Olympus C-3040 ZoomOlympus updates its top-of-the-line 3-megapixel model with a "faster" lens and increased movie capabilities.<<Video, Power, Software :(Previous) | (Next): Reference: Datasheet>> Page 12:Test Results & ConclusionReview First Posted: 4/14/2001 |
Test Results
In keeping with our standard test policy, the comments given here summarize only our key findings. For a full commentary on each of the test images, see the C-3040 Zoom's "pictures" page.
As with all Imaging Resource product tests, we encourage you to let your own eyes be the judge of how well the camera performed. Explore the images on the pictures page, to see how C-3040 images compare to other cameras you may be considering.
Overall, the C-3040 Zoom performed very well, particularly in the areas of image quality and creative control. Colors were bright, accurate, and reasonably well-saturated, and detail was excellent. The C-3040 Zoom's white balance system handled our testing well, with the manual adjustment typically providing the best results (especially with our difficult Indoor Portrait with incandescent lighting). In many cases, we noticed that none of the white balance settings appeared dead-on accurate, but overall, the manual adjustment seemed to result in better color balance. The difficult red / magenta separation is very good, though the camera has some trouble with the awkward blues of our model's pants and the blue flowers in our outdoor test shot, showing a tendency to darken the tones into violet (a common failing among many cameras we've tested). Skin tones seemed good though, and the vibrant red flower of the model's bouquet appeared to stay in check, preserving image detail.
The C-3040 performed quite well in our resolution test. Center resolution was very high, easily extending to 800 lines per picture height in both horizontal and vertical directions, and strong detail was visible all the way out to 1,000 lines on our resolution target. Unfortunately, one consequence of the unusually "fast" lens design is that optical distortion on the C-3040 was rather high at the wide-angle end, where we measured an approximate1.0 percent barrel distortion. The telephoto end fared much better, where we observed approximately 0.2 percent pincushion distortion. Corner sharpness also suffered a bit at the wide angle end, and chromatic aberration was a bit higher than average. All forms of distortion improved markedly toward the telephoto end of the lens' range.
The C-3040 Zoom's optical viewfinder was a little tight, showing approximately 84.1 percent of the final image area at wide angle, and about 84.5 percent at the telephoto setting (for the 2,048 x 1,536, 1,280 x 960, and 640 x 480 image sizes). We also noticed that the final image shifted toward the top of the frame, with extra space on the remaining three sides. The LCD monitor fared much better, showing approximately 96.7 percent accuracy at wide angle, and about 97.3 percent at telephoto (also for the 2,048 x 1,536, 1,280 x 960, and 640 x 480 image sizes). Since we generally like to see LCD monitors as close to 100 percent accuracy as possible, the C-3040 Zoom performed exceptionally well in this area.
The C-3040 Zoom also did very well in the low-light category, as we were able to obtain bright, clear images at light levels as low as 1/16 foot-candle (0.67 lux), at all three ISO settings. We did notice that images captured from 1/8 to 1/2 foot-candle (1.3 to 5.5 lux) appeared slightly dimmer than at the 1/16 foot-candle setting, but images were still bright and clear with good detail visible. Image noise was moderate with the 100 and 200 ISO settings, increasing slightly with the 400 ISO setting. However, the noise pattern was pretty stark at all three ISO settings, with bright pink and green speckles throughout the image. (We direct readers to Mike Chaney's excellent Qimage Pro program, for a tool with an amazing ability to remove image noise without significantly affecting detail.) To put the C-3040 Zoom's low-light performance into perspective, an average city night scene under modern street lighting corresponds to a light level of about one foot-candle, so the camera should easily handle much darker situations.
The C-3040 did a pretty good job in the macro category, capturing a minimum area of 3.21 x 2.41 inches (81.5 x 61.1 mm), which is about average among other digicams we've tested. The outer lens barrel has 41mm filter accessory threads that can be used in conjunction with Olympus' CLA-1 filter adapter (which converts these to 43mm threads out in front of the lens itself), permitting the addition of external macro lenses for even tighter focusing. Resolution, detail, and color all looked good, and both the brooch and dollar bill were well-focused. (We did see just the slightest softness on the bill, due to the shallow depth of field when shooting this close.) The C-3040's flash also did a pretty good job of throttling down for macro images, better than most in that respect. Overall, a good macro performance.
Olympus has built upon the strengths of the C-3040 Zoom's predecessor, the C-3030 Zoom, combining great creative and exposure control with a new, faster lens. We were very pleased with the C-3040 Zoom's performance throughout our testing.
Conclusion
With the C-3040 Zoom, Olympus has improved even further on the already excellent C-3030 Zoom model, with minor interface improvements and a noticeably faster lens design. The new lens is a great benefit for sports or low-light shooting, and the wider maximum aperture makes selective focus more practical in many situations. The faster lens did lose some corner sharpness and introduced slightly higher optical distortion at the wide-angle setting, but images overall are crisp and sharp. Its compact size and SLR-style design will endear it to more traditional film-based photographers who are looking for a good crossover digicam that is free of unnecessary gimmicks, and promises a reasonably fast learning curve. The fully automatic mode also gives you a camera that's literally "point & shoot," so the C-3040 Zoom could be a good camera to "grow with" as your photographic skills increase. Combine all these features with excellent low-light performance, image quality, and color, and we think the Camedia C-3040 Zoom should be just as popular, if not more so, than its very successful predecessors.
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