"Sunlit" Portrait:
(This is my new "Outdoor" Portrait test - read more about it here.)

Good resolution and detail, though a warm color balance and high contrast.

The extreme tonal range of this image makes it a tough shot for many digicams, which is precisely why I set it up this way, and why I shoot it with no fill flash or reflector to open the shadows. The object is to hold both highlight and shadow detail without producing a "flat" picture with muddy colors, and the Finepix A330 Zoom produced good color but high contrast.

The shot at right was taken with a +0.7 EV exposure compensation adjustment, which sacrificed highlight detail to brighten the midtones. I chose the Auto white balance setting for the main shot, though results are warm and similar to the Daylight setting.

Skin tones are warm and reddish, and the blue flowers in the bouquet are dark with slight purple tints. (Many digicams have trouble with this blue, which is in reality a light navy blue with just hints of purple in it.) Color is good elsewhere, though the red flowers are a bit hot. Resolution is high, with good detail throughout the frame and in the shadows. Image noise is moderately high.

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.3 EV, see files A33OUTBAP0.HTM through A33OUTBAP4.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

High resolution and detail, but moderately high image noise as well, and overly-warm skin tones.

Color balance and overall exposure appear similar to the wider shot above, with high contrast and warm color. The shot at right was taken with a +0.3 EV exposure compensation adjustment, which results in bright highlights on Marti's face. The A330 Zoom's 3x zoom lens helps prevent geometric distortion of Marti's features, and captures fairly sharp details. Resolution and detail are higher in this close-up shot, with pretty good definition in Marti's face and hair.

To view the entire exposure series from -0.3 to +1.3 EV, see files A33FACBAM1.HTM through A33FACBAP4.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Normal Flash Default Exposure

Slow-Sync Flash +0.3 EV

A low-intensity flash, and strong color cast from the background incandescent lighting.

The A330 Zoom's built-in flash proved a little dim, with slightly uneven coverage. With the normal flash mode, overall color is warm with a strong orange-pink cast created by the background incandescent lighting. The camera's Slow-Sync flash mode results in a brighter overall exposure, but also an increased warm cast from the background lighting. I chose an exposure compensation adjustment of +0.3 EV, as anything brighter only blew out the highlights and exaggerated the color cast.

Auto White Balance

Incandescent White Balance

Nearly accurate color with the Incandescent white balance setting, and slightly better than average exposure accuracy.

This shot is always a very tough test of a camera's white balance capability, given the strong, yellowish color cast of the household incandescent bulbs used for the lighting. Though slightly warm and yellow, the A330 Zoom's Incandescent white balance setting did the best job here, as the Auto setting resulted in a stronger red cast. I shot the main image with a +0.7 EV exposure compensation adjustment (though the Auto white balance required a +1.0 EV exposure compensation boost). Image noise is high.

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.7 EV, see files A33INTP0.HTM through A33INTP5.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

High resolution and detail, though a reddish color balance.

Despite a slight red tint, I chose the A330 Zoom's Auto white balance setting for the main shot here. (The Daylight setting resulted in a warmer, yellow color cast.) Resolution is high, and detail is strong in the tree limbs above the roof, as well as in the house front. Details are fairly sharp throughout most of the frame, but soften in the lower corners.

High resolution and strong detail, with a fairly good dynamic range.

This image is shot at infinity to test far-field lens performance. NOTE that this image cannot be directly compared to the other "house" shot, which is a poster, shot in the studio. The rendering of detail in the poster will be very different than in this shot, and color values (and even the presence or absence of leaves on the trees!) will vary in this subject as the seasons progress. In general though, you can evaluate detail in the bricks, shingles and window detail, and in the tree branches against the sky. Compression artifacts are most likely to show in the trim along the edge of the roof, in the bricks, or in the relatively "flat" areas in the windows.

This is my ultimate "resolution shot," given the infinite range of detail in a natural scene like this, and the A330 Zoom performed pretty well for its 3-megapixel sensor resolution. Detail is strong in the tree limbs over the roof and fine foliage in front of the house, with pretty good definition. Details are softer in the lower corners of the frame, but fairly sharp elsewhere. The camera does lose essentially all detail in the bright white paint surrounding the bay window, which is a trouble spot for many digicams. However, detail is slightly stronger in the shadow area above the front door. Overall color looks good, as does exposure. The table below shows a standard resolution and quality series.

Resolution Series:

Lens Zoom Range

A typical 3x zoom range.

