Image cropper quality not acceptable

The testcases attached (source, hippo original, cropped image) are unacceptable for our image editors. The quality (colors, sharpness) of a Hippo original is significantly less than the source. The cropped images are even more blurry.

We are looking for a solution for this issue. Deadline is 1 may 2012.

We scale all source images with a width more than 1280 pixels to a 1280 width.