Starting with the best first, this picture of Eva was taken with the Sony A65 and Tamron 18-200mm supper zoom at a 40mm focal length and an aperture of f/8. Even close to the sweet spot of the lens and with this very small file size it can be seen that the sharpness and clarity of the photograph is highest in the center and falls off out towards the edges of the frame. Because there is not much detail to look at in the corners of the photograph this fall off in sharpness does not however detract much from the overall impact and desirability all that much.
This very appealing looking photograph was taken with the same Sony A65 camera and Tamron 18-200mm supper zoom, the difference is that the lens was at it's widest angle setting of 18mm again at f/8. The overall impact of the photograph is still great, but the fuzziness towards the outside edges of the frame is just a whole lot worse. On the plus side the depth of field is exceptionally deep, from the dirt in the foreground to the snow capped peaks in the distance the focus is close enough. Of course the sharpest part of the frame is the "focal point" in a viewing sense, and that is the big old camper cap and the dual spare tires on the trailer.
As far as technical perfection goes nothing beats the 35mm prime lens, the corner sharpness is near perfect even on the high resolution Sony A65. This particular photograph was taken early on an unusual frosty cold morning in Florida, and the color came out really very good.
This wide angle (18mm focal length) photograph of Castelle in Italy is a good example of the overall competence of the A55 and it's 18-55mm kit zoom. Typically for the A55 the color is appealing and life like despite the challenging contrast between blue green clear water and yellowish sand and stone.
In a more normal photographic setting the great color capability of the A55 could do beautiful things. Here the aperture is nearly wide open (f/5.6) and again at the widest angle setting on the 18-55mm kit zoom. With the wider aperture the corner to corner sharpness is not quite so good, but that does not detract from the plain but very appealing look of this early morning photograph of Hope Island in Australia.
Out at the long end of the zoom range the 18-55mm kit zoom was not quite so good, but great corner to corner sharpness was still possible. This photograph of new years decorations in Singapore was taken at 50mm with an aperture of f/11 on the A55.
Close focus was really the forte of the 18-55mm kit zoom, and somehow the A55 itself seemed better for close up photography than the other cameras with the same lens. Here the 35mm focal length and an f/10 aperture were used.
The A200 with it's poor performing 18-70mm kit zoom produced noticeably inferior results. This photograph was taken at the 28mm focal length and an aperture of f/11. The photographs from the A200 with the 18-70mm kit zoom usually seemed to benefit from some color saturation boosting, and I have applied a bit to this rendition here but it has made the fire hydrant look really far to red and far too bright.
With the Sigma 70-300mm lens the Sony A200 worked somewhat better. This photograph at 130mm and f/8 has good sharpness across the frame, but again the corners lack any detail that would give away fuzziness.
At wider aperture settings the 18-70mm kit zoom was nearly useless, the edges got fuzzy and the depth of field collapsed alarmingly. The A200 with it's kit zoom was however still useful for indoor photography. Here the widest f/3.5 aperture was used at 18mm with pleasing results. The sensitivity setting was ISO 200 and the exposure time was a fifth of a second handheld in only slightly dim lighting. This generator was actually displayed out in the entry way to the Hilo museum where the lighting was a bit brighter. No flash was used, the reflections are just from the harsh overhead lighting.
Most European museums are a whole lot darker, usually requiring ISO 400 or ISO 800 sensitivity settings. The challenge with this photograph of 1st century A.D. Roman glass work was that the glass display case was so large that a focal length of 60mm was required to get a close up. That long focal length required a much faster 1/40 of a second hand held exposure time which in turn required an ISO 800 sensitivity. Neither the A200 or the A55 would have been able to do nearly as well as the A65 did on this extremely challenging photograph, and the Tamron 18-200mm lens itself seemed to gather an unexpectedly large amount of light at it's wide open aperture setting (f/4.5 at 60mm). Again of course no flash was used, the harsh reflection is just the museum lighting at precisely the wrong angle.
This is about the most detail and sharpness that the 6mm sensor in the Sony DSC W830 is capable of doing. The focal length of 11mm is in the middle of the zoom range and this is extremely bright mid morning direct sunlight illuminating the rocky bank. With this photograph I was not trying to take a picture of anything particular, I was just looking for some way to get the little 6mm sensor to do the most it could. For some unknown reason I also had to move the exposure compensation two clicks (two thirds of a stop) towards underexposed to get this much clarity and detail.
A more typical real life photograph with the Sony DSC W830 is less impressive in detail and color. With the focal length towards the wide end of the zoom range (4mm) corner sharpness has fallen off quite a bit.
This is another more realistic casual photograph, but here the focal length again is near the middle of the zoom range at 9mm and the corner to corner sharpness is much better.
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