Sony wowed the world with its first T-series Cyber-shots. They were farcically thin yet sported an unheard-of internal 3x optical zoom. But the T30 is rotund by comparison: to accommodate the whopping 7.2-megapixel CCD. We’re not sure this is a good idea.

The lens is only 9mm wide and even quality Carl Zeiss optics struggle to be sharp enough to satiate the 7.1 megapixel resolution. We didn’t have to zoom into our outdoor portraits to notice some very soft edges to hands and faces and noticeable grain in fleshy areas. There was also noticeable noise in light-coloured areas too – all of which are bugbears of high-resolution, low-sharpness cameras. Tonal transitions could also be abrupt and harsh as well. There was a lack of chromatic aberrations (purple fringing to objects in areas of high contrast) though. Leaves in trees could look impressionistic such was their lack of sharpness and detail. Uniform blue skies and the snow of Thredbo looked grainier than we’d like, too.

The raison d’être of the 7.2 megapixels is to blow photos up to A3 but many people going to such effort and expense would be disappointed with the detail captured. Indeed, the results garnered from digitally upscaling images from the 6-megapixel Canon IXUS 800 IS in Photoshop looked sharper and less noisy. At least the optical ‘Super Steady Shot’ stabilizer reduced blur derived from hand shake.

But pictures for an undiscerning snapper are good. Colours are all vibrant and accurate both indoors and out. However, the manageability of 3MB photo files will be awkward for those without powerful PCs and big hard disks. Dropping the resolution to five-megapixels introduces yet more grain, noise and even less sharp images.

The 640 x 480 videos aren’t bad though they look grainy compared to Canon’s.

General usability is good. There’s a one-second start up time when you slide down the lens cover. All the features and controls are intuitive and easy to find and the whopping 3-inch, gloss-coated LCD is bright and clear even in harsh sun. However, the 3x optical zoom is very slow.

But the main issue is price. A $700 price tag in this market is ridiculous considering you can pick up the smaller, 27g lighter, better-featured, better-performing Canon Ixus 65 (see A-List) for $409. Why Sony, why?