Brilliant hard X‐rays are produced by the portable synchrotron named MIRRORCLE. The X‐ray images taken by MIRRORCLE show enhanced edge effect even with contact imaging. Bodies composed of soft tissues are distinguished in spite of the predominantly hard X‐ray components. The imaging mechanism, which is different from the phase contrast, was studied. It was found that the edge effect is partly due to the micron order x‐ray source spot size, and MeV region hard X‐rays. The characteristic of the medical diagnosis X‐ray images and nondestructive inspection X‐ray images taken by MIRRORCLE are studied in this paper. © 2004 American Institute of Physics