Sony DSC-T30 Review

The screen display when in the AUTO (point-n-shoot) mode. Minimal information is displayed and only a few parameters such as image size or recording mode can be changed. Upper left is the battery level and remaining time in minutes that's constantly displayed. The image size is 7 "M"egapixels, the image folder is 101, there's 11 shots left and in the center are the AF target marks (the focus mode is Single AF.)

The camera mode is selected from the first option in the menu: Auto, Program, High Sensitivity, Twilight, Twilight Portrait, Soft Snap, Landscape, High Speed Shutter, Beach, Snow and Fireworks.

Program AE mode is also automatic but it offers the user a wealth of options, like white balance, ISO speed (80), metering, color saturation, contrast and sharpness. All of this information can be cleared off the screen by pressing the Monitor button. Pressing the Monitor button will also enable the live histogram display.

Half-pressing the shutter will activate the autofocus system, if successful it displays a green "OK" dot and the AF target marks turn green and the shutter speed and aperture values are shown at the bottom.

After a picture has been captured it can be quickly reviewed by pressing "Left" on the 4-way controller.

Image size choices:

7M, 3:2 (for perfect 4×6" size prints), 5M, 3M, 2M, VGA, and 16:9 (HDTV.)

The special 16:9 HDTV mode is for display on a wide screen high-def set. The image will perfectly fill your home theater screen.

Record options (other than Auto mode):

Camera - Select the still image exposure mode

Color Mode - Normal, Vivid, Natural, Sepia or B&W

Exposure Compensation - Offset the exposure metering by ±2.0EV in 1/3EV steps

Focus - Multi AF, Center AF or focus fixed at 0.5m, 1m, 3m, 7m or infinity

Metering - Multi-pattern (default), center or Spot

White Balance - Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Fluorescent, Incandescent, Flash

ISO - Auto or manually locked at 80, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1000

Picture Quality - Fine or Standard

Record Mode - Normal, Burst or Multi Burst
(The MultiBurst mode lets you record sixteen frames at high speed. The capture rate is selectable for 7.5fps, 15fps or 30fps via the menu. These 320×240 images are merged into one 1280×960 finished image. When the image is played in-camera it is animated in sequence.)

Bracket Step - 0.3, 0.7 or 1.0EV (only when Bracketing is active)

Interval - 7.5/15/30 frames per second (only when Multi Burst is active)

Flash Level - High, Normal or Low

Contrast - Default is 0 but may be + or -

Sharpness - Default is 0 but may be + or -

Macro (close-up) focus mode allows you to shoot much closer than normal. The focus range in macro is from 3.1 inches to infinity.

Not close enough? Use the Magnifying Glass Mode to get as close as 0.4 inches (1 cm) for up to 3× life size images!

Record motion video with audio. The 640×480 "VX Fine" mode is 30fps and requires the use of Memory Stick Duo Pro media to insure that it can stream the data fast enough from the camera. The VX standard mode is also VGA resolution (640×480) but at a lesser 16fps frame rate and can be recorded on regular Memory Stick Duo media. The length of recording is limited only by the space available on the Memory Stick being used.

Movie clips can also be recorded in 160×112 resolution at 8fps, these movies will playback in a smaller window. The advantage is that the file sizes are smaller and more practical for e-mail purposes.

Movie mode options:

Color mode - Normal, Vivid, Natural, Sepia or B&W

Exposure Compensation - Offset the exposure metering by ±2.0EV in 1/3EV steps

Focus - Multi AF, Center AF or fixed focus at 0.5m, 1m, 3m, 7m or infinity

Metering - Multi-pattern (default), Center or Spot

White Balance - Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Fluorescent or Incandescent

Setup - Enter the setup menu

Image Size - Found by pressing the Image size button (640 Fine, 640 Standard, 160 e-mail)