Auto ISO Defect of the Sony T30 Model

[ebug]

Apparently Sony DSC-T30 cameras would never use its available low ISO settings (80 and 100) under any lighting conditions when the camera is in full auto or auto ISO mode. This is certainly the case on my camera, and my 1-hours conversation with Sony customer center seems to indicate that it is problem of T30 model, though they would not admit it (understandably). Can someone else with a Sony T30 verify (or disprove) this?

[irwell]

Apparently Sony DSC-T30 cameras would never use its available low ISO settings (80 and 100) under any lighting conditions when the camera is in full auto or auto ISO mode. This is certainly the case on my camera, and my 1-hours conversation with Sony customer center seems to indicate that it is problem of T30 model, though they would not admit it (understandably). Can someone else with a Sony T30 verify (or disprove) this?

Does it have a P setting, if so just specify the ISO 80 if it is
that important.

[ebug]

One could certainly set ISO to any value manually in program mode. However, that defeats the purpose of having automatic modes, as the ISO level has to be adjusted by hand for every shot in order to obtain good image quality.

[bschultz]

Bought one for my backpacking trip last week.

you be the judge

http://picasaweb.google.com/brischultz

Personally I cant see anything wrong with the photos quality wise. Almost every single shot was taken on auto mode. you can see the camera settings for each picture by clicking "more info" link on the right hand side of each picture.

It really is a great camera.

[phoenixbebe]

has anyone taken INDOOR shots with people in it? when i take this on Automatic, everyone comes out with a reddish cast. If I use Program then the pictures come out noisy... If there is any way to get around this i would totally LOVE the camera...

I am currently testing out the CANON SD700 (IXUS 80) the features on here are amazing

[phoenixbebe]

Apparently Sony DSC-T30 cameras would never use its available low ISO settings (80 and 100) under any lighting conditions when the camera is in full auto or auto ISO mode. This is certainly the case on my camera, and my 1-hours conversation with Sony customer center seems to indicate that it is problem of T30 model, though they would not admit it (understandably). Can someone else with a Sony T30 verify (or disprove) this?


well if it IS a problem, they should seek to fix it or do a recall...however i guess tis probably NOT a big enough problem for them to address...its a problem to ME though when it concerns my wallet.

[ebug]

Bought one for my backpacking trip last week.

you be the judge

http://picasaweb.google.com/brischultz

Personally I cant see anything wrong with the photos quality wise. Almost every single shot was taken on auto mode. you can see the camera settings for each picture by clicking "more info" link on the right hand side of each picture.

It really is a great camera.

I just visited the URL. They are very nicely taken photos. Thanks to bschultz for the link.

On the other hand, the metadata ("more info") of these photos confirmed the auto-ISO problem mentioned at the start of this thread. As one can see, all of the photos taken by DSC-T30 used ISO >= 125, though many of them were taken in bright daylight where ISO 80 should have been used.

As for image quality, the ones on the web don't tell much about it, since they are down-sampled version (1600x1200, Sony DSC-T30 has native/max resolution of 3072x2304). Noise as well as softness due to camera's denoising process becomes much less noticable when the image is down-sampled. Therefore, one can only judge the image quality of a camera by looking at the original photos taken at the camera's maximum resolution.

Besides, make no mistake: I am not insinuating that Sony T30 takes horrible pictures at auto-ISO mode. In fact their quality is still quit acceptable. Nonetheless it is only acceptable unless the photos are down-sampled. If one were to go on the same trip, photograph the exact same scene again but using ISO-80 instead, and compare the ISO-80 photos (taken with manual ISO) with the ISO-125 ones (taken in auto-ISO mode) at original resolution, he/she would find that the former were noticeably better in quality, especially in sharpness.