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Compact digital camera group test Gordon Laing, December 2005


 



 




Outdoor
/ Resolution / Noise / Corner sharpness / Fringe and macro / Geometry / Vignetting

Compact digital camera noise level comparison

  To measure electronic noise levels we photographed the standard Gretag Macbeth ColorChecker at each of the camera's ISO settings. The crops are taken from the originals and presented here at 100%. To compare typical noise in skies and dark shadows the crops were taken from patches 3 and 24 respectively.

Here the physically small sensor of the Pentax S6 reveals higher noise levels than its rivals, although the Canon A620 is noisier than we expected at 400 ISO. The Fujifilm F11 and Sony N1 are roughly neck-in-neck up to 400 ISO, but the F11 is better at 800 ISO and boasts a surprisingly usable 1600 ISO mode.

Canon PowerShot A620
Fujifilm FinePix F11
Pentax Optio S6
Sony Cybershot DSC-N1
Canon PowerShot A620 at 50 ISO
Fujifilm FinePix F11 at 80 ISO
Pentax Optio S6 at 64 ISO
Sony Cybershot DSC-N1 at 64 ISO
50 ISO
80 ISO
64 ISO
64 ISO
Canon PowerShot A620 at 100 ISO
Fujifilm FinePix F11 at 100 ISO
Pentax Optio S6 at 100 ISO
Sony Cybershot DSC-N1 at 100 ISO
100 ISO
100 ISO
100 ISO
100 ISO
Canon PowerShot A620 at 200 ISO
Fujifilm FinePix F11 at 200 ISO
Pentax Optio S6 at 200 ISO
Sony Cybershot DSC-N1 at 200 ISO
200 ISO
200 ISO
200 ISO
200 ISO
Canon PowerShot A620 at 400 ISO
Fujifilm FinePix F11 at 400 ISO
Pentax Optio S6 at 400 ISO
Sony Cybershot DSC-N1 at 400 ISO
400 ISO
400 ISO
400 ISO
400 ISO
Canon PowerShot A620 - 800 ISO not available
Fujifilm FinePix F11 at 800 ISO
Pentax Optio S6 - 800 ISO not available
Sony Cybershot DSC-N1 at 800 ISO
800 ISO not available
800 ISO
800 ISO not available
800 ISO
Canon PowerShot A620 - 1600 ISO not available
Fujifilm FinePix F11 at 1600 ISO
Pentax Optio S6 - 1600 ISO not available
Sony Cybershot DSC-N1 - 1600 ISO not available
1600 ISO not available
1600 ISO
1600 ISO not available
1600 ISO not available

Results continued...

Outdoor / Resolution / Noise / Corner sharpness / Fringe and macro / Geometry / Vignetting


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Fujifilm FinePix F11

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Canon PowerShot A620

See Canon A640 review and video tour



 
Pentax Optio S6

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