To compare real-life performance we shot the same scene with the Sony Cyber-shot DCS-T70 and the Canon Ixus 860 IS / PowerShot SD870 within a few moments of each other using their Auto modes, best quality JPEG and lowest ISO settings. The lenses on each camera were adjusted to deliver the same field of view.

The image left was taken with the Sony Cyber-shot DCS-T70 at 7mm f5.6 and with a sensitivity of 80 ISO; the original JPEG measured 2.52MB. The crops are taken from the upper left, center, lower right and lower left portions of the originals and presented here at 100%. At first glance, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T70 appears to deliver inferior-looking results to the Canon Ixus 860IS / PowerShot SD870 IS in this test - the T70's crops look much softer and less detailed. However as discussed in our Canon 860IS / SD870 IS review, this model does apply greater sharpening and contrast to its images than some models.

Image processing aside though, the Canon does appear to capture a small amount of extra detail and also avoids the minor fringing seen in the corner of the image on the mountain ridge crop. It's particularly interesting to see how the Sony compares against the Canon throughout its sensitivity range - and we'll be coming to that in a moment - but first let's check out the Sony T70 resolution in a studio environment.