An In-Depth Look at 4 Ultra-compact Digicams
by Stephen Caston on July 18, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Digital Camera
General Image Quality
For these pictures, the cameras were reset to their factory default settings. Then, they were set to the highest quality recording setting. The pictures were then taken in Auto mode unless stated otherwise. Portrait-style images have been rotated using Irfanview's "lossless operations". Click on a thumbnail to view the full-size image. All images are in sRGB color space.| Canon SD400 | Nikon S1 |
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| Olympus IR-300 | Sony T33 |
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In the first set of crops above, the Canon SD400 does the best job capturing the highest level of detail. The Sony T33 has the second highest level of detail. Both the Olympus IR-300 and the Nikon S1 produce somewhat fuzzy results. That being said, the Nikon seems to have done a better job capturing subtleties such as the detail in the horizontal blinds where the Olympus image shows no definition. Another point to note is the color differences. The Canon SD400 has produced the most neutral colors out of the bunch while the other three cameras produced warmer tones. The Sony T33 has the most saturated colors out of the pack.
| Canon SD400 | Nikon S1 |
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| Olympus IR-300 | Sony T33 |
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In this second set of crops, the Canon SD400 and the Nikon S1 produce a similarly high level of detail. The Olympus IR-300 does a decent job producing fine details, although it appears that the camera has over-sharpened the image. The Sony T33 sample looks very fuzzy throughout the image. Interestingly, although both the Canon and Nikon cameras show good color reproduction, both the Olympus and Sony cameras have a noticeable yellowish-orange color cast.
| Canon SD400 | Nikon S1 |
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| Olympus IR-300 | Sony T33 |
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Again, in this third sample, the Canon SD400 is able to produce the highest level of detail. The Nikon S1 is able to produce fine details, but the overall image is a bit fuzzy. The Sony T33 is a step down in detail from the Nikon S1 as the image appears fuzzy overall. The Olympus IR-300 is generally able to give the illusion that it can produce images with more detail due to its use of over-sharpening. However, the end result can sometimes look like it does in the sample above. The image looks over-compressed and has JPEG artifacts throughout it. All 4 cameras showed purple fringing in extreme circumstances such as this. However, the Canon SD400 showed the most fringing, followed by the Nikon S1. Both the Olympus and Sony cameras did an impressive job of avoiding purple fringing in almost all circumstances.
Movie Mode
| Canon SD400 | Nikon S1 |
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| Olympus IR-300 | Sony T33 |
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In terms of quality, the Canon SD400 and Sony T33 video clips are much more detailed and clearer than the Nikon or Olympus samples. Remember that you will need a Memory Stick Pro Duo in order to record at the highest quality (Fine) with the Sony DSC-T33. Although the Nikon S1 records video at 640x480, the video is quite blurry and the frame rate is only 15 fps. The Olympus IR-300 records video at a maximum resolution of 320x240 at 15 fps, which is behind the times considering that the other three cameras record at 640x480.
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R3MF - Monday, July 18, 2005 - link
< owns a panasonic fx8, and loves it.sciwizam - Monday, July 18, 2005 - link
Nice, I just ordered a SD400 yesterday!bigpow - Monday, July 18, 2005 - link
Panasonic FX7 >> Canon SD400 & it's cheaperFricardo - Monday, July 18, 2005 - link
Heh. Just a day or two after I asked for an SD400 review you guys come up with this. Thanks.astralusion - Monday, July 18, 2005 - link
excellent review...i'd been waiting for a full sd400 review, also just wanted to say that your selection of Duke for your sample pictures was an excellent choice.UNCjigga - Monday, July 18, 2005 - link
As a long-time Canon customer, no surprise here. Right now, Canon makes the best consumer-level digicams period. Sony may be close to catching up, and Nikon may have been the shizznit a few years ago, but right now Canon has a considerable lead.I really want to get the SD400...but I'm wondering if I should hold out for a newer Canon with wifi.
Johnmcl7 - Monday, July 18, 2005 - link
I've been really impressed with Canon's pocket cameras, I bought their Ixus 500 (the European version of the SD500 I think) as I wanted a camera I could keep in my pocket and have with me all the time, as much as I like my big Fuji it's simply to o big to carry over my shoulder all the time. It's great it takes CF cards, so it can share with the Fuji plus it doesn't leave me regretting too much that I didn't take the Fuji.The build quality does feel good but it's really let me down recently, there's a little bit of plastic which broke on the door which holds the memory card door shut, so the camera has had to go back for repair - really missed having it to hand while out at the weekend, looking forward to getting it back.
John
blwest - Monday, July 18, 2005 - link
#4 both of those cameras suck more than the Olympus and would thus be a waste of time to review. A piece of %$@#$ is a piece of @#$#@.cheesus - Monday, July 18, 2005 - link
I agree -- great review. However, I was a bit disappointed to see that the Panasonic FX-7 was left out of the review. It's a similarly-priced 5MP ultracompact that has some of the best resolution and color reproduction I've seen. Also comes with optical image stabilization, which i can't say for the other cameras here. I understand that you can't review every ultracompact, but I think the FX-7 beats the SD400 in terms of image quality any day.Larso - Monday, July 18, 2005 - link
Yes, great review. But it fails to recognize one weakness with the Canon SD400, that sharpness is lacking in the corners of the image (at wideangle).I decided to buy the camera anyway because of its excellent performance and nice case, and I'm extremely happy with it!