate camera that produces good photos.

Watch The Sony T30 Video.

By Lisa Malyon

We Loved The Clever Slide Show Feature