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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 wide angle uniformity comparison

To measure lens vignetting and light fall-off we photographed a white target with a highly diffused custom filter. Here are the results for the cameras at their widest focal lengths with the apertures wide open and the focus manually set to infinity. The images were analysed with Imatest and the full areas presented here at a reduced resolution. Bigger percentages are better.

The Fujifilm and Sony models performed best here with very little darkening in the corners of wide angle shots. The Canon A620 performed averagely in this respect, but again the Pentax S6 came last with noticeable darkening in its corners at wide angle.

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
Mean corner fall-off: 74.5%
36-108mm at 36mm f2.8
Mean corner fall-off: 85.7%
37-112mm at 37mm f2.7
Mean corner fall-off: 63.6%
38-114mm at 38mm f2.8
Mean corner fall-off: 87%


Compact digital camera telephoto uniformity comparison

To measure lens vignetting and light fall-off we photographed a white target with a highly diffused custom filter. Here are the results for the cameras at their longest focal lengths with the apertures wide open and the focus manually set to infinity. The images were analysed with Imatest and the full areas presented here at a reduced resolution. Bigger percentages are better.

Zoomed-in to telephoto, the results were much closer, and also much improved for the Pentax S6. The Fujifilm F11 edged ahead once more, leaving the Canon A620 coming last, albeit not by a large margin.

Canon PowerShot A620
Fujifilm FinePix F11
Pentax Optio S6
Sony Cybershot DSC-N1
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
Mean corner fall-off: 82.9%
36-108mm at 108mm f4.9
Mean corner fall-off: 90.5%
37-112mm at 112mm f5.2
Mean corner fall-off: 87.7%
38-114mm at 114mm f5.4
Mean corner fall-off: 89%

Results continued...

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


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