ISO comparison

These are 100 percent crops from our test scene. Photos from the rugged Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX20 are OK, but not nearly as good as those from higher-end non-rugged Sony point-and-shoots. Even at smaller sizes subjects look overly soft regardless of the amount of light you have when you're shooting. The good news is that noise and noise reduction don't get considerably worse as you go up in ISO sensitivity. Color quality also doesn't noticeably drop off until ISO 1600, which means you can get decent low-light shots, though you still won't want to look at them at larger sizes -- on screen or in prints.