Our first sample image was taken on a bright day with the 790 SW zoomed-out to wide angle and set to its lowest 80 ISO sensitivity. As such this represents perfect conditions. Larger objects in the shot are resolved well with a good amount of detail, but the finest details in other areas are often lost to image processing and optical softness. It’s not a bad result, but as we’ll see, the 790 SW is not a compact for the pixel-peepers among us.

Landscape: 2.90MB, Program, 1/400, f5, ISO 100, 6.7-20.1mm at 6.7mm (equivalent to 38mm)

						Another shot taken at wide angle on a sunny day with the 790 SW set to 100 ISO. As before, the equivalent focal length of 38mm isn’t as wide as some compacts these days and anyone wanting to grab a big vista – or a large group shot – will be better served by a model with 28mm. The crops as above are reasonably detailed and there’s no detrimental effect of increasing to 100 ISO – as you’d hope.

Landscape: 2.86MB, Program, 1/30, f3.5, ISO 100, 6.7-20.1mm at 6.7mm (equivalent to 38mm)

As before, the ‘widest’ equivalent of 38mm has resulted in a tighter crop than many compacts these days, but the biggest issue here is the lack of optical or sensor-shift anti-shake facilities. In the absence of either, and not wanting to increase the sensitivity, we’ve had to balance the camera on a ledge.

The crops are ok, but lacking the ultimate crispness and detail of better models.

There’s no manual control over aperture, so if you want a smaller depth-of-field, you’ll need to put the camera into its Portrait preset.

The increase to 200 ISO has resulted in some softening of the image when viewed at 100%, but printed or viewed smaller, it’s still acceptable.

The crops again show a lack of ultimate sharpness and detail, but it’s an acceptable result for this subject matter.

Another shot at 400 ISO, this time taken in dimmer indoor lighting conditions.

The finer details in the crops have become quite smudged by image processing, so you’d only want to use the 790 SW in such conditions for smaller prints or viewing on-screen at less than 100%.

We’re getting to the point where you’d really only want to use this under emergency situations or for small reproductions.

Even the full image shrunk down to 440 pixels wide here shows some evidence of noise, so this setting, like most compacts, really is for emailing only.

To put it to the test we dived into Queenstown’s Lake Wakatipu for the following three images. Many thanks to Camilla and Michael who braved the lake’s chilly temperatures with me!

All three shots were taken with the 790 SW’s Underwater Snapshot scene preset and the internal flash, although there was quite a lot of sunlight just below the surface.

There were unsurprisingly many shots which didn’t work out, but those which did were sharp and detailed.

The camera was easy to operate underwater, but the screen could be hard to see at times – it’s a shame there wasn’t also an optical viewfinder.

It’s a good accessory, although again the screen proved hard to view at times.

All in all the 790 SW performed very comfortably underwater, but the chilly waters exhausted a fully-charged battery in 45 minutes of solid shooting.