Our first sample was taken on a bright day with the Z10 zoomed-out to wide angle and set to its lowest 64 ISO sensitivity. As such this represents perfect conditions. The crops show a fair degree of detail, although high contrast areas can exhibit a little purple fringing as seen in the first and third crops. The first crop of the distant boat also shows a loss of ultimate detail, especially in the foliage areas which appear fuzzy. It’s an ok result though so long as you don’t examine it too closely.

Landscape: 2.94MB, Program mode, 1/320, f7, ISO 100, 6.3-44.1mm at 6.3mm (equivalent to 38mm)

						Here’s another shot taken on a very bright sunny day, again with the lens zoomed-out to its widest equivalent of 38mm, but this time with the sensitivity increased a notch to 100 ISO. As you’d hope this slight increase in sensitivity hasn’t had a negative result on noise levels and the crops remain clean and fairly detailed. Dedicated pixel peepers may notice the finest texturing through noise or processing, but it’s really barely visible.

Landscape: 2.79MB, Program mode, 1/25, f3.5, ISO 100, 6.3-44.1mm at 6.3mm (equivalent to 38mm)

Impressively there’s only the slightest evidence of coloured fringing, but sadly the crops reveal noticeable noise and processing artefacts when viewed at 100% – and this is at the lowest 64 ISO sensitivity.

It’s also worth mentioning the lack of optical or sensor stabilisation makes the 7x zoom less useful than it could be.

Like most compacts the Z10 isn’t that quick to respond, but we still managed to grab this shot of a bird preparing for take-off.

Unlike some of our earlier shots, noise and processing artefacts are quite visible even at 100 ISO if you’re examining on-screen at 100%.

As you’d expect there’s another slight increase in noise over the 200 ISO setting, but this particular subject matter is reasonably forgiving.

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

As with the sample above, there’s certainly noise visible, especially in shadow areas, but it remains acceptable for most situations unless you’re a dedicated pixel-peeper.

The big drop on the Z10 occurs at 800 ISO as seen below…

The crops show noticeable speckling, making 800 ISO only acceptable to those who make smaller prints or don’t examine their images too closely.

To be fair, this is par for the course on a compact these days, but working against the Z10 is its lack of optical or sensor shift stabilisation, forcing you into higher sensitivities to avoid camera-shake.

Like most compacts, 1600 ISO on the Z10 is really only for emergency use, although as mentioned above, you may find it a necessary evil in dark conditions given the unforgivable lack of optical or sensor-shift stabilisation.

The Z10 also has a 3200 ISO mode if you’re feeling really ambitious – see our Z10 Outdoor noise results.