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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 purple fringing comparison

  To measure purple fringing caused by lens chromatic aberrations and sensor blooming, we photographed a custom test chart, left, with areas of very high contrast. We used the cameras at their widest and longest focal lengths with the aperture wide open. The crops are taken from the upper left corner of the chart and presented here at 100%.

A small amount of fringing is visible with all four cameras at both wide angle and telephoto settings. This is typical for most cameras, and none here are particularly better or worse than the others in this repsect.

Canon PowerShot A620
Fujifilm FinePix F11
Pentax Optio S6
Sony Cybershot DSC-N1
Canon PowerShot A620 at 35mm f2.8
Fujifilm FinePix F11 at 36mm f2.8
Pentax Optio S6 at 37mm f2.7
Sony Cybershot DSC-N1 at 38mm f2.8
35-140mm at 35mm f2.8
36-108mm at 36mm f2.8
37-112mm at 37mm f2.7
38-114mm at 38mm f2.8
Canon PowerShot A620 at 140mm f4.1
Fujifilm FinePix F11 at 108mm f4.9
Pentax Optio S6 at 112mm f5.2
Sony Cybershot DSC-N1 at 114mm f5.4
35-140mm at 140mm f4.1
36-108mm at 108mm f4.9
37-112mm at 112mm f5.2
38-114mm at 114mm f5.4


Compact digital camera macro comparison

To measure macro performance we photographed a custom chart using the bundled lenses at a distance and focal length which delivered the maximum possible reproduction. The dark lines are 10mm apart.

Here the Fujifilm and Sony models performed averagely, while the Pentax, unable to focus closer than 15cm, produced a below average result. The clear winner here is the Canon A620, which can focus as close as 1cm away from its subject, offering amazing potential for macro-photography.

Canon PowerShot A620
Fujifilm FinePix F11
Pentax Optio S6
Sony Cybershot DSC-N1
35-140mm at 35mm
Max area of 22x16mm
36-108mm at 36mm
Max area of 56x40mm
37-112mm at 37mm
Max area of 138x102mm
38-114mm at 38mm
Max area of 66x44mm

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

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Pentax Optio S6

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