I routinely shoot this series of images to show the field of view for each camera, with the lens at full wide angle, at maximum telephoto (3x, in this case), and at full telephoto with the digital zoom enabled. The A330 Zoom's lens is equivalent to a 38-114mm zoom on a 35mm camera. That corresponds to a moderate wide angle to a moderate telephoto. Following are the results at each zoom setting.

	Wide Angle
	3x Telephoto
	Digital Telephoto

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Slightly warm color from the blue in the composition, and good detail.

This shot is often a tough test for digicams, as the abundance of blue in the composition frequently tricks white balance systems into producing a warm color balance. The A330 Zoom's Auto white balance setting did the best job here, despite a slight warm cast, while the Daylight setting resulted in a strong red cast. The blue robe looks pretty good (though slightly greenish in the highlights), with only a hint of a purple cast in the deep shadows. Detail is strong in the embroidery of the blue robe, and is good in the beaded necklaces and flower garland as well.

Standard Macro Shot

Macro with Flash

About average macro performance, though good detail. Flash throttles down too well.

The A330 Zoom performed about average in the macro category, capturing a minimum area of 3.09 x 2.32 inches (78 x 59 millimeters). Resolution is very high, and detail is strong in the dollar bill, brooch, and coins. Details are also sharp throughout most of the frame. The A330 Zoom's flash throttles down a little too much for the macro area, and creates an uneven exposure. (Plan on using external lighting for closeup shots with the A330.

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Good overall exposure, though a warm color cast.

The A330 Zoom's Auto and Daylight white balance settings both produced warm color casts here, though the Auto setting had the least coloration. Exposure is about right, and the camera has no trouble distinguishing the subtle tonal variations of the Q60 target. Color saturation looks good in the large color blocks, though the red and blue primaries are actually a bit oversaturated. The shadow area of the charcoal briquettes shows limited detail, with high image noise.

Low-Light Tests

Limited low-light capabilities, though good results under light levels equivalent to average city street lighting at night. Rather limited low-light focus ability though.

The A330 Zoom produced clear, bright, usable images only down to the one foot-candle (11 lux) light level. Color balance was warm with the Auto white balance setting, and became progressively warmer as the exposure lowered. Image noise is moderately high, but the grain pattern is somewhat faint, and thus less noticeable. The biggest limitation for after-dark shooting with the A330 is probably its autofocus system, which can't quite focus at the level of typical city street lighting at night. (Make sure you have a brighter object somewhere near the center of the frame, for the camera to focus on.) The table below shows the best exposure I was able to obtain for each of a range of illumination levels. Images in this table (like all sample photos) are untouched, exactly as they came from the camera.

(Note: If you'd like to use a light meter to check light levels for subjects you might be interested in shooting, a light level of one foot-candle corresponds to a normal exposure of two seconds at f/2.8 and ISO 100.)

Flash Range Test

Flash range of 14 feet, but lots of "cheating" to get there.

The A330 Zoom had a flash range of 14 feet, but it "cheated" a little by boosting its ISO to achieve it. This does give a greater range, but the images are much noisier as a result.

8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft	12 ft	13 ft	14 ft
1/60 sec f4.8 ISO 100	1/60 sec f4.8 ISO 125	1/60 sec f4.8 ISO 160	1/60 sec f4.8 ISO 200	1/60 sec f4.8 ISO 250	1/60 sec f4.8 ISO 250	1/60 sec f4.8 ISO 250

ISO-12233 (WG-18) Resolution Test

Good resolution, 1,200 lines of "strong detail." Average barrel distortion.

The A330 Zoom performed well on the "laboratory" resolution test chart. It started showing artifacts in the test patterns at resolutions as low as 800 lines per picture height, in both horizontal and vertical directions. I found "strong detail" out to about 1,000 lines, but there were a lot of artifacts in the vertical axis (corresponding to the horizontal target elements.) "Extinction" of the target patterns occurred around 1,200 lines.

Optical distortion on the A330 Zoom was about average at the wide-angle end, where I measured approximately 0.7 percent barrel distortion. The telephoto end fared much better, as I measured approximately 0.1 percent barrel distortion (about two pixels) there. Chromatic aberration was low, showing about two or three very faint pixels of coloration on either side of the target lines. (This distortion is visible as a very slight colored fringe around the objects at the edges of the field of view on the resolution target.)

Resolution Series, 50mm

Wide Angle	"Fine" JPEG	"Normal" JPEG
2,016 x 1,512	A33RES2016F	A33RES2016N
1,600 x 1,200	A33RES1600	-
1,280 x 960	A33RES1280	-

Resolution Test, Zoom Series

2,016 x 1,512 (Fine, Wide)	A33RESW
2,016 x 1,512 (Fine, Tele)	A33REST