PHOTO QUALITY. This 18-megapixel rugged and waterproof digital camera captured images with good quality. We judged this model very good for outdoor performance, such as shooting landscapes in the daytime; good for indoor performance, such as photographing a well-lit basketball game in a gym; very good for performance under natural light without a flash, such as shooting under an overcast sky.
FLASH. The Cyber-shot DSC-TX30 captured flash shots that were very good. In our distance test, we found the camera's flash could illuminate most subjects that are closer to the camera, but had some problems with distant subjects. The flash also has very good, even coverage.
LENS. This camera includes a 5x zoom lens, a bit more zoom than a standard 3x. The lens also has very wide-angle (26mm) capability that's very useful for landscapes and group portraits, although you may notice a bit of distortion when you're shooting faces up close, for instance.
IMAGE STABILIZER. This is an important feature; taking hand-held shots at the telephoto end of the zoom range can generally blur or soften images due to the slight movement of your hands.
SPEED. In terms of performance, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX30 powers up very quickly.
VIDEO. It captures full HD video at 1920 x 1080. As for sound, it captures fair audio in stereo.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS. It claims to be waterproof and shockproof. It also has HDR (high-dynamic range) settings. It has a large 3.3-inch touchscreen LCD, which has good quality that lets you compose your shots and has decent playback of photos and video. Although it has a display with 1,230, 000 pixels, which should make it sharper than most in its class, we didn't find that the display stood out from the pack. This rugged and waterproof digital camera is smaller, thinner and lighter than most in its class.
