Olympus C-3020 ZoomA bargain-priced, full featured 3 megapixel model from Olympus!<<Video, Power, Software :(Previous) | (Next): Reference: Datasheet>> Page 12:Test Results & ConclusionReview First Posted: 2/16/2002 |
Test Results
In keeping with my standard policy, my comments here are rather condensed, summarizing the key findings. For a full commentary on each of the test images, see the C-3020's "pictures" page.
As with all Imaging Resource camera tests, I encourage you to let your own eyes be the judge of how well the devices performed. Explore the images on the pictures page, to see how well the C-3020 performed, and how its images compare to other cameras you may be considering buying.
Overall, the C-3020 performed very well during my testing, with great color and image quality in most shots. The camera's White Balance system handled most of the test lighting well, though I often noticed a warm cast with the Auto setting and a greenish/bluish cast with the Manual adjustment. I found that I typically had to add a smidgen red to the Manual setting, through the White Balance adjustment tool, to get a more accurate color balance. (I really liked the ability to manually tweak the white balance settings, and also the ability to adjust the camera's contrast setting.) Once adjusted, I usually picked the Manual setting as the most accurate. Both the Incandescent and Auto white balance settings had trouble with the incandescent lighting of our Indoor Portrait (without flash), resulting in very warm shots. (This is unfortunately a very common fault among digicams I've tested.) The Manual setting interpreted the lighting more accurately, but I noticed that as I increased the exposure compensation, the slight greenish cast increased as well. Saturation looked about right on the Davebox test target, particularly in the large color blocks, and color accuracy was pretty good as well. The C-3020 had no trouble distinguishing the tough tonal variations of the Davebox, specifically those of the Q60 target. However, I did feel that the contrast in this shot was somewhat high, which deepened the shadows and brightened the highlights. Skin tones were slightly magenta in the Indoor Portraits, though they looked about right in the Musicians shot and on the outdoor portrait tests.
In testing the hundreds of cameras that I do, I've observed preferences and biases in various manufacturers for different sorts of color and tonal rendition. Olympus cameras tend to produce very snappy, vibrant images, but this also means that they have rather high contrast, and so tend to lose detail in highlights and shadows. Recently though, Olympus has begun including menu options by which you can adjust the camera's contrast to suit your own preferences, a very welcome feature that I'd like to see more manufacturers adopt. In the case of the 3020, I found that shooting with the contrast adjustment routinely set to -3 or -4 resulted in images matching my personal preferences more closely. The point of this comment here is that you should take this contrast adjustment capability into account if you're considering buying a 3020: I really think it could make the difference in deciding whether to buy the camera or not...
It started showing (slight) artifacts in the test patterns at resolutions as high as 600 lines per picture height vertically and horizontally, but I found "strong detail" out to at least 1,000 lines. "Extinction" of the target patterns occurred at about 1,250 lines.
Optical distortion on the C-3020 was relatively low at the wide-angle end, where I measured only about 0.6 percent barrel distortion. (Most digicams with 3x zooms that I test come out in at around 0.8% barrel.) The telephoto end showed about 0.3 percent pincushion distortion. Chromatic aberration is fairly low, showing about one or two pixels of coloration on either side of the target lines. (This distortion is visible as a slight colored fringe around the objects at the edges of the field of view on the resolution target.)
Boasting a maximum exposure time of 16 seconds, the C-3020 produced great results in the low-light test. The camera easily captured bright, clear images at light levels as low as 1/16 foot-candle (0.67 lux) when shooting at ISO 200 and 400, and as low as 1/8 foot-candle (1.3 lux) when shooting at ISO 100. (Average city street lighting at night is about one foot-candle, or 11 lux, so the camera should handle even darker situations quite well.) The camera's white balance system had some trouble with the low lighting, and produced a magenta cast at the lower light levels, but white balance was overall better than I'm accustomed to seeing at light levels that low. Shooting without Noise Reduction enabled resulted in very noisy images, but I found much better results when I activated that feature. That said, I still noticed moderate noise at the ISO 400 setting, at the 1/16 foot-candle light level.
The C-3020's optical viewfinder proved to be quite tight, showing only 78 percent frame accuracy at wide-angle, and about 79 percent accuracy at telephoto. The LCD monitor produced much better results, showing approximately 98 percent of the frame at both wide angle and telephoto. Since I prefer LCD monitors to be as close to 100 percent accuracy as possible, I was impressed with the C-3020's performance here, but really wish manufacturers would make the optical viewfinders more accurate.
Capturing a minimum macro area of 4.39 x 3.29 inches (111.5 x 83.6 millimeters), the C-3020 performed a bit below average. That said, I saw high resolution, with great detail in the coins and dollar bill. Though slightly warm, color looked about right. In addition to corner softness, I also noticed that the entire left side of the frame was soft. (This might have been due to a misalignment between the target and the camera, but I do think that they were set up properly.) The C-3020's flash performed very well in this category, throttling down for the macro area and illuminating the subject well. I noticed only a hint of falloff in flash power at the corners of the frame.
Overall, I was very pleased with the C-3020's performance. Though the Manual white balance setting requires a little "tweaking" to get the most accurate color balance, the camera does a nice job with color overall. Image quality is good with very high resolution. Low-light capabilities are well above average, and the (optinal) availability of full manual exposure control ensures that the camera can handle just about any shooting situation.
Conclusion
Packed with features, optional full manual exposure control, and a generous 3.2-megapixel CCD (3.14 megapixels effective), the C-3020 offers the best of Olympus' Camedia digicams at a very affordable price (list price os around $500 as of initial shipments in early 2002). Color balance requires a little adjustment cases, but the camera overall produced nice color and image quality. (And it's a big plus that you can tweak the color balance at all, a feature offered by very few cameras in the marketplace.) Resolution and detail are very good, and the camera shoots well under a variety of lighting conditions. With varying levels of exposure control ranging from full auto to full manual, the C-3020 is perfect for novice users who want to gradually increase control as they learn more about photography. The preset Scene modes make shooting in common situations a breeze, eliminating many worries over exposure decisions. I was a big fan of the earlier C-3000 Zoom, feeling it was one of the best bargains in the market for "enthusiast" shooters on a budget. The 3020 carries that same tradition forward, with evolutionary improvements along the way.
Follow Imaging Resource